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Gosselin: Tony Romo the better passer, but Peyton Manning the better quarterback in Dallas Cowboys loss to Denver Broncos
Rick Gosselin
rgosselin@dallasnews.com
Published: 06 October 2013 10:59 PM
ARLINGTON — Sunday was that rare afternoon that Peyton Manning was not the best passer on the field.
Give Tony Romo the nod with his franchise-record 506 yards and five touchdowns for the Cowboys. Chalk Manning up as the runner-up arm on this day with his 414 yards and four touchdowns.
But Manning was again the best quarterback on the field — and that’s why the Broncos remained unbeaten with a heart-thumping 51-48 victory over the Cowboys. The great passers pass, the great quarterbacks win.
Romo made the big plays, completing passes of 82 yards to Terrance Williams and 79 to Dez Bryant. He threw six other completions longer than 25 yards. That displayed Romo’s merit as a passer.
But two little plays displayed Manning’s mettle as a quarterback. One was a read, the other an argument.
Let’s start with the argument.
Romo gave the Broncos their only gift of the day, throwing an interception on his 36th and final pass of the game. That set the Broncos up at the Dallas 24 at the two-minute warning with the score tied, 48-48.
Manning completed a 13-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas on first down, and two plays later hit tight end Julius Thomas on a swing pass for 8 more yards to the Dallas 2. The Cowboys began burning their timeouts in an attempt to save some clock for themselves in the event that the Broncos scored. But there was one problem with that strategy.
“We communicated to the offense that we did not want to score,” Broncos coach John Fox said.
Then came the argument. On a third-and-1 at the 2, Manning called a handoff over the right side to Knowshon Moreno. He also gave him two orders in the huddle — get the first down, but don’t score.
“The difference was about a half a yard, and Knowshon and I were arguing about it,” Manning said. “He was asking me, ‘How am I supposed to do that? How can I get down without getting in?’ I said, ‘You cannot, you cannot, you cannot score. You’ve got to get a first down so we can kick a field goal and we can get out of this place.’”
Moreno did just that, squeezing out a yard for the first down. That allowed Manning to run out the final 95 seconds with reverse keepers, backing the Broncos up to the 10. Then Manning called a timeout with two seconds left to set up the game-winning field goal by Matt Prater.
Manning doesn’t lose arguments with teammates. Not when he’s the most prepared guy in the building and everyone on his sideline knows it.
Manning put his preparation on display in the second quarter, this time with that read.
Again at the Dallas 1, clinging to a 21-17 lead, Manning called another handoff on the right side on third down. But he didn’t hand the ball off. Instead, he trotted untouched and virtually unnoticed around left end for his first rushing touchdown since 2008.
“I’ve found that naked bootlegs only work when you don’t tell anyone,” Manning said. “That’s the only way to get the linemen to fire off for an inside play to the right. The harder they go, the more it sells it.
“You call the run play and you make a decision at the line of scrimmage, based on the look. We brought Julius in motion, and as soon as the guy covering went with him, I thought, that’s a good look for it. The key is you only do it about every five years or so. I’ll be retired by the time I’m ready to do it again.”
For the rest of the day, Manning showed why he is the NFL’s best quarterback in 2013 and his Broncos are 5-0. Denver had 12 possessions on the day and scored on 10 of them.
The other two ended in turnovers — an Eric Decker fumble after a 16-yard completion on Denver’s first possession of the game, and an interception thrown by Manning in the third quarter when Decker drifted too far outside on a deep route.
Down 14-0 in the first quarter, Manning engineered five consecutive touchdown drives to power the Broncos into a 35-20 lead by the third quarter. When the Cowboys took their first lead with 7:19 remaining, Manning marched the Broncos 73 yards on nine plays to tie it at 48-48.
Then came Romo’s gift.
Few teams are able to go pass-for-pass and point-for-point with the Broncos. Romo and the Cowboys managed to go pass-for-pass, but the goal is to win the game. And this season, no one has done that better than Manning.
Rick Gosselin
rgosselin@dallasnews.com
Published: 06 October 2013 10:59 PM
ARLINGTON — Sunday was that rare afternoon that Peyton Manning was not the best passer on the field.
Give Tony Romo the nod with his franchise-record 506 yards and five touchdowns for the Cowboys. Chalk Manning up as the runner-up arm on this day with his 414 yards and four touchdowns.
But Manning was again the best quarterback on the field — and that’s why the Broncos remained unbeaten with a heart-thumping 51-48 victory over the Cowboys. The great passers pass, the great quarterbacks win.
Romo made the big plays, completing passes of 82 yards to Terrance Williams and 79 to Dez Bryant. He threw six other completions longer than 25 yards. That displayed Romo’s merit as a passer.
But two little plays displayed Manning’s mettle as a quarterback. One was a read, the other an argument.
Let’s start with the argument.
Romo gave the Broncos their only gift of the day, throwing an interception on his 36th and final pass of the game. That set the Broncos up at the Dallas 24 at the two-minute warning with the score tied, 48-48.
Manning completed a 13-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas on first down, and two plays later hit tight end Julius Thomas on a swing pass for 8 more yards to the Dallas 2. The Cowboys began burning their timeouts in an attempt to save some clock for themselves in the event that the Broncos scored. But there was one problem with that strategy.
“We communicated to the offense that we did not want to score,” Broncos coach John Fox said.
Then came the argument. On a third-and-1 at the 2, Manning called a handoff over the right side to Knowshon Moreno. He also gave him two orders in the huddle — get the first down, but don’t score.
“The difference was about a half a yard, and Knowshon and I were arguing about it,” Manning said. “He was asking me, ‘How am I supposed to do that? How can I get down without getting in?’ I said, ‘You cannot, you cannot, you cannot score. You’ve got to get a first down so we can kick a field goal and we can get out of this place.’”
Moreno did just that, squeezing out a yard for the first down. That allowed Manning to run out the final 95 seconds with reverse keepers, backing the Broncos up to the 10. Then Manning called a timeout with two seconds left to set up the game-winning field goal by Matt Prater.
Manning doesn’t lose arguments with teammates. Not when he’s the most prepared guy in the building and everyone on his sideline knows it.
Manning put his preparation on display in the second quarter, this time with that read.
Again at the Dallas 1, clinging to a 21-17 lead, Manning called another handoff on the right side on third down. But he didn’t hand the ball off. Instead, he trotted untouched and virtually unnoticed around left end for his first rushing touchdown since 2008.
“I’ve found that naked bootlegs only work when you don’t tell anyone,” Manning said. “That’s the only way to get the linemen to fire off for an inside play to the right. The harder they go, the more it sells it.
“You call the run play and you make a decision at the line of scrimmage, based on the look. We brought Julius in motion, and as soon as the guy covering went with him, I thought, that’s a good look for it. The key is you only do it about every five years or so. I’ll be retired by the time I’m ready to do it again.”
For the rest of the day, Manning showed why he is the NFL’s best quarterback in 2013 and his Broncos are 5-0. Denver had 12 possessions on the day and scored on 10 of them.
The other two ended in turnovers — an Eric Decker fumble after a 16-yard completion on Denver’s first possession of the game, and an interception thrown by Manning in the third quarter when Decker drifted too far outside on a deep route.
Down 14-0 in the first quarter, Manning engineered five consecutive touchdown drives to power the Broncos into a 35-20 lead by the third quarter. When the Cowboys took their first lead with 7:19 remaining, Manning marched the Broncos 73 yards on nine plays to tie it at 48-48.
Then came Romo’s gift.
Few teams are able to go pass-for-pass and point-for-point with the Broncos. Romo and the Cowboys managed to go pass-for-pass, but the goal is to win the game. And this season, no one has done that better than Manning.
