Until the day Peyton Manning retires, the Denver Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts will forever be competing. It all comes down to one question: Did the Colts make the right move when they cut Peyton Manning and drafted Andrew Luck?
So far it’s been a mixed bag of results. On one hand, the Broncos made it to the Super Bowl with Manning, but on the other hand, Luck beat the Broncos in the Divisional Round last season and holds a 2-1 record against the Broncos overall.
Really, if anyone’s going to “win” the Manning-Luck situation, it’s going to be the team that comes away with a Super Bowl first. But for right now, these head-to-head matchups still mean a whole heck of a lot.
The Broncos may have looked out of form last January, but here are three reasons why the Broncos will beat the Colts this time around:
Wade Phillips:
Jack Del Rio … what an idiot.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more poorly coordinated game than the one I saw from Del Rio in the playoffs last season. It was as if he looked at the scouting report, saw the Colts’ weaknesses and did everything possible not to exploit them.
Oh, Andrew Luck and his decimated offensive line are having trouble against the pass rush? Well, let’s drop Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware off into coverage and only rush four on every play. Wait, T.Y. Hilton is a small, speedy receiver that can dominate from the outside and from the slot? That sounds like a job for Aqib Talib!
After all this time, I’m still positive we would have won that game with someone else calling the defensive plays. I’m not saying Del Rio wanted the Broncos’ playoff run to end as quickly as possible so that he could sign his contract in Oakland, but …
All that said, I can promise you that Wade Phillips will make none of those mistakes. He’s going to blitz the living bejesus out of Luck, and I’d be surprised if you saw anybody but Chris Harris on Hilton — if he even plays.
According to Pro Football Focus, Luck is their second-lowest graded quarterback when under pressure, sandwiched in between Brian Hoyer and Colin Kaepernick, and let’s be sure of one thing: The Broncos are going to bring the pressure.
The Colts Are A Mess:
Indianapolis may have taken a bigger step forward last season than most people expected, but they’ve fallen back and then some in 2015.
The Colts are 3-5 and in total disarray. Owners and GMs are fighting in the locker room, their quarterback is hiding mysterious injuries, their offensive coordinator has been “terminated” and their coach is all but a walking, talking, crying dead man.
In short, they’re a mess.
The only thing they have going for them is that people continue to believe that they’ll turn it around eventually. Why? Well, because — that’ it. The Colts are a bad team, simple as that. They’ve got three wins and two of those came with their 40-year-old backup, Matt Hasselbeck, at quarterback — and yes, he is older than Peyton Manning.
Luck has been one of the three worst quarterbacks in the NFL this season. If anybody should be talking about disappointments, they need to be talking about him, not Manning.
These Colts are no longer some upstart franchise, and the Broncos are going to prove that to them on Sunday.
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[adrotate group=”1″]This Game Means More To Manning Than Anyone:
I don’t want to hear that this is just another game. It’s not. For Manning, this game is special, very special.
Not only is he headed back to Indy, but he’s headed back to Indy with history on the line. With 284 yards and a victory on Sunday, Manning will pass Brett Farve as the all-time leader in yards and victories. You don’t have to be a history buff to know that’s a big deal. And to be able to do it in Indy against the Colts makes it all the more special — perfect, even.
And while I’m sure it’ll be a symbolic, emotional moment for Manning, I know there’s a part of him that’s looking to stick it to the Colts franchise one last time, to show them that they made the wrong decision when they cut him four years ago.
Not to mention, I think he’s still looking to shove the whole “Peyton Manning’s finished” thing in everybody’s face for a few more weeks.