Manning can't lose, even though he probably will

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There is absolutely nothing that can happen Sunday night in Santa Clara that will damage Peyton Manning’s legacy.

He’s not supposed to be here. By the end of last season, he was too old, too hurt, too weak-armed and becoming too timid to ever get a team near where it wanted to be.

So the fact he’s not only here but starting the game after the Broncos 2015 season was effectively rescued by Brock Osweiler has already enhanced Manning’s reputation.

And he really can’t be much worse in these games than he’s already been.

Against Seattle two years ago, he had the first snap go past his face and into the end zone for a safety, then threw horrific picks on two of the next three Broncos drives to nuke their chances. Against New Orleans after the 2009 season, Manning was allegedly set up to ascend to the “greatest ever” spot the national media had been keeping warm for him with a game-winning drive for the Colts. He threw a pick-six to Tracy Porter. He was gifted the MVP award in Indy’s Super Bowl win over the Bears after the 2006 season. Should have been Dominic Rhodes.

Reasonable people don’t have their hopes up for a competitive performance by Manning. He did as well as he possibly could against New England two weeks ago. He led a brilliant first drive and capitalized on a Tom Brady pick to get Denver into the end zone again. After that, he stayed the hell out of the way and let the defense, Britton Colquitt and C.J. Anderson get Denver to the ‘chip.

The challenges the Patriots faced in Denver won’t exist for Cam Newton and the Panthers. Anyone who watched the game can agree that the Patriots’ season was ruined by the speed off the edges by Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. A lot of other Broncos defenders played well too -- Chris Harris, Aqib Talib, Malik Jackson and Derek Wolfe in particular -- but it was the edge pressure that started it. Edge pressure that was aided by the noise at Mile High, the ineptitude of Marcus Cannon and Sebastian Vollmer at the tackle spots and the inability of the Patriots to run the ball at all at Denver’s dime defense.

The noise won’t be the same for the Panthers. The Carolina offensive line is better than New England’s was two weeks ago. And the ability of Carolina to run the football -- Jonathan Stewart and Newton combined for 1,625 yards and 16 touchdowns this season -- is a few universes beyond what the Patriots were capable of.

Since coming in to relieve Osweiler in the final game of the regular season, Manning has yet to be spectacular. He’s been capable. He hasn’t faced any big deficits or been in situations where the Broncos fortunes rest on his right arm. Sunday night, he will probably be in that position. Denver has to run the ball effectively and keep the game in the teens to have a shot.

If they can do that, I could see Carolina getting antsy due to its lack of Super Bowl experience and starting to press. Even then, I still don’t think Denver would be able to win. Carolina is a dominant team playing its best. This has blowout written all over it. But instead of it standing out at the end as a Manning failure, he’s already won just by starting this one.

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