Peyton Manning: “We’re Playing A Good NFL Football Team”

Matthew Emmons – USA Today Sports

The lead-up to this week’s game between the Denver Broncos and the Jacksonville Jaguars has been kind of silly, frankly. For weeks, we wondered how big the line would be. Now we know that it is indeed a record, as the Jaguars are getting 28 points on the road (for entertainment purposes only, of course). Then there was a silly little dust-up between the Broncos and Jaguars Twitter feeds. But all of these little threads overlook one thing.

It would be such a nightmare if the Broncos lost this game. It would be for sound reasons, such as the fact that the Kansas City Chiefs are also 5-0 and have a soft schedule the rest of the way. And it would be a nightmare for the simple reason that it would be really, really embarrassing.

As a fan I am conditioned to hope for the best, but I am also conditioned to at least take a moment and cringe at the “what if” of worst-case scenarios. And even though a regular season loss can rarely be dubbed a worst-case situation…when you’re giving 28 points, you’re putting up historic offensive numbers, and you have aspirations of winning the Super Bowl, well, that loss would be pretty darn close.

If ever there was a quarterback who refuses to let his team regard any opponent lightly, it’s Peyton Manning. When asked about the Jaguars, Manning said:

"We’re playing a good NFL football team. I don’t look at anything besides what I see on the tape. On defense I see a team that’s stingy in the red zone. I’ve seen some offenses that have made some really good plays against them, that have been hard to defend, and certainly it’s a team with a lot of pride. It’s about what are you doing each week. What you did last week, the week before, it really is irrelevant. It’s about this week.”"

The thing is, if the Broncos win like 49-13, Manning will still be sick about the read that he got wrong on 2nd-and-12 or about the back-shoulder throw to Eric Decker that was just a little bit too low. Honestly, I’m pretty sure Manning would give me a disgusted look if I was given the opportunity to run out for a pass from him in the driveway. Surely I would have cut off the route at the wrong angle or something, and despite my glee at catching a pass from him, he would be just a little bit disgusted with me.

A loss to the Jaguars cannot happen. It probably won’t, and a lot of that has to do with Manning’s approach to things.

Also, he’s apparently a pretty good liar…