The storyline coming from Denver’s 42-17 demolition of the
49ers on Sunday Night Football was how Peyton Manning broke Brett Favre’s
record for TD passes all-time. The one thing that wasn’t discussed was how the
Broncos dominated the Niners and put together their best game of the season.
This was their signature win of the year and put the Broncos at 5-1. Here are
my thoughts and observations about the game….
1)
There isn’t anything else that you can say about Peyton
Manning, but to watch him break Favre’s record was very special. You could see
how much it meant to Manning to get to 510 touchdown passes for his career.
Each pass was different, and each touchdown pass put the Broncos up and added
to their blowout. Manning’s first touchdown pass was to Emmanuel Sanders gave
Denver a 7-0 lead, and it was nice to see Sanders get his first touchdown of
the year. The second touchdown pass was a sweet play when Manning faked the
quick WR screen to Demaryius Thomas and he hit Wes Welker all alone down the
sideline and a 14-0 lead in the 1st quarter. The third touchdown
pass that broke the record was a really great throw by Manning to Demaryius
Thomas in the front corner of the endzone. You could see that Manning put
everything into that throw to get the record. That score made it 21-3, and
Denver was on a roll.
2)
Give the Broncos credit for not letting the Niners back
into the game. Up 21-10 going into the third quarter, the Broncos got a key
interception from Aqib Talib, and Manning went for the killshot on the very
next play. His 40-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas on a deep post was a thing of
beauty and a perfect pass to make it 28-10 and basically put the game away.
3)
Give Ronnie Hillman credit. He put in another good week
and he has shown a lot of burst in the run game since taking over for the
injured Montee Ball. He had 74 yards on 14 carries and added two touchdown
runs-one that was 37 yards to make it 35-10 and then a 1 yard run to put it
away officially at 42-10. Hillman has really stepped up the last two weeks, and
I think that can only make this offense better.
4)
You know what makes this offense better? Demaryius
Thomas playing the way he has since the beginning of October. Thomas finished
with 8 catches for 171 yards and 2 touchdowns. Thomas made some big catch and
runs throughout the game as well. Dear John Elway: Please pay this man!
5)
The Broncos defense completely shut down Colin
Kaepernick from the first series on. They swallowed him up and only allowed a
few big plays. The defense looked so fast during the game. I was worried that
Kaepernick was going to extend some plays and kill the Broncos with his feet,
but that did not happen. Demarcus Ware has been a beast all year and he
continued that again in this game. He had 3 sacks and was in the backfield all
night. The same goes for Von Miller. Miller looks dominating again the last few
weeks. He finished with 2 sacks and was all over Kaepernick all night long.
Also, Aqib Talib was solid again, and Chris Harris stood out once again. I love
the way that Bradley Roby is playing in the nickel, and you have to give credit
to LB Brandon Marshall for making some big plays once again with Danny
Trevathan out. The defense was just nasty on Sunday night. They had 6 total sacks,
1 interception, shut down the Niners running game, and basically harassed
Kaepernick all night long.
6)
The Broncos signature win of the season gets them to
5-1, but they have to play the Thursday night game this week as San Diego comes
to Denver for TNF on CBS.
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