If you thought the Broncos victory over the Patriots was all about Brock Osweiler and his future as Denver’s franchise quarterback, hold your horses (no pun intended); Peyton Manning still played an important role.
In an interview with ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio, Osweiler said that many of the Broncos’ halftime adjustments were based off of Manning’s observations from the first two quarters.
“Peyton was fantastic at halftime,” Osweiler said, via Pro Football Talk. “He came up to me and — you know Peyton — of course, he had a list of things ready to talk about that he saw out there. I’m not going to go into specifics, but he certainly did help me, and he helped this football team get a win today.”
And we shouldn’t be surprised. All the speculation that Manning is sour or checked out just isn’t true. Yeah, he’s disappointed in how the season has turned out — I’d have more questions if he wasn’t — but he’s the ultimate professional; winning will always be the most important thing to No. 18, even if he doesn’t have the ball in his hands.
For nearly two decades, Manning has been one of the most intelligent quarterbacks we’ve ever watched; his ability to pass on that knowledge to Osweiler before, during and after games could go a long way towards his, and the team’s, success down the stretch.
Following those halftime adjustments, where the Broncos trailed 14-7, Denver went on to outscore the Patriots 23-10 in the second half/overtime, and Osweiler finally looked to be opening up the offense; he even was given the ability to check into the play that produced C.J. Anderson‘s game-winning touchdown.
And while Manning’s tutorship of Osweiler may directly be leading to the end of his days as the Broncos’ starting quarterback, I can’t imagine that he’d ever consider doing anything else.
