No offense, but Peyton Manning just isn’t a big game QB. He has proved that in both college and the NFL. Hands down he’s probably the greatest regular season QB to ever play the game, but in crunch time he simply disappears.
11-12 in his post season career
Of those 12 losses 7 are 1 and done.
During his 2006-2007 Super Bowl post season he had 3 TDs to 7 INTs. I’m still not sure how he won the Super Bowl MVP that game as he put in a fairly pedestrian performance goin 25 of 39 for 243 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. The Colts won that game because they took the air out of the ball in the 2nd half and pound the Bears with the run. Eventually Sexy Rexy sealed the deal with a 51 yard pick six when the Bears were driving in the 4th quarter.
Heck it took Manning leaving for the Tennessee Volunteers and QB Tee Martin to get over the Florida Gators bugaboo which plagued them during the Manning years. The won the National Championship that year.
So no, none of this shocks me. Manning is so hung up on his legacy and quest for a 2nd Super Bowl ring to validate his greatness that I have no doubt it eventually grated on his teammates. They are all professionals... this game was kind of important to them too.
All the hype the last two weeks was about Manning and Denver’s great offense.
What the Super Bowl record almost always shows us over and over again is DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS. Once again this held true.
Twice Baltimore won because of their defense. Tampa Bay won because of their defense. The Pats first win was because of their defensive secondary and linebackers were the best in the league. The Pats stopped the high scoring Rams offense. The Bills lost four Super Bowls in a row, but had the best offense in all four of those years.
More often than not the team with the best defense wins the Super Bowl. Yet, almost all the attention is given to these high scoring offenses. It is kind of like the old golf saying: drive for show, put for dough.
You can add this to your post. Manning was in heirs an contention in I believe his senior year at UT. The Vols came to play the University of Memphis and was abused like a yard dog. Peyton was made to have a horrible game. He thus became the only starting UT qb to lose to the U of M Tigers. In a Sports Illustrated article the following year, he was asked if there was any college game he’d like to have back. He said the Tigers game for sure. That probably more than likely cost him the Heisman.