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Football > NFL > 2014 > NFL AFC Championship > 2014 New England Patriots vs Denver Broncos football DVD

2014 NFL AFC Championship DVD

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2014 Broncos vs Patriots football DVD

2014 NFL AFC Championship DVD
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2014 NFL AFC Championship DVD

New England Patriots
Denver Broncos

DENVER - Peyton Manning stuffed the football into his helmet and handed it to an equipment man for safekeeping.

The connection: Flawless, as usual.

The keepsake: Certainly one he'll want to hang on to.


Peyton Manning Following in John Elway's Footsteps
Peyton Manning will be the second-oldest quarterback to start in a Super Bowl, trailing only Hall of Famer John Elway, who was 38 when Denver won Super Bowl XXXIII. It was the second Super Bowl victory and final game for John Elway, who currently serves as the Broncos' executive vice president.

John Elway and Peyton Manning, Postseason Careers
John Elway Peyton Manning
Games 22** 22
Team W-L 14-8 11-11
TD-Int 27-21 36-22
Comp pct 54.5 64.0
Pass YPG 225.6 286.8
SB app 5 3
**21 starts


The Broncos quarterback had an answer for everyone Sunday - from Tom Brady to the New England defense to anyone who thought he couldn't win the big one.

Peyton Manning is taking the Broncos on a trip to New York for the Super Bowl after another of his impeccably crafted victories -- this time, a 26-16 win over the Patriots on Sunday in the AFC Championship Game.

"Being in my 16th season, going to my third Super Bowl, I know how hard it is to get there," Peyton Manning said.

Especially this time.

Only three years ago, he could barely grip a football as he started the long comeback from surgeries that ravaged his neck and nerve endings. And only 53 weeks ago, he suffered a devastating loss to Baltimore in the divisional playoffs that derailed what looked like a Super Bowl trip in his comeback season.

But Peyton Manning will get his chance for a second Super Bowl ring, after all. He'll try to become the first starting quarterback to win one with two different teams, at the Meadowlands on Feb. 2 against Seattle or San Francisco, who played later Sunday for the NFC championship.

"He's been remarkable," said Broncos coach John Fox, off to his second Super Bowl as a head coach. "It's unprecedented what he did."

After packing away his football, Peyton Manning ran to the 30-yard line to shake hands with Tom Brady. A bit later in the locker room, he celebrated with his father, Archie, and brothers Cooper and Eli, the Giants quarterback who surprised Peyton much the way Peyton surprised him by showing up at the NFC title game two years ago.

The Indy-turned-Denver quarterback improved to 5-10 lifetime against Tom Brady, but is now 2-1 in AFC title games.

"I have a lot of respect for him," Tom Brady said. "Certainly, he's a great player and he played great today."

Though Peyton Manning threw for 400 yards, it was more dink-and-dunk than a fireworks show in this, the 15th installment between the NFL's two best quarterbacks of a generation. Peyton Manning set up four field goals by Matt Prater and put his stamp on this one with a pair of long, meticulous and mistake-free touchdown drives in which nothing came cheap.

He geared down the no-huddle, hurry-up offense that helped him set records for touchdown passes and yardage this season and made the Broncos the highest-scoring team in history. The result: 93- and 80-yard touchdown drives that each lasted more than seven minutes; they were the two longest, time-wise, of the season for the Broncos (15-3).

The Broncos held the ball for 35:44. They were 7 for 13 on third-down conversions.

"To keep Tom Brady on the sideline is a good thing," Peyton Manning said. "That's something you try to do when you're playing the Patriots."

Peyton Manning capped the second long drive with a 3-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas, who got inside the overmatched Alfonzo Dennard and left his feet to make the catch. It gave Denver a 20-3 lead midway through the third quarter.

From there, it was catch-up time for Tom Brady and the Pats (13-5), and they are not built for that -- at least not this year.

"We got in a hole there," Tom Brady said. "It was just too much to dig our way out."

A team that averaged more than 200 yards on the ground the last three games didn't have much quick-strike capability. Tom Brady, who threw for most of his 277 yards in comeback mode, actually led the Patriots to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns. But they were a pair of time-consuming, 80-yard drives. The second cut the deficit to 26-16 with 3:07 left, but the Broncos stopped Shane Vereen on the 2-point conversion and the celebration was on in Denver.

"Losing is never easy," Patriots defensive lineman Rob Ninkovich said. "But when you have somebody as talented as (Peyton Manning), who puts in as much work and effort, and has done it for so long, it's a little bit easier to swallow."

The trip to New York, where it figures to be at least a tad cooler than Sunday's 63-degree reading at kickoff, will come 15 years after John Elway rode off into the sunset with his second straight Super Bowl victory.

The Broncos have had one close call since -- when they lost at home to Pittsburgh in the 2005 season's AFC title game -- but what it really took was John Elway's return to the franchise in 2011. He slammed the door on the Tim Tebow experiment and signed Peyton Manning to a contract, knowing there were risks involved in bringing to town a thirty-something quarterback coming off multiple operations to resurrect his career.

Even without Von Miller on the field, John Elway put enough pieces in place around Peyton Manning to move within a game of the championship.

Thomas. Wes Welker (four catches, 38 yards). Eric Decker (5-73). Tight end Julius Thomas (8-85).

"It's been a terrific group," John Elway said as he hoisted the AFC championship trophy. "They worked their tail off all year."

Peyton Manning knows how to make the most of all the options he's been given.

This game started getting out of hand at about the same time Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib went out with a knee injury. Nobody else could cover Thomas, and Peyton Manning, who finds mismatches even under the toughest of circumstances, found this one quickly.

"Talib's an excellent player," Peyton Manning said, "but Demaryius was going to be a big part of the game plan, either way."

Thomas finished with seven catches for 134 yards, including receptions of 26 and 27 yards that set up a field goal for a 13-3 lead before the half.

Denver got the ball to start the third quarter and Peyton Manning hit Thomas for 15 and 4 yards as part of the 80-yard, 7:08 touchdown drive that gave Denver the 17-point lead.

It was 23-3 before Tom Brady began the comeback that came up short.

"Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning," Patriots defensive end Andre Carter said. "He's a smart player and able to make adjustments when he needs to."

New England came up a win short of the Super Bowl for the second straight year.

The thought this week was that Bill Belichick's team was playing with house money, having well exceeded expectations for a team that lost a number of stars -- Aaron Hernandez, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski -- and has been plagued by injuries all year.

But a loss is a loss and facts are facts. Belichick is stuck on three titles and hasn't won one since the NFL busted him for the Spygate videotaping scandal.

"There were a lot of opportunities in the game that, if we were able to coach better, play better, execute better in any of those areas, it would have given us a chance," Belichick said.

Peyton Manning said Belichick is the best coach he's ever had to go against. The quarterback insisted this week's showdown against Tom Brady was more Broncos vs. Patriots than Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady. He lets others decide who's the greatest at this or that.

But he earned a chance to improve on his already-sterling legacy - one that figures to leave him holding his fifth MVP trophy come Super Bowl week.

A win at MetLife Stadium in two weeks would put him in the same company brother Eli, along with John Elway, Roger Staubach and a few others as a two-time Super Bowl winner.

Two weeks for Peyton Manning to prepare might feel like a lifetime.

At times, his long, difficult comeback has felt like a lifetime, too.

"We've definitely come a long way in two years," Peyton Manning said. "And bouncing back from last year's playoff loss to put ourselves in this position, it definitely feels very gratifying."

Game notes

Initial X-rays done on Broncos running back Knowshon Moreno in the rib area were negative, according to ESPN's Josina Anderson. Moreno left Sunday's game in the fourth quarter with a chest injury.



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