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Friday, 5 February 2016

Archie Manning Backs Broncos Peyton

Peyton Manning’s father Archie has backed his son over allegations the Broncos quarterback took the banned substance HGH, telling ESPN: “He didn’t. He said he didn’t. He didn’t.”

A report from Al Jazeera America in December linked Peyton to human growth hormone delivered to his wife while he was recovering from neck surgery in 2011, but Archie Manning insisted his son has never taken anything he shouldn’t have.

“I didn’t like [the report]. I thought it was some pretty shabby journalism,” Manning Sr said on ESPN’s Mike & Mike. “Actually, I hadn’t done a lot of interviews this year. This is the first time I’ve been asked about it. But I’m pretty much with him.

“He told me: ‘I didn’t do that.’ I always had a saying when he was going through everything, and he had to talk to a lot of different doctors and trainers, and I always said: ‘No voodoo.’ That was kind of our theme. And he didn’t. He said he didn’t. He didn’t.”

The report claims Manning received HGH from an Indianapolis anti-aging clinic in 2011 while he was still with the Colts. It said the drug, which was banned by the NFL in 2011, was delivered to his wife, Ashley, so that the quarterback’s name was never attached to the shipments.

Manning denied the story when it emerged just after Christmas. “The allegation that I would do something like that is complete garbage and is totally made up. It never happened. Never,” he said.

“I really can’t believe somebody would put something like this on the air. Whoever said this is making stuff up.”

Peyton Manning also supports an NFL investigation into the report.

“I do welcome it. It’s no news to me,” Manning said in January. “I still stand by what I said then – that it’s garbage from the first day that it came out, garbage today.”

Archie Manning also said he hasn’t spoken with his son about whether he’ll retire next year – but thinks Peyton hasn’t yet made up his mind.

“He’ll find the right time to sit down and discuss it. He hasn’t talked to me. He’ll talk to Ashley,” the former New Orleans Saints quarterback, told SportsCenter later in the day.

“I think it will be pretty clear-cut. He loves this game. The end of last year being hurt, this year being hurt could affect this. When the time comes, he’ll sit down and make the right decision.”

Wednesday, 27 January 2016

NFL Open Manning Investigation

The NFL has opened an investigation into allegations that Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning had human growth hormone sent to his house.

Manning, 39, has described the allegations, made by broadcaster Al Jazeera, as "complete garbage".

Its source - Texas-based pharmacist Charlie Sly - has since recanted.

The allegations surfaced in an Al Jazeera report that said Manning's wife received deliveries of HGH, which is banned by the NFL, at their home.

At the time, Manning was recovering from neck surgery suffered during his spell with the Indianapolis Colts.

The NFL does not expect to reach a verdict before Manning's Denver side play the Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl on 7 February.

Manning holds the records for most passing yards and touchdown passes and has been voted the NFL's most valuable player on a record five occasions.

The 39-year-old been plagued by injury and there is speculation that the Super Bowl - his fourth appearance in American football's showpiece event - could be the final game in his illustrious career.

Wednesday, 20 January 2016

Broncos Smith Starts Brady Sledging

Although the AFC title game showdown between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos is still days away, but the first verbal jabs between the conference’s two best teams have already been exchanged.

Broncos defensive lineman Antonio Smith drew first blood on Monday at the club’s Dove Valley training facility, answering in the affirmative when asked if Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was a crybaby.

“That would be an accurate statement,” Smith told the Colorado Springs Gazette. “I’ve never seen any quarterback look to the referee right after he gets sacked more than Brady. Every time he gets sacked he looks at the ref like, ‘You see him sack me? Was that supposed to happen? He did it a little hard. Please throw a 15-yard penalty on him. Get him fined.’”

Smith’s remarks drew the attention of New York City’s tabloids, with both the Post and Daily News having a go at the New England quarterback on their Wednesday back pages.

Denver’s Chris Harris Jr doubled down in a Tuesday interview on ESPN’s SportsCenter when asked about the best way to defend Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski.

“You gotta hit him low, man,” the fifth-year cornerback said. “Hit him in his knees. That’s the best chance you got of hitting him.”

Gronkowski’s risqué riposte has since been retweeted more than 48,000 times.

The 6ft 6in, 265lb Pro Bowler tore his ACL and MCL in 2013 when he was directly hit in the knee by current Denver safety TJ Ward, then with the Cleveland Browns.

He was tackled low several times by Denver defenders when the teams met earlier this year, a 30-24 win by the Broncos that saw Gronkowski carted off with a knee injury.

Sunday’s AFC championship game will be the 17th all-time meeting between Brady and Denver quarterback Peyton Manning with Brady’s teams holding an 11-5 edge.

The winner will advance to Super Bowl 50, scheduled for 7 February at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Monday, 18 January 2016

Peyton Places Broncos Beyond Steelers

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Peyton Manning earned one more and possibly final game against his rival by leading the Denver Broncos to a come-from-behind 23-16 win over Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers on a blustery Sunday.

That set up an AFC championship game next weekend in Denver against Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.

Manning and Brady have squared off 16 times before, a full season’s worth of matchups between the two quarterbacks whose careers are so intertwined that a conversation about one almost has to include the other — like Bird v Magic or Ali v Frazier.

“It’ll be the Broncos v the Patriots,” Manning said of the AFC’s top two seeds, both 13-4. “We’ll enjoy this one tonight. I think you knew that answer was coming. To kind of quote Bill Belichick, we’ll be on to New England. But I’ll be talking about them on Wednesday.”

Football fans won’t wait that long. Brady has won 11 of the 16 meetings against Manning’s teams, but they’re 2-2 in the playoffs, including Denver’s 26-16 win in the conference championship game two years ago. This game marks just the seventh time Manning will face Brady at home.

The 17th chapter was slated for November before Manning went out with a foot injury that pushed longtime backup Brock Osweiler into the starting — and starring — role.

Osweiler led the Broncos back from a two-touchdown, fourth-quarter deficit against New England on 29 November in a game Denver won 30-24 in overtime. Manning had just gotten out of his cast and watched that game from the locker room after shaking Brady’s hand in pregame warmups.

He returned to action in the season finale, his cameo propelling the Broncos past San Diego and into the AFC’s No1 seed that ensures Brady & Co will have to play at altitude in their fifth consecutive trip to the conference championship game.

Just before kickoff Sunday, a strong wind blew over the Rocky Mountains, wreaking havoc on passes and kicks alike, although Brandon McManus tied an NFL playoff record by converting all five of his field goal attempts and Chris Boswell made all three of his.

Manning’s team-mates dropped seven passes, but came through in crunch time. Denver is 10-3 in games decided by seven points or fewer, and Manning said being battle-tested helped them on this blustery night.

With Denver down 13-12 with less than 10 minutes left, cornerback Bradley Roby, burned time and again, punched the ball from Fitzgerald Toussaint’s arms and teammate DeMarcus Ware recovered at the Denver 35-yard line.

“I could have protected the ball a little bit more,” said Toussaint, who scored his first career TD in the first half. “Obviously, they made a great play. You’ve got to give them credit, but in that situation, I put it on myself.”

Manning went to work, driving Denver to its only touchdown, a one-yard run by CJ Anderson, followed by Demaryius Thomas’ catch on the two-pointer that put Denver ahead 20-13 with three minutes left.

That was Manning’s 55th game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime, extending one of the dozen NFL records he owns.

Ware’s sack ended Pittsburgh’s next drive and McManus kicked his fifth field goal, joking it was such a tricky crosswind that he just kept aiming “at the guy holding the beer in the top left corner.”

Chris Boswell made a 47-yarder with 19 seconds left, but Anderson, who gained 72 yards on 15 carries, recovered the onside kick.

Manning credited Denver’s NFL-best defense for thwarting a team that piled up 34 points on them last month.

“Obviously, down in the fourth quarter and down the home stretch, great play by our defense,” Manning said. “They gave us some good opportunities all day. Pittsburgh did a great job down there in the red zone, keeping us from touchdowns. We had to settle for field goals.

“The best thing we did, we stayed patient all game. We didn’t force anything and we didn’t give them any short fields. Obviously, when we needed it, we had that big drive and we got that touchdown that really put us up.”

Roethlisberger completed 24 of 37 passes for 339 yards despite playing with a sore right shoulder and missing his top receiver — Antonio Brown (concussion) and rusher — DeAngelo Williams (foot). Martavis Bryant had nine catches for 154 yards.

Manning completed 21 of 37 passes for 222 yards, including five to Emmanuel Sanders for 85 yards.

Manning, two months shy of 40, has said this could very well be his final hurrah, and he’s 60 minutes from another chance to win his second Super Bowl ring.

Brady — who else? — stands in his way.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Roethlisberger Doubt for Denver

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The Pittsburgh Steelers only just squeezed past the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday night, and now they’ll face the Denver Broncos this weekend with a compromised quarterback – if he plays at all.

Ben Roethlisberger confirmed on Tuesday that he has torn ligaments in his throwing shoulder. “I’ll go in tomorrow with the intent to see what I can do,” Roethlisberger told KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh. “I honestly don’t know. I haven’t tried to throw a football since the game, and maybe that’s not even the right thing to do right away.

“I’ll see the doctors and trainers tomorrow, and we’ll evaluate kind of how I feel. If anything, maybe I can practice and hand off and still get some mental reps that way. So we’ll really just kind of see how it goes tomorrow.”

Roethlisberger left Saturday’s game after being sacked by Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict. His replacement, Landry Jones, threw an interception before Roethlisberger returned to the fray, leading his team to a game-winning field goal helped by two penalties from the Bengals.

Roethlisberger admitted he had been limited during his final drive of the game. “It didn’t hurt when I reached back to throw,” he said. “But it was pushing forward to throw and then the end of the throw. So I definitely felt like I was shortening up my motion up a little bit, which is why we threw some screens, and couldn’t really get the ball down the field. I think it just more affected how I could throw it.”

The Steelers are now faced with the prospect of fielding the largely untested Jones against the AFC’s No1 seeded Broncos. Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin has said Roethlisberger “has a chance” to play on Sunday and is likely to take part in limited practice on Wednesday. The Steelers are also likely to be without their No1 receiver Antonio Brown, who suffered a concussion on Saturday after a late hit from Burfict.

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

Overtime Win Earns Denver Playoff

DeMarcus Ware beat AJ McCarron to a fumbled snap in overtime, sending the Denver Broncos into the playoffs with a 20-17 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night.

Ware’s recovery followed a 37-yard field goal by Brandon McManus, whose shanked 45-yarder at the end of regulation made necessary the extra drama.

The Broncos (11-4) overcame a 14-0 first-half deficit in clinching their fifth consecutive playoff berth and denying the Bengals (11-4) their first road win on a Monday night since 1990.

Denver can earn the top seed in the AFC with a win over San Diego and a loss by New England at Miami next weekend.

Denver, which was in danger of becoming the first team since the 1970 merger to miss the playoffs after starting 10-2, snapped a two-game skid with its third overtime win of the season.

McManus has missed a kick in five consecutive games, and this one wasn’t even close. It sailed wide left to the astonishment of 74,511 fans even though the flags atop the goal posts revealed a complete lack of wind.

The Bengals called tails and the coin landed heads.

Unlike Patriots coach Bill Belichick a day earlier, Broncos coach Gary Kubiak chose to receive, and Denver drove 60 yards in 13 plays. Both Emmanuel Sanders and Owen Daniels limped off during the drive.

Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler, making his sixth straight start in place of Peyton Manning, also banged an elbow in the frenetic final minutes but stayed in.

McManus then redeemed himself by splitting the uprights from 37 yards out 5 minutes into the extra period.

Then, it was up to the league’s best defense to seal the deal.

There was an incompletion on first down that the Broncos felt should have been a fumble by McCarron with Derek Wolfe recovering the ball as it skittered downfield, but a review upheld the ruling. Incomplete.

Second-and-10 from the Bengals 33.

Center Russell Bodine’s shotgun snap sailed past McCarron, making his second start in place of Andy Dalton, and Ware beat him to the loose football.

Monday, 30 November 2015

Denver Deflate Brady's Patriots

Tom Brady lost yet another one of his trusted targets and this time he also lost a game.

CJ Anderson scored on a 48-yard run with 12:32 left in overtime, powering the Denver Broncos past the New England Patriots 30-24 on a snowy Sunday night.

Watching from the cozy indoors at field level was Peyton Manning as Brock Osweiler and the Broncos (10-2) overcame a 21-7 fourth-quarter deficit and handed the Patriots (11-1) their first loss since 2014. “It didn’t look good at times,” Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said, “but we figured out a way to get it done.”

Now, the Carolina Panthers (11-0) are the NFL’s only remaining unbeaten team.

Osweiler threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Bubba Caldwell with 1:09 left in regulation to put the Broncos up 24-21. But Brady, playing without injured star tight end Rob Gronkowski, needed just five plays to drive the Patriots 51 yards and into range for Stephen Gostkowski’s 47-yard field goal that tied it at the end of regulation.

New England won the coin toss and elected to receive, but thanks to a sack by Von Miller, Denver forced a three-and-out. Then, on third-and-one from the New England 48, Anderson raced around the left sideline and into the north end zone.

Gronkowski injured his right knee with 2:49 left in regulation and was carted off. There was no immediate word on his status.

Anderson rushed for 113 yards and two TDs on 15 carries. Overall, the Broncos ran for 179 yards, particularly impressive given their two-touchdown deficit for much of the first half and their 21-7 hole they found themselves in after Brady threw a 63-yard scoring pass to Brandon Bolden on the first play of the fourth quarter. The Patriots managed just 39 yards on 16 carries, however.

Osweiler improved to 2-0 since taking over for Manning. He completed 23 of 42 passes for 270 yards with one TD and one interception. Brady also was 23 of 42 for 280 yards with three TDs and no interceptions. Both were sacked three times.

Brady’s three TD tosses put him in a tie with Dan Marino for third on the career list. But with Manning sitting this one out in a walking cast on his left foot, the greatest quarterback rivalry was put on hold — perhaps forever. Instead of a 17th meeting between the QB greats, it was Brady versus Osweiler, which doesn’t have the same Hall of Fame ring to it.

It still had plenty of panache.

Demaryius Thomas, who didn’t catch any of the first 11 balls thrown his way, hauled in a 36-yard pass to midfield just before the 2-minute warning and Osweiler hit Emmanuel Sanders for 39 yards to the 8 before finding Caldwell in the end zone to give Denver its first lead of the night.

Things looked bleak after Bolden’s TD made it 21-7 and New England’s defense forced a punt. But Chris Harper muffed the punt and Shaq Barrett recovered for Denver at the Patriots 36. That led to Anderson’s 15-yard TD run.

The Broncos again drove downfield and reached the New England three, but they settled for Brandon McManus’s 21-yard field goal with 6:08 left to make it 21-17.

Both teams went three-and-out and the Patriots were moving downfield when Gronkowski got hurt. He was carted off with 2:49 left after injuring his right knee on an incompletion when safety Darian Stewart sliced across his body and hit his right knee — a clean hit.

Star pass rusher DeMarcus Ware missed the game with a bad back and Denver lost two more members of the league’s top-ranked defense on one play in the first quarter. Pro Bowl safety TJ Ward and nose tackle Sylvester Williams suffered ankle injuries on New England’s first run when LaGarrette Blount managed two yards. Ward and Williams were in walking boots after the game. Neither returned, nor did right guard Louis Vasquez (groin), who went out in the second quarter.

Without receivers Julian Edelman (foot), Danny Amendola (knee) and Aaron Dobson, who went on injured reserve last week with an ankle injury, Brady relied on his big tight ends.

He hit Gronkowski from 23 yards out and Scott Chandler from 9 yards for a 14-0 lead. Gronkowski, who was held to two harmless catches against Buffalo last week, was single covered and easily scored when safety Darian Stewart went for the swipe instead of the tackle. Chandler sped past Miller in coverage and scored easily when safety David Bruton Jr was slow to slide over.

Gronkowski’s TD followed a 25-yard punt that gave Brady’s banged-up team great field position at the Denver 47, and Chandler’s came after Chandler Jones’ interception at the Denver 15.

Denver cut the deficit to 14-7 at the half on Ronnie Hillman’s 19-yard TD run with 2:07 left in the second quarter. It came one play after linebacker Dont’a Hightower hobbled off with a knee injury.

“After Ronnie’s first touchdown, he came to me and said, ‘Now, you’re going to grind it out and get all the glory,’” Anderson said.