FanPost

Did We Break Peyton Manning?


Though our victory over the Colts earlier this year was not as dominating as our recent W over the Jets, Patriot Nation still had reason for positivity as our fledging defense was able to create pressure and execute a simple coverage disguise that forced a last minute Peyton Manning turnover. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who's noticed a strange trend that has developed since that interception. In David Fleming's new article on ESPN titled "Don't you dare leave Bill Belichick" the columnist has an interesting theory that I've been contemplating:

And you realize, right, that Peyton Manning was considered one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. Then he traveled to New England for a game Nov. 21 and since leaving Bill he's 0-3 and has thrown 11 picks.

Manning was on his way to another probable MVP season, putting together wins without his stalwart Dallas Clark and with a banged up set of wide outs. He came to New England, and was not outplayed- He had nearly 400 passing yards with 4 touchdowns- but was out-thought and outsmarted by Bill Belichick and the youngest defense in the NFL. Since that 28-31 loss Manning has had two consecutive 4 interception games with 4 out of the 8 being returned for touchdowns. So I guess the question is- did the Patriots performance, and the manner in which we beat the Colts future HOFer- mess something up within Peyton's head, causing him to temporarily revert to a Jay Cutler/ Brett Favre on tilt performance marred by bad decisions and headscratching throws?

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