ENGLEWOOD – It’s always been easy to link Peyton Manning’s career to statistics, this year, especially.
For all the touchdown passes (55) and passing yards (5,477) he collected, and for all the points the Denver Broncos scored (606) – each of those numbers NFL records – there’s another mark that overshadows all others.
Manning’s postseason record over 14 seasons is 9-11. That includes eight losses in which his team failed to advance beyond their first playoff game.
As Manning prepares to lead the Broncos into their AFC divisional playoff game against the San Diego Chargers, his winning-time failures can’t be ignored.
Despite Manning’s cognizance of his legacy, he was adamant that his past means little now.
“I know it’s easy to summarize – to take a whole bunch of football seasons and lump them together; I don’t personally believe in that theory,” Manning said Wednesday. “I think each season takes on its own identity, and different things occurred along the way at different points in my career. In anybody’s career. This is the 2013 season, and it’s its own chapter. We’re looking forward to writing it for a number of more weeks.”
This is the week the Broncos have been waiting for since their 38-35 double overtime loss to Baltimore in the divisional round a year ago. His success over 16 regular-season games in 2013 was exciting, Manning said. But the Broncos have not hid the way that they have used last season’s playoff disappointment as motivation.
It came up during weightlifting and conditioning sessions in April, then in training camp practices in August, then in countless practices throughout the regular season. If there ever was a question of doing an extra set of sprints, or an extra set of squats, players did them. It meant that now, a team that could be anxious is confident, even with the hottest team in the AFC heading to Denver.
“Last year we went on a little run there, and I don’t know if we got comfortable, but we didn’t finish,” wide receiver Eric Decker said. “We were hungry this year as far as coming into the offseason, coming into training camp, making sure that when we go out and play, we finish everything.”
As Manning stood in front of a large group of reporters Wednesday, still wearing his shoulder pads and orange practice jersey, there was no sign of a player who has tightened up when the calendar flipped to January. Manning cracked a few jokes and said he is determined to enjoy everything about this trip.
“If it’s just miserable this whole time, then why are you doing it?” Manning said. “Maybe as you get older you think more along the lines of, this is a very unique opportunity, to be in this position, to be one of just a few teams playing. It’ll be a great atmosphere on Sunday, playing a good football team – there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing than being in that opportunity.”
Yet given Manning’s historic regular season, which surely will result in his fifth MVP award, and his teams’ playoff history, this could be the most pressure-filled postseason of his career. Another one-and-done, and Manning’s critics will pounce.
“That’s something – when you’re great, they’re going to find something to nitpick at you,” defensive end Shaun Phillips said. “He can’t be perfect. If he was perfect, he would win every single game.”
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