Peyton Manning needs a beer. How ’bout you, Denver?
Winning the Super Bowl can wait. Let’s raise a toast to burying a ghost.
“What’s weighing on my mind is how soon I can get a Bud Light in my mouth. That’s priority one,” Manning said Sunday, after the Broncos beat San Diego 24-17.
For the first time in 365 nights, a city in love with the Broncos got a truly sound night’s sleep. The year-long nightmare is over.
The Broncos did more than win a playoff game. They buried a ghost. For 365 days, ever since an overtime loss in the postseason stunned the Broncos, the city and its NFL team had an uneasy sense of unfinished business. When Denver players and coaches huddled in the locker room and shouted “Finish!” not a single additional word of explanation was required.
But there comes a time when it takes more than a rallying cry. That time was in the fourth quarter against San Diego, with 3 minutes, 6 seconds showing on the scoreboard clock and a stadium packed with 76,969 hearts, all beating with angst. What had been a comfortable 17-point Denver lead had been reduced to seven points. The Broncos faced third down, needing 17 yards to move the chains, from their own 20.
As Denver defensive tackle Terrance Knighton stood on the sideline, he didn’t have to guess what nervous fans were thinking. He felt it.
“I think it was on everybody’s mind in the whole stadium,” Knighton said.
It was time to kill a ghost. This was the time for Manning to answer the critics who incessantly harped on his career 9-11 record in the playoffs. This was the moment for Denver coach John Fox to prove that when it was time to be bold in the playoffs, he wouldn’t go conservative.
Manning took the snap. The pocket began to collapse around him. He stepped forward, in a space no bigger than a coat closet, and fired a pass as Julius Thomas ran downfield and broke back to the sideline near Denver’s bench. The timing between quarterback and his tight end, the spiral of the pass and the tap dance of the receiver’s feet next to the out-of-bounds stripe all had to be perfect.
And you know what? What happened next was as flawless a smile that conquers fear. It was as perfect as a cold beer at the end of a long day. Manning hitting Thomas for 21 yards and a first down was the play that finally allowed this team and this town to exhale for the first time in 365 days.
“Julius and I have spent a lot of time working on those particular routes. After practice, in practice,” Manning said. “To me, that is one of the most rewarding parts of football. When you put that work in off to the side or after practice and it pays off in a game, it really makes it feel like it was worth it.”
A playoff game the Broncos controlled from the beginning came down to a very nervous end.
Up next: Tom Brady and New England in the AFC championship game. Winner goes to the Super Bowl. If there’s one quarterback of Manning’s generation who has his number, it’s Brady.
More unfinished business. Time to go to work.
An hour after the victory, a throng of cheering Broncomaniacs lined the tunnel that players and coaches use to depart the stadium. Fox sat behind the wheel of a black BMW jammed with happy family members. A fan cradling an antique Orange Crush seat cushion held together with duct tape approached the Beemer and rapped his knuckles on Fox’s window.
“I just wanted to shake the coach’s hand,” said Jeff Clark, a season-ticket holder for 43 years. “I come to every home game. And I never waver in my faith. Yeah, we’ve been through some heartbreak together. But we’re smiling now.”
There’s unfinished business. Drive on. And don’t look back.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or twitter.com/markkiszla
