DENVER – Not even an hour had passed since Peyton Manning
jogged off the field with another ho-hum three-touchdown performance in the
Broncos' 37-21 win against the Oakland Raiders on Monday night when Manning
already was thinking about what's coming up next.
Before he slid on his suit jacket and stepped to an
interview podium to rehash a night in which he became the first quarterback to
ever throw 12 touchdowns without an interception by Week 3, Manning slipped
into the cold tub for 20 minutes of bone-chilling, but much-needed, recovery
time to start preparing his body for Sunday.
BOX SCORE: Broncos 37, Raiders 21
"Short week," Manning said, his teeth still
chattering.
Manning had just five incomplete passes Monday – going 32 of
37 for a personal best 86.5 completion percentage – and threw for 374 yards. He
did not throw an interception for the third consecutive game.
It's the type of game most quarterbacks would dream about
having maybe once in a season. It wasn't even Manning's best game of this
season, not after tossing seven touchdowns here 18 days ago.
"Peyton just does what he does, and it's amazing,"
running back Ronnie Hillman said. "Everybody is like, 'Oh my God, how
great is Peyton?' And I'm like, it's just Peyton. I'm used to it now."
Has Manning's passing magic already become this routine?
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Consider that in just three weeks, he's already thrown 12
touchdowns, including 10 here at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, and led
the Broncos to three lopsided wins. The Broncos are one of seven undefeated
teams, but perhaps no one other than Seattle has been so dominant, so early.
Combine Monday's output with 49 points against the Baltimore
Ravens and 41 against the New York Giants, and the Broncos have scored 127
points, or 31 more points than the next-best team (Green Bay) and 23 more than
the league's worst three offensive teams -- Jacksonville, Tampa Bay and
Pittsburgh -- have scored altogether.
Manning certainly has made this all look so easy, but could
it possibly feel that way?
"It's not. I can't tell you what it looks like. We do
put a lot of work into the preparation, and our preparation has been excellent
these first three weeks," Manning said. "It's still a new offense, in
my opinion, with our new players. So we take advantage of the practice time
that we have, and hopefully we can transfer that to the game."
The Broncos might have solved one offensive issue against
the Raiders by scoring their first first-quarter points on an Eric Decker
touchdown and Matt Prater field goal, but new issues arose. Manning lost a
fumble in the third quarter after Lamarr Houston bull-rushed past new starting
left tackle Chris Clark, and rookie running back Montee Ball lost his second
fumble of the season. Both of those turnovers happened inside the red zone.
Then there were three drives -- one in the first quarter,
one to end the first half and one to start the third quarter -- that stalled
and resulted in field goals.
Yes, even a team that is averaging 42.3 points per game can
be greedy.
"We'll take the points, no question about it,"
Manning said. "But we've spent a lot of time on the red zone. We're hard
on our red-zone game plan, and we had some chances to score more touchdowns
tonight, and we're going to need those instead of field goals."
But by the time those issues arose against the Raiders, a
team overmatched at just about every position, Manning already had thrown three
touchdowns -- to Decker, receiver Wes Welker and tight end Julius Thomas -- in
the first half.
The hefty lead allowed the Broncos to try to slow their pace
in the second half and, for the first time all year, showcase each of their
three running backs, and not just starter Knowshon Moreno, who had 12 carries,
mostly in the first half.
Hillman, unseated as the starter at the end of the
preseason, averaged 7.3 yards per carry on his nine attempts and carried the
Broncos on a drive all the way to the 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
As the officials deliberated if Hillman had crossed the goal
line after a 13-yard gain, Hillman, Moreno and Ball decided to play
rock-paper-scissors for which running back would get the goal line carry if the
score was overturned. Hillman said Moreno threw down a rock one beat too early
and was disqualified, and Hillman's scissors trumped Ball's paper.
So on the next play, it was Hillman's touchdown.
The Raiders managed to make the rest of the fourth quarter
interesting – enough so that Manning's backup, Brock Osweiler, returned to the
bench after he started to warm up – but attention quickly turned to the
Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who threw for 281 yards
and a touchdown before leaving the game late in the fourth quarter with a
concussion, gave the Broncos a little preview of the type of mobile quarterback
they'll see in six days, with Michael Vick.
"You want guys certainly excited about the win, but
learning what we can do better,
originally shared from USA Today
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