[itjclarke]

Originally Posted by drmondobueno

Thought the game was going to be close. Manning showed zero arm strength, I mean zero. There appeared to be no wind, so no excuses there. Thought at first I was just reading into all the ducks comments, but after watching Wilson zipping fastballs, I saw a quarterback in orange who threw the ball with no authority. None. You want to make a really good defensive team look even better? Throw nothing but short and slot passes with no velocity, let the backs shorten the field even further. Manning looked really weak. As far as defensive pressure, it was there, but was he knocked down, sacked? Balls were deflected, etc., but he only threw the ball deep, what, twice? A D-back dream.

Scoreboard, Seattle.

Originally Posted by itjclarke

... I think a huge key will be how Seattle DBs d-up on Denver's receivers. Those DBs are absolute beasts! If they can take away some of the quick throws by holding guys up at the line, knocking them off routes, it could throw the old man out of rhythm, and Seattle's front four will "get pressure" by default (not that they won't be already). One of the most impressive guys I've seen is that Kam Chancellor. As SS he absolutely takes any tight end out of the game, and is a pure beast in run support...

Peyton also throws a lot of lofty wobblers. I think arm strength is one of the most overrated things in scouting QBs, and when you throw early/on time, you can get away with floaters... but in this case- with possible bad weather, and DBs that ALWAYS seem to be right there to contest the throw, throwing tight lasers is a premium.

I'm not usually one to quote myself, but Peyton's total lack of velocity absolutely comes into play when you're playing a ball hawking secondary that is always close to the receiver. Kaepernick throws the ball harder possibly than any QB ever clocked and his completions v the Seahawks need that juice. When Marino threw for 5000, he was constantly pushing the ball down field to the Marks Bros... Peyton's 5000 probably involved about half that or less in actual yardage thrown... and that stuff doesn't work to well when you face a secondary that doesn't miss tackles.