Paul Klee: Manning may be old, but he’s still gold when it counts

KANSAS CITY, Mo. John Elway sought kicking and screaming.

This was Peyton Manning’s tomahawk chop.

“What were we down?” linebacker Brandon Marshall asked late Thursday night in the winning, partying locker room inside Arrowhead Stadium. “14-0? 21-0?”

Yes, and almost. The Broncos were down, Manning counted out. Then the best thing in sports happened: A great being great. The Broncos kicked, screamed, flailed, clawed, thumped. And Manning chopped. “Sawing wood,” he had said.

What happens when a 39-year-old quarterback comes to life after his football obituary is published in so many places? The Broncos beat the Chiefs, 31-24.

“He’s been taking so much heat the last couple years,” wide receiver Demaryius Thomas said within earshot of Manning. “He just goes out and does his thing.”

In his corner, the ol’ quarterback showed grass stains on his left thigh, a hint of blood on his right. He sent text messages, maybe to texting buddy Tom Brady, maybe to others who speculated loudly his run was done. Chop that up, too.

“I’ve never been in one quite like that,” Manning said. “I have been in a couple of crazy games. But never one quite like that.”

One of his things is making Missouri miserable: 14-1 against the Chiefs, none more improbable, more Chief-y than this one. What happened to Kansas City?

“The turnovers (five) and penalties (nine) killed us,” Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson said in an elevator.

So did Manning, again. The Broncos trailed 24-17 when Manning sheriff’ed a 10-play, 80-yard drive, capped by a touchdown lob to Emmanuel Sanders.

Arrowhead Stadium went from red to dread.

Surely the Chiefs would take a knee and take their chances, at home, in overtime, right? That’s what Marshall, Thomas, DeMarcus Ware and anyone else I asked assumed. But Kansas City didn’t. Kansas City handed off to Jamaal Charles, a sure thing most nights, but this wasn’t most nights.

“I dove and hit the ball out,” said Marshall, who forced the fumble. Bradley Roby, the second-year cornerback, scooped it up.

“Next thing I see is Roby getting up and running with it,” Marshall said.

Nobody wearing red caught him. With 36 seconds left in the game, the Broncos trailed by seven. With 27 seconds left in the game, they led by seven.

Two touchdowns, nine seconds. One collective broken heart in a sea of 76,404. One giddy locker room with a 39-year-old quarterback grinning in the corner.

“It just shows the character of our team,” Roby said.

The Broncos trailed 14-0, 17-14, 24-17. They looked awful, OK, and, finally, charmed. They did what Elway requested after a playoff loss to the Colts kicked and screamed until it was quiet enough you could hear moths buzzing through the sticky Midwest night.

On “Red Thursday” in Kansas City, the Chiefs shot fire into the sky and banged a drum. They smelled blood, figuratively, and thought this was their chance, literally. Manning responded: You say I’m old, but I am bold.

Manning was 26 of 45 for 256 yards and three touchdowns and one interception and yada, yada, yada. The way the Broncos survived the Ravens and Chiefs should be an indication stats are not the thing. In months, those will be telling wins.

It’s time to let Manning be. When he was pinched into the new offense, he had cable. When he time-traveled back to the high-flying offense, he had DirecTV.

“He’s a Hall of Famer,” Roby said.

Was Manning perfect? Far from it. Does he have to be? With this defense, far from it. But once the Broncos let him be, to do his thing, he did his thing.

“I think this one was pretty unique,” Manning said.

Thomas said he called the Charles fumble, that he stood on the Broncos sideline and told his wide-receiver buddies the Chiefs would drop the ball onto the turf.

“Bubba, didn’t I call it?” Thomas shouted across the locker room.

“He called it,” Caldwell said.

“DT needs to keep calling it,” Ware added from across the way.

Maybe the masses should continue calling out Manning, saying he looks frail, tired, old and sacks himself. When he’s not picking grass from his helmet, he’s still gold.

“Well, he’s not done,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said. “You could see that in the Ravens game. When he’s not being hit, he’s the same old Peyton.”

“The game is not done until the clock turns off,” Ware said.

Manning’s clock is ticking, but hasn’t gone off. He’s just over there in the corner, smiling, kicking and screaming.

(c)2015 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

Visit The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) at www.gazette.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.