Mike From Woburn: Broncos Hoping Manning Will Channel Trent Dilfer
By Mike From Woburn, 98.5 The Sports Hub Contributor
If you are a Patriots fan, today's AFC championship game has a number of factors that should concern you. How will the Patriots play in Denver? Mile High is a site where it's been notoriously difficult for the Pats to win games. What is the health of Dont'a Hightower and Jamie Collins? If the backbone of the Patriots defense isn't able to play effectively because of injuries, the Pats will have a real long day stopping the Broncos run. Can the Pats patch work offensive line hold together and not get Tom Brady killed against a stout Denver pass rush?
I could list a few more, because even though I expect the Pats to win today and move on to their ninth Superbowl, there are various scenarios that, if they arise, could wind up costing this team a win.
And Peyton Manning beating the Patriots is not one of them.
We have seen Manning at his best. And his best is now a subject we can definitively refer to in the past tense. He's a shell of the Quarterback who put up hall of fame numbers and routinely led the league in just about every passing category in existence.
Now Peyton is a Quarterback who struggles to make anything but the most pedestrian of throws and teams game plan their defenses accordingly, daring Manning to throw deep or outside the numbers. He's an inferior and limited QB who simply can't execute the passing game like he used to.
Earlier this week Boston Globe Columnist Dan Shaughnessy wondered why a player with Peyton's pedigree gets no respect from Patriots fans leading into this game. It was funny logic coming from a scribe who annually treats Pats fans to columns referring to Patriots playoff opposition as "The march of the Tomato Cans." If we should fear a team of tomato cans, Dan, why should we respect a QB who looks like he's throwing them every time he drops back to pass?
And then you have the recent allegations of HGH use levied against Manning by Al Jezeria America. If those are ultimately true and Manning did use HGH, you have to wonder if a clean Peyton would be fit to throw anything outside of the Tri Lambda's specially-designed javelin today.
No. Peyton Manning will not be leading the Broncos to victory over the New England Patriots today. If the Broncos do manage to win, it will be because Peyton Manning wasn't the Peyton Manning we have come to know. To win, Peyton will have to be a game manager and limit his usual bowel-churning playoff gaffs as the other members of his team make plays. Because that is what Peyton Manning is best suited to do now: be an average, replacement-level QB. And he's only getting this start over a more capable Brock Oswieler solely based on his resume, which is entirely unrelated to the role he's being asked to play in today's game. It's like hiring Evel Knievel to drive a school bus.
The Broncos aren't hoping Peyton Manning will be Peyton Manning. They are hoping Peyton Manning will be Trent Dilfer.
And even that's a stretch--because in Peyton's playoff career, he's never done anything close to what Dilfer accomplished in 2000 during the four-game title run with the Baltimore Ravens. To this day, Dilfer's performance that post season gives every playoff team that doesn't have a "franchise" QB hope. In four games, Dilfer was economical, throwing only one interception while guiding the Ravens powerful running game to a Superbowl win. Dilfer made the throws he had to and let the team around him do the rest.
Can Peyton Manning, a QB who has never had to do what Dilfer did, suddenly find that elusive playoff success in a primarily secondary role? Can he be Trent Dilfer?
I wanted to ask a member of that Raven's Superbowl team that very question. Mike Flynn, a member of the Ravens offensive line from 1998 to 2007, was on that Super Bowl Champion Ravens team. On Saturday, when he was on 98.5 The Sports Hub's Gaspar and Murray show, I asked him if he had a choice, who he would pick to QB his team if it needed that type of performance from a Quarterback. A 2000 vintage Trent Dilfer or Peyton Manning is his current state?
He chose Dilfer. Not only because Dilfer at that time had an arm that could make all the throws a QB is required to but also because Trent Dilfer wasn't being asked to execute a role he wasn't used to. At his most successful Dilfer was a game manager, so having him play a conservative supporting role wouldn't be removing him from what he knows best. Manning, in his current physical state, is less equipped for the job than Dilfer was, and he would be hard pressed to execute a play like Dilfer's 38-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Stokely in Superbowl 35, if the opportunity arose. Plus--and maybe most importantly--it's a role that Manning has rarely been asked to execute.
And even if Manning is able to channel his inner Dilfer successfully today, victory will depend how well the other members of the Broncos offense and defense play. If the Bronco's defense falters, game manager Manning will not be able to out duel Brady. If the Denver running game struggles, even a Peyton marinated in HGH for a week wouldn't be able to dial his play calling back to 2009 with his current arm strength.
In order to make it back to the Superbowl, today's Peyton Manning will once again have to be a passenger like he was during his previous Super Bowl title run. And unlike a decade ago, now Peyton will have to be flawless.
Bottom line: if you are watching today's AFC Championship game and you're concerned about Peyton Manning beating you, you're probably a Broncos fan.
Mike From Woburn, formerly known as Mike From Attleboro, is a regular caller to the Felger & Massarotti Show. You can find him on Twitter @MikeFromWoburn.