Isn’t amazing how in a so-called team game, the actions of others can affect the legacy of someone else. If Broncos safety Raheem Moore just gets deep like all safeties are taught, he probably intercepts Joe Flacco’s bomb to Jacoby Jones, and the Broncos go to the AFC Championship game.
Instead Moore blew the coverage, Jones scored on a bomb, Peyton Manning threw a killer interception in double overtime, and Manning still has more playoff losses than wins.
After missing a year off football, Manning will not succumb to feeling pity for himself, and as he told the Denver Post via NFL.com, he’s not bitter, and he’s he took a positive step by finally playing well in the cold.
“That was another good hurdle for me,” Manning told Mike Klis of The Denver Post. “Weather-wise, we had not had anything like that all season. There was some unknown going into that game. You can’t simulate it. I tried everything from putting my hand in a freezing tank. But you just can’t simulate it.
“Next year, the Super Bowl’s in New York. So that was a good hurdle for me to be effective in those type of conditions.”
I’m sure people find it odd that Manning found a silver lining in another painful defeat, but after 4 neck surgeries, it seems to have allowed him to speak with clarity.
“When you take a year off from football, you come back for all the enjoyable moments,” he said.
“When you’re not playing, you miss out on all the highs, but you also miss these disappointments. But I would rather be in the arena to be excited or be disappointed than not have a chance at all. That’s football. That’s why everybody plays it. You have to be able to take the good with the bad.”