Though I'm sure Peyton will hang around one more season so he can compile some more meaningless stats, now that I think about it.

I have to admit that made me laugh

GO COWBOYS!

St. Louis plays good defense, front 7 is very talented.

They're QBs that just started that are nowhere near his level. Realistically doesn't make much sense, if he was the Cardinals they'd instantly be Super Bowl favorites.

It's not that they lost, it's that they were not competitive in those games. There's a simple blueprint for beating the Broncos--pressure and take away the middle, forcing sideline throws which require arm strength and the ability to step into a throw.

Some teams have the players to keep it up for 60 minutes--NE and STL obviously do. Raiders did so for longer than they should have--including two picks.

Problem for Denver is that 5/6 of remaining opponents have the defensive players to do what NE and STL did.

The trajectory reminds me of the 2012 NYG--QB and skill position players masked defects of a substandard o-line. Until they couldn't.

A team can have an iffy offensive line, or a weak running game, or a quarterback with mobility and arm strength issues and still win playoff games. It can't do so with all three.

Ironically, their defense is much better than the offense. Especially when they need to use third stringers at the skill positions due to injuries to RBs, J Thomas, and Sanders. Double team D Thomas and there's no one that can hurt you.

I do know they could afford to cut Tommie Harris before final cuts who was a critical addition for the Cardinals on rushing downs to plug the hole Dockett's injury left.

St. Louis is among the league leaders in tackles for loss, I think the only team ahead of them is Buffalo. Andre Ellington didn't have great numbers against them -- same story against Detroit's front 7 but he made critical receptions on successful drives.

Catching St. Louis at the end of the 3 game road trip isn't bad. St. Louis also has wins against San Francisco & Seattle. Factor in the wins Denver has against playoff level competition, their season is far from over.

as upcoming opponents, which indicates those match up problems will persist.

Not to mention the trips to Arrowhead and CIN.

STL has defensive talent. But, this was a 3-6 team that gave up 34 points to the Vikings and Cowboys and 31 points to the 49ers at home and 34 points to the Eagles, 35 points to the Chiefs, and 31 points to the Cardinals on the road. DEN's 7 points was the fewest any team has scored on them.

Their other three wins were by a combined 7 points.
Through their first 9 games, they averaged 10 fewer points per game than their opponents.

They beat DEN by 15 and it wasn't even that close.

Manning-lead teams have a long tradition of being soft front runners. This team suffers the same defects.

Cardinals trailed almost the entire second half, including 5 gametime minutes following the Carson Palmer injury (him going down did nothing to discourage my outlook on the game. Ellington & Cards secondary impacts winning or losing more than Palmer or Stanton, Ellington made a huge catch in the third quarter to put them in the red zone which was negated by a Palmer interception. Both defenses were very impressive.

After the John Brown score Austin Davis threw a high pass which was tipped by Britt's one hand where Peterson made a difficult catch and turned it into a touchdown. On the next drive, Antonio Cromartie scored another defensive touchdown which led to the final margin. These two plays is why Shaun Hill was the quarterback against the Broncos instead of Austin Davis.

I can't explain the Minnesota game. Cassell had a solid pre-season outed so maybe it carried over to the Rams game and also Cordarrelle Patterson made some big plays.

I actually watched the Rams-Chiefs game. It was a tale of two halves, the first half was tightly contested 10-7 battle but Kansas City ran away in the second half. Rams entered the game with a depleted secondary and injuries kept mounting in that game.

Cowboys -- I remember Robert Quinn stating Tony Romo doesn't get enough credit for being slippery, as a Cardinals fan who has seen game winning drives from Roethlisberger & Vince Young that also plays in the Kaepernick & Russell Wilson division I know how frustrating slippery QBs are and those sacks shaken off change the game.

31 points given up to the 49ers at home followed by 10 points given up to the same team on the road is a wash.

27 rushing yards.

It's one thing to struggle against a talented defense. It's another to not even compete.

That's it for Manning. Career over.

He's not good enough to start for a playoff team in the NFL.