Even after turning the ball over four times by himself, Peyton Manning had enough confidence and courage to simply play the same way he always does, and take the Denver Broncos out of a two-touchdown hole, getting quite a lot of help from some excellent pass defense, which hasn’t been a strong suit of this team in the 2013 season.
Manning threw an interception in the third quarter that was returned for a touchdown by DeAngelo Hall, right after he fumbled the ball which allowed the Redskins to score a touchdown on the next possession. Manning kept throwing interceptions in the fourth quarter as the Broncos kept on pushing after already shredding the Wasington Redskins’ defense to bits, not to mention taking Robert Griffin III out of the game. It ended in a 45-21 win for Denver, scoring the last 38 points in the game during a frantic 26 minutes to end it.
Both RG3 and his replacement, Kirk Cousins, were intercepted twice, as it created a chain of four consecutive drives that ended in interceptions for the Redskins. The final one of those was caught by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, returning it 75 yards for the final touchdown of the game.
The 4th quarter with its 7 turnovers becomes the most mistake-filled quarter in the NFL since a Dolphins-Oilers game in 1991 that had 8 turnovers in one quarter. Besides his bad throws, Manning finished with 30-of-44 for 354 yards and four touchdown passes, making it to 2919 yards through 8 games this season, a new record at the halfway line.
Another impressive feat was achieved by Wes Welker, catching six passes for 81 yards and yet another touchdown. Welker has caught at least one touchdown pass in 7 of the Broncos’ first 8 games this season, marking the 1st time in his career that he has recorded at least 1 receiving touchdown in 7 or more games in a single season.
And there was what happened to Robert Griffin III and the Redskins offense, that wasn’t playing well all game, but did enjoy some big plays from their defense to make it seem like they can pull this one off. However, he failed to complete a single pass that travelled further than 15 yards downfield, attempting it 7 times, being off target on four of those attempts. The biggest problem was avoiding pressure, even against the standard pass-rush.
Griffin was 2-of-7 for 23 yards and two interceptions against four or fewer rushers after halftime. He was only 4-of-11 with an interception when under duress, and gained only one yard on his lone scramble when pressured, being put under duress on 42% of his dropbacks, the most he’s faced in his NFL career. At least he said he felt fine with his knee despite being taken off the field in the fourth quarter.
How good are the Broncos? Vulnerable? Sure, but their video-game style is hard to keep up with, even with Peyton Manning making a lot more mistakes than he did earlier on in the season. At times, they’re so good, it’s even hard to catch up with them just by looking at the scoreboard, as DeAngelo Hall found that to be the case.
It was like a blur. Someone asked me, ‘What went wrong, what happened?’ To be brutally honest, I don’t remember. I looked up one point, 21-7, felt good, everybody smiling. Turned around and it … was 38-21.