Kubiak on why he pulled Manning
“To be honest with you, I was protecting him because I was worried about him. Let me just say this, I am obviously very disappointed in the NFL game. Give Kansas City credit. They played a great football game. [Chiefs Head Coach] Andy [Reid] had them ready to go. I’m disappointed in myself. This is on me. I probably should have made a decision not to play him in the game and the reason, I needed to make that, probably, a tough decision there. He practiced Friday, felt good, came out of practice Friday and Saturday, as you all know, his ribs were bothering him a little bit. I probably should have right there said, ‘No, he’s not going to go this week.’ But he’s a competitor. He wanted to play. [CB] Aqib [Talib] was out. [OLB] DeMarcus [Ware] was out. He wanted to go. He felt like he could go, but I’m disappointed in myself because I probably should have made that decision yesterday and I didn’t. It’s on me.”
Let me translate that for you: Gary Kubiak unsheathes sword; Gary Kubiak falls on sword.
Like any good coach, Kubiak is taking the blame on this one. But at this point, it’s just an excuse, not an explanation.
If Manning was so injured that he could not compete — which he certainly wasn’t doing on Sunday — Kubiak and the rest of the Broncos coaching staff should have known that after Friday’s practice, after Saturday’s walk through or after Sunday’s warmup. But I don’t believe that was necessarily the case. I don’t think Manning looked decidedly worse for the wear before the game because, physically, he didn’t necessarily look worse for the wear during the game.
As was his problem through the first six games of the season, Manning’s mistakes were mental, not physical. Likewise, Manning was pulled from yesterday’s game for his performance, not his health, and anything else Kubiak tells us is just damage control.
