The return of Peyton Manning to the starting lineup yielded enough offense for the Denver Broncos to find a 23-16 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Manning finished with 222 passing yards and no touchdowns, but his numbers could have been better if Broncos wide receivers hadn't struggled to catch his passes.
Broncos need to eliminate drops that plagued them vs. Steelers
The Broncos receivers didn’t help Peyton Manning much in a 23-16 win against the Steelers.
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Broncos receivers were credited with five dropped passes by Pro Football Focus, and some blamed as many as nine of Manning's incompletions on his receivers. According to PFF, Bennie Fowler had two drops and Demaryius Thomas, C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman each dropped one.
“I thought [Manning] was playing really well,” Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak said after the game. “There were some plays we didn’t make for him. I’m thinking of a big play to Bennie we didn’t make. I’m thinking of a fourth down we don’t make. But he kept his poise.”
Manning shrugged off the drops and said that the weather was a significant factor in the team’s offensive miscues.
“I think one thing that I’ve always believed in was that if you have missed throws and you have some dropped passes, you just keep firing,” Manning said. “I’ll tell you what, I don’t know if you guys could tell, but it was quite windy down there. You could feel it throwing. You had to lead the receivers, but that factored into them as well.”
The margin of error for the Broncos was helped by the fact that the Steelers offense wasn't its usually potent self. With Antonio Brown and DeAngelo Williams out of action and Ben Roethlisberger nursing a shoulder injury, the Steelers converted just two of 12 third down attempts and scored just one touchdown.
That likely won't be the case against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship. With Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola all healthy and available, the Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 27-20. Prior to Saturday, the Chiefs hadn't allowed more than 22 points since a Week 4 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
“We can’t do that against our next opponent,” Thomas said of the team’s drops. “A couple of those were the wind but as a receiver we should have still made those plays. He was putting the ball in the right spot so we could make plays. It is no excuse for us dropping those balls, but the only thing we can talk about right now is the win and we’ll work on that next week.”
Thomas finished the regular season with 12 drops, which was third in the NFL behind only Amari Cooper and Mike Evans. His worst game was a win over the Patriots in which he dropped three passes and finished with just one reception for 36 yards, despite being targeted 13 times. The Broncos managed to win that game 30-24 in overtime on a 48-yard touchdown rush by Anderson.
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