It’s not that Manning couldn’t read the defense correctly; he saw the blitz coming and found the one-on-one matchup. And it’s not that he couldn’t get the ball to his receiver; time and again, his passes flew well beyond the intended target. The Broncos just couldn’t connect; for whatever reason, they couldn’t complete the pass.
And therein lies the problem. Without beating the tightly bunched defense over the top a time or two, there was no reason for the Ravens (or Colts or whoever is on the schedule next) to change tactics. As a result, they had too many men in the box for the Broncos to run the ball effectively and were able to blanket everything underneath in a way that prevented Denver from getting their short passing game going.
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