For one week at least, Peyton Manning was able put an end to any narrative about his alleged struggles in high-pressure situations in the postseason.
Manning has led his teams to the playoffs 13 times in 16 seasons, more than any other quarterback in National Football League history. But eight of those appearances are of the one-and-done variety. On Sunday, though, the 37-year-old quarterback wasn’t about to let the Broncos collapse at home in the AFC Divisional round for a second straight season.
Denver was up 17-0 heading into the fourth quarter, when San Diego scored 17 of the next 24 points to close to within a touchdown. Manning and the offence took the field with three minutes and 53 seconds left, looking to grind out the rest of the clock. On the first third down of the possession, the Broncos were faced with third and 17 from their own 20-yard line, in danger of punting the ball back to a red hot Chargers offence, which had scored on back-to-back drives. It’s a moment in the past where Manning might have crumbled under stress.
Denver lines up in a balanced receiver set, two on the left and two on the right. Focusing in on the defensive secondary, at the snap of the ball it’s clear the Chargers are playing zone because of the technique of their corners. No. 20 Crezdon Butler (top of the picture) and No. 29 Shareece Wright (bottom of the picture) each have their backs to the sideline and are getting depth to get to their deep responsibilities. No. 25 Darrell Stuckey is headed to cover the deep middle of the field. Free safety Eric Weddle is left as a robber to help out wherever he deems necessary. Finally, three men are responsible for the underneath zones in the Chargers’ version of the cover three defence.
As the play develops, Richard Marshall and Donald Butler (both yellow shaded) do a nice job with their zone drops, but Bront Bird (yellow circle) simply does not, and that’s where the coverage breaks down. Broncos tight end Julius Thomas (red circle) already has Bird in trail position. The 250-pound linebacker fails to get enough width in his zone drop and his eyes never come off Manning in the pocket, and it causes him to lose track of Thomas.
Not only has Bird busted his assignment, but the Broncos call—as Manning will confirm after the game—the perfect play to beat the defence on this particular snap. Denver runs a skinny post, wheel (or out and up) combo with Thomas the tight end and Demaryius Thomas the receiver. Wright, the deep third defender on that side of the field is forced to run with Thomas, No. 88 (red circle, at the 40-yard line). In a standard cover three deep coverage, if two receivers go vertical on the same side, the flat defender, in this case it would be Bird, is supposed to read and recognize the second vertical and run with it. Clearly Bird is in no position to do so and his mistake leaves Thomas (1) wide open on the sideline. Manning, trusting his tight end, releases the ball before Thomas even gets his head around on his wheel route, leaving no opportunity for Bird to recover.
Thomas makes a beautiful back shoulder catch while making sure to drag his right foot to get two feet down. All told, the completion resulted in a crucial 21-yard gain to keep the ball in the hands of the Broncos. However it wasn’t the only key Manning-to-Thomas connection on the time-eating drive.
It’s now third and six on the Denver 45 and the Broncos must run a play before the two-minute warning or suffer a delay of game penalty. A stop by the Chargers defence would still give Philip Rivers lots of time to try and engineer a game-tying drive. As the play unfolds it’s clear the Chargers are running a similar coverage to what they called on third and 17 earlier, a three-deep zone. The only difference is that, this time, Weddle has come down to provide help in covering the underneath zones. Thomas (red circle) is the lone pass target to the right of the formation. And because Bird (yellow circle) was burned on the third-and-17 play because he didn’t get enough width on his zone drop, he is flying to his flat responsibilities.
Thomas uses Bird’s width against him this time and turns inside on a curl route. Manning snaps off the throw as Thomas curls. It’s placed on the inside shoulder away from Bird for a nine-yard gain, another first down conversion.
On two of the game’s deciding plays, No. 18 stepped up and delivered. If Manning is going to beat his arch nemesis Tom Brady and win a second Super Bowl ring, these are the defining moments that will get him there. If he can deliver under pressure twice more, then he can enjoy all the Bud Lights he likes.
Justin Dunk is a former CIS quarterback at the University of Guelph where he started for five years, finishing sixth on the CIS’ all-time passing list.
