Peyton Has Upper Hand in Manning Bowl III

BRONCOS 41 - GIANTS 23 

The game was billed with as much hype as Mayweather vs. Canelo. Manning vs. Manning; brother vs. brother; comedic pitch man vs. comedic pitch man.

Yes, Eli vs. Peyton was supposed to be a shootout between two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks, yet instead it turned into a dominating performance for Peyton's Broncos over Eli's Giants.

After a first half that started out with plenty of sizzle, as both Eli and Peyton led tremendous opening chargers that led to only three points for the Giants and nothing for Denver (thanks to a fumble by Montee Ball), eventually fizzled out into a defensive showcase as both teams struggled to get anything going offensively. The result Denver 10, NY Giants 9 at the break.

The Giants defense which was much maligned a week ago in Dallas, played pretty well in the first half. They were physical at the line with the Denver receivers, and flustered Manning to manifold incompletions in the half.

However, one thing that Peyton does that most quarterbacks in the NFL fail to do is he makes adjustments. Instead of going for the home run, he took what the Giants gave him and picked apart Big Blue in the second half.

On Denver's first possession of the second half, Peyton worked exclusively out of the no huddle offense and completed four short, but very effective passes to his receivers moving Denver down to Giants two yard line. Finally, Peyton completed a two yard strike to Wes Welker for six points to make it 17-9.

The Giants soon responded, as Eli led a crisp seven play 80-yard drive, thanks in part to Denver playing a soft zone defense for much of the possession, with Brandon Jacobs finishing the drive off with a 1-yard plunge to cut the Denver lead to 1-point.

Still Peyton would not be stopped. He hit Decker on a huge third and eight to move the chains into Giants territory, and later connected with Decker again for 19 more. Three plays later, Knowshon Moreno dashed past the Giants front seven for a 25-yard touchdown to make it 24-16.

Then the mistakes followed. Eli's second down pass was tipped into the air and into the hands of Chris Harris giving Denver the ball in Giants territory. From there Peyton stuck it to his little brother when he zipped an 11-yard touchdown pass to Demarious Thomas, blowing the game open at 31-16.

The final nail in the coffin came moments after a Giants three-and-out as Trindon Holliday returned a punt 81-yards for a touchdown to make it 38-16.

Eli had another horrible day. Not helped by the fact that the Giants still can't establish a running game, Manning threw four interceptions on the day. He now has seven interceptions this year.

Eli's biggest mistake of the day came at end of the first half, when he tried to force a ball into the end zone that was picked off by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. If Eli had only seen Victor Cruz underneath, he could have made the completion and had enough time to set up the Giants with a field goal before the half.

So ends Manning Bowl III. Peyton is now 3-0 against his brother, with the last two match-ups being blowout wins for Peyton.

The Giants have a lot of issues, but in a division that has no dominant teams, 0-2 is not a disaster for the Giants right now. They have to settle things down and get a victory next week against Carolina (0-2) if they are going to turn this season around. It's still in front of them.