


NEWTON MISERABLE: Broncos defense adds to Panthers QB's woes


The only thing Manning didn't do well Sunday was scramble. He escaped the pocket for 6 yards in the second quarter, sliding and jamming his knee into the ground when the knee brace he was wearing dug into the turf.

Manning sat and grimaced, stood and adjusted the brace and then completed his next three passes amid Denver's run of 29 unanswered points. Broncos tight end Jacob Tamme, who made the hop from the Indianapolis Colts to Denver with Manning, saw the tail end of the play.

"I guess his brace buckled up or something, because when I saw it, I was like, 'Ooh!' You know? I asked him if he was all right, and he just kind of hopped up," Tamme said. "Obviously it's a priority for us to keep hits off of him, and everybody takes a lot of pride in that."

Tamme said he had never played with someone as important to a team as Manning. "He's a different type of player," Tamme said. "Not only can you not replace what he does, you can't really get an understanding for it unless you're with him every week, preparing."

The Broncos have shifted into a higher gear over the last month. The defense has posted 12 sacks over the last two weeks, with seven Sunday plus a few Superman celebrations mocking opposing quarterback Cam Newton's signature move.

Special-teams newcomer Trindon Holliday has returned kicks for touchdowns in consecutive games.

And Manning has vaulted himself into the MVP conversation after a 2-3 start to the season.

With his first-quarter touchdown pass to wide-open Brandon Stokley, Manning tied retired Dan Marino for second all time on the NFL's passing touchdown leaderboard with 420. Retired Brett Favre owns the record with 508.

Yet Manning says he's not 100% after having offseason neck surgery. Furthermore, the Broncos aren't clicking as well as he would like.

"I didn't know what kind of progress I would make physically," he says. "I've made some, and I continue to have some that I still need to make. I continue to do my rehab. And the team, I think we have improved on certain things and are developing some type of chemistry.

"This is not a team that has been together four or five years, so we still have some things we can do better."

That's evident to one man who's close to Manning: former Colts general manager Bill Polian, who attended Sunday's game along with Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore to watch the Broncos quarterback.

"Obviously they need to do a better job protecting him," Polian said of Manning. "He got knocked down a little bit more than I'm used to seeing."

Polian lives in the area, having once served as general manager for the Panthers. He didn't like seeing the Broncos' protection break down early on a few occasions, leading to one sack.

Polian was one of two prominent former employees of Panthers owner Jerry Richardson on hand. Broncos coach John Fox was not retained when his contract expired after the 2010 season after nine years as Carolina's coach. He didn't express a desire to stick it to his former team, though his players recognized the significance and gave him the game ball. He wanted to avoid any emotional encounters before the game but got a hug from Carolina wide receiver Steve Smith as soon as he walked out of the tunnel leading to the field for pregame warm-ups.

"There's a lot of people here that I have fond feelings about and players on the other side, so you try not to see them too much before the game," Fox said. "But after the game, it was nice to see a lot of those faces."