Is Peyton a 2015 locker room cancer waiting to happen?

[PatsWickedPissah]

Speaking of "Omaha" who here heard Aaron Rogers calling out "New York Bozo" in several plays Sunday?
Isn't the phrase somewhat redundant?

 

[mgteich]

I would stop short of calling him a cancer as well. But I do think there is validity to the concern that, as a leader, he will never get the most out of his teammates.

Is it your position that Manning's lack of leadership is responsible for the success of the Colts' offense? Perhaps, perhaps, some of the blame might be put on the DEN defense.

And just perhaps, DEN was not the better team, especially with an injured quarterback.

If it were Brady instead of Manning, we would be saying that the effort of the QB was the best he could do and that the defense didn't step up when it needed to.

BOTTOM LINE
1) Manning was not able to take the team on his back and win.
2) The DEN defense did not step up to defeat a quality Colts team.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Speaking of "Omaha" who here heard Aaron Rogers calling out "New York Bozo" in several plays Sunday?
Isn't the phrase somewhat redundant?

I think he was referring to Rex Ryan or Woody Johnson?

 

[Bella*chick]

From Darren McKee (host of a sports show in Denver) on Toucher and Rich yesterday:



http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/01/...ed-test-of-courage-has-no-friends-on-broncos/

That is one hell of a link. Great stuff there. That guy just says what everyone is thinking but never seems to say (or say loudly enough). Interesting too, about Wes, although I share the opinion that he needs to retire immediately.

 

[PATS16N0]

Speaking of "Omaha" who here heard Aaron Rogers calling out "New York Bozo" in several plays Sunday?
Isn't the phrase somewhat redundant?

I thought it was peculiar he was naming plays after Eli too

 

[Sicilian]

Is it your position that Manning's lack of leadership is responsible for the success of the Colts' offense? Perhaps, perhaps, some of the blame might be put on the DEN defense.

And just perhaps, DEN was not the better team, especially with an injured quarterback.

If it were Brady instead of Manning, we would be saying that the effort of the QB was the best he could do and that the defense didn't step up when it needed to.

BOTTOM LINE
1) Manning was not able to take the team on his back and win.
2) The DEN defense did not step up to defeat a quality Colts team.

While the Denver defense didn't play up to it's highest potential, holding a top five NFL scoring offense to 24 points is hardly doing a bad job overall. Then add the fact that the running game was effective for the Broncos, and I'm not sure who else to blame for that loss. That wasn't about carrying a team on his back, that was about being completely unable to pull his own weight. If this was an isolated incident, I would blame age, injury, etc. But this happens far too often in the playoffs for Manning. He is the problem, for whatever reason. I think it's leadership. His teammates have no reason to put it all on the line for him.

 

[Gronk]

While the Denver defense didn't play up to it's highest potential, holding a top five NFL scoring offense to 24 points is hardly doing a bad job overall. Then add the fact that the running game was effective for the Broncos, and I'm not sure who else to blame for that loss. That wasn't about carrying a team on his back, that was about being completely unable to pull his own weight. If this was an isolated incident, I would blame age, injury, etc. But this happens far too often in the playoffs for Manning. He is the problem, for whatever reason. I think it's leadership. His teammates have no reason to put it all on the line for him.

Bolded for emphasis (though I suppose there's precious few other reasons to put something in bold text...). Particularly when the team as it was constructed was all around the brilliance of Manning as a passer and game-caller at the line. I'll assume he would have sat the final game of the regular season due to injury had Denver's first-round bye not depended on it, but he also didn't come out until a defensive TD put them up 33 pts, so who knows?

To mgteich's point that if it were Brady we would have defended the effort, well...maybe. But a lot of people were ready to throw TB under the bus after a bad week 4 loss. The Baltimore '09 playoff game was a similarly pathetic home loss, but Brady wasn't as old then as Peyton is now. If that game had happened in Foxboro last weekend, had he looked that hapless, that inaccurate, and with the team as a whole lacking any indication that it even belonged in the playoffs, you can bet there'd be a lot of questions asked about his future and his leadership, injury or not.

To be clear, I don't think it's necessarily true that Manning is absolutely done or could never play at a high level or win again. I think he'd have to make some sacrifices in terms of running "his" offense and accept more of a "game manager" role rather than being the singularly dominant offensive force behind a team. Whether or not he's willing to do that, time will tell. The whole situation in Denver makes that even more confusing, because now they have no coach, they have some free agents they need to make decisions on, and if they don't think they can do all that and win next year with all those changes happening, then they may choose to start rebuilding rather than trying to push the same old truck up the hill again.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

Chris Harris has to realize winning a championship is much harder then just buying won. They really thought the buying of those free agents, and their hype would get them a super bowl. It's much more then that.

A wise man once said, "We aren't collecting talent, we're building a team. "

 

[Rusty Coupe]

Hmmmm

In a recent sit down with Woody Paige and Les Shapiro with the Denver Post TV's "The Sports Show", Dreessen was asked about Manning's relationship with his teammates and whether he is well-liked.

"I think so," Dreessen said. "My only beef with him is--say for example the third-and-five. A third-and-five to open the second half, it's wide open. The game is about the exceptional things. You know, he expects me to sacrifice my body if he lays me up over the middle, or if I'm blocking in the run game, you know. You gotta do everything you can to sacrifice your body and if he's at the point where he's not willing to do that also, uh, I'm not gonna want to bleed for the guy."

http://profootball.scout.com/story/...s-peyton-manning-liked-by-his-teammates?s=127