EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. —
Twice on Sunday several thousand orange-clad Broncos’ partisans who had crept into MetLife Stadium must have experienced déj… hooey.
During the Broncos’ second possession of the first quarter quarterback Peyton was doing his bouncy strategic hand waving routine when center Manny Ramirez prematurely snapped the football into space.
Sound familiar?
Everyone on planet Earth remembers the incident in early February, at this scene of the crime, when Manny and Manning weren’t on the same page, or on the same book.
Then, the safety began what became a Super Bowl horror show.
The Broncos met strife in MetLife.
The football struck Manning and squirted onto the turf, but Wes Welker streaked over from the slot and recovered the mess.
The Broncos had to punt, and the New York Jets would drive to take a 7-3 lead that held up into the second quarter.
Uh-oh, here they go again!
The Broncos recovered from the mess they made and had seized a 24-7 advantage by the third quarter. But the Jets kicked a field goal, then added a touchdown to make it a seven-point game with 7:50 to go.
After Andre Caldwell misguidedly brought out a kickoff from deep in the end zone and was thumped at the 6-yard line, the Broncos were in vicinity where they had been against the Seahawks when disaster first struck.
On first down, Orlando Franklin was called for a false start.
Folks wearing jerseys of Manning, Welker, both Thomases — and even Tebow (some orange, others green) — were panicky.
But the Broncos, at last, held off the Jets when Aqib Talib pick-sixed Geno Smith with 15 seconds remaining.
This time the Broncos left New Jersey in celebration, not humiliation.
It was not a clean victory. Last season the Broncos were bulldozing teams. This season they’re being pushed and prodded.
“We haven’t quite reached our peak,” the executive in charge of football operations said afterward. But John Elway did say it with a laugh.
I asked coach John Fox that if he were writing this column, what would he say positive about the game?
“I’d say it was a gritty victory. We came into a top-six defense in the league before we entered the stadium. They had put up big numbers running the football. They’ve got some explosive players that make plays. We looked at the tape and knew it was going to be tough. Any time you come on the road in a hostile environment is tough. That’s what I’d write.”
Well, he just did.
Fox could work on metaphors and similes, but he should keep his day job.
As he pointed out later, the Broncos could minimize mistakes and reduce their penalties. They were called for 11 moving violations for 101 yards. The Jets were flagged only twice for nine. Odd difference. It’s not as if the Jets were playing so meticulously.
PHOTOS:
Smith isn’t much of a quarterback, as if you didn’t know. The night before the last Jets’ game he missed a meeting because he confused the time and went off to see a movie. Maybe Rex Ryan had told him to look at more film, and Smith didn’t understand. He might have gone to the theater for “The Jets and The Horrible, Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Season.” They’ve lost five straight and play at New England Thursday night. When asked about confronting Manning and Brady in such a short span, Ryan said he was “sure I deserved it.”
If Fox were writing this, he would mention the Broncos’ own difficult schedule (which he did to me). San Francisco and San Diego are up next. Two more playoff teams from last year will make five in the first seven games. And the Broncos are 4-1.
“We haven’t put it all together yet,” said Fox, agreeing with Elway.
“We’re building toward December and January,” Talib said.
The Broncos shut down the Jets’ running game, which managed only 9 miserable yards until the fourth quarter. The Broncos did have a running game — with Ronnie Hillman rushing 24 times for 100 yards and Juwan Thompson 38 on eight attempts.
Manning denied that he thought about the Broncos’ previous game in this stadium. “No. Different teams.”
However, anybody at MetLife before had to wonder Sunday if there was a Curse of the New Jersey Turnpike.
The Broncos got over it.
Woody Paige: wpaige@denverpost.com or
