Steve Serby

Steve Serby

NFL

After Super beatdown, Peyton can’t be called Greatest Ever

The great ones never flinch. They never blink. They never cower. They never panic. They feel serenity when others feel chaos. They figure it out. The heat of battle never scorches them. Somehow, some way, they find a way. They will a way.

It can be inside a boxing ring in Zaire. Or a football stadium in New Jersey. Even the great ones can’t count on a Mr. October night at the beginning of February. A Game 7 Clyde Frazier night at the Garden. An Air Jordan night at the Garden. A perfect Don Larsen day at Yankee Stadium. An uplifting Mike Piazza night post-9/11.

But on a warmer-than-we-could-have-hoped-for night at MetLife Stadium, against a swarming, sneering, swaggerlicious Seattle defense, Peyton Manning didn’t have a legacy to stand on.

He had his chance, very possibly his last chance, to be crowned as THE GREATEST EVER unceremoniously intercepted.

He too often looked more like Eli Manning against the Seahawks in December than the Peyton Manning who terrorized the NFL at age 37.

Instead of feeding off its deafening 12th Man, it looked as if the Seahawks were playing with 12 men, and the clock in Manning’s head became an alarm clock.

They made him look every bit like a rattled, jittery quarterback two months from his 38th birthday.

He was Mannhandled, 43-8.

By Manneaters.

“I don’t know if you ever really get over it,” said Manning, who went 34-for-49 for 280 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. “It’s a difficult pill to swallow, I think you have to find a way to deal with it and process it, and somehow, some way try to make a positive from it, and it takes some time, there’s no question. It’s certainly not a quick fix.”

In this quarterback-driven NFL, defense wins championships still if you can field a defense like this.
Manning didn’t like a question about how embarrassing it was. “The word embarrassing is an insulting word, to tell you the truth,” he said.

After 12 seconds, Manning trailed 2-0, because center Manny Ramirez snapped the ball over his head as Manning approached the line of scrimmage.

“A cadence issue,” Manning said. “Nobody’s fault. Just a noise issue that really caused that play to happen.”

After 4:39, Manning trailed 5-0.

With 2:16 left in the first quarter, Manning trailed 8-0.

It was third-and-7 when Manning, pressured by Cliff Avril, threw high over the middle for tight end Julius Thomas, one-on-one against K.J. Wright, and Kam Chancellor intercepted at the Denver 37.

“Poor play on my part,” Manning said.

By the end of the first quarter, Manning had possessed the ball for all of 3:19.

With 12 minutes left in the second quarter, Manning trailed 15-0.

“They smelled blood,” John Elway said.

Finally, he began looking like Manning, moving the ball down the field with short, surgical strikes to Demaryius Thomas.

But now it was third-and-13, and Manning needed to convert in the worst way.

Only Avril had other ideas. Avril brought the heat into Manning’s kitchen and hit his elbow as Manning unloaded the ball and Malcolm Smith returned the fluttering lollipop 69 yards to pay dirt. Manning trudged to the shell-shocked Denver sidelines as the Seahawks whooped it up.

With 3:21 left in the half, Manning trailed 22-0.

Manning needed a touchdown before the half in the worst way. He marched his team to fourth-and-2 at the Seattle 19, only to have Chris Clemons deflect a pass left for Demaryius Thomas.

His quarterback rating for the half? 46.3. He didn’t bother trying to establish a ground game. His longest completion went for 19 yards.

Percy Harvin resembled Usain Bolt returning the opening kickoff 87 yards, and 12 seconds into the second half, Manning trailed 29-0.

When it was over, after the confetti had landed on Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson and euphoric misfits called Seahawks, Manning walked briskly down a hall accompanied by a New Jersey state policeman and showed his class by stopping to sign autographs for several fans on his way out. No Lombardi Trophy for him. No second ring. No historic championships with two different teams. No Greatest Ever. No legacy to stand on.