The Magnificent Seven

Thursday evening saw the NFL kickoff the 2013 season in historic fashion as the defending Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens began their title defense on the road against another AFC heavyweight in the Denver Broncos in a much-anticipated rematch of last year's AFC Divisional round match-up. Chosen by many (including myself) as the favorites in the AFC, the Broncos opened the season with a bang. With the game delayed more than 30 minutes due to lightning, there would be no power outage on the field as Peyton Manning and company brought plenty of electricity on offense. But by the looks of things at the half which saw Baltimore take a 17-14 lead into the locker room, the game seemed like just another day at the office for Peyton who had a pair of touchdown passes by halftime. However, the game would be anything but ordinary for the future Hall of Fame quarterback as he would go on to register a performance for the ages.

Seeking revenge against the team that put an end to Denver's Super Bowl hopes last year in an overtime thriller, Peyton Manning set out to dismantle the Ravens defense. He would do just that by leading his team to a 49-27 trouncing of the defending champs, completing 27-of-42 passes for 462 yards and tying an NFL record with seven touchdown passes, becoming only the sixth player in league history to do so and only the second player to accomplish the feat without throwing a single interception. Prior to Manning who logged an unheard of QB rating of 141.1, the last player to throw for seven touchdowns in a game was Joe Kapp of the Minnesota Vikings who reached the mark in 1969. Already regarded as one of the all-time greats to man the quarterback position, the 37-year old Peyton has once again defined greatness with what many are calling his best performance ever. Adding to his already decorated resume, Manning's stellar season-opener also gave him 23 career games with at least 4 touchdown passes which ties Brett Favre for the all-time mark as well as his seventh career game with at least 5 TD tosses, tying him with Drew Brees for the most ever.

Manning distributed his TD passes pretty evenly with pinpoint precision, connecting twice in the endzone with the newly added Wes Welker, Demaryius Thomas and tight-end Julius Thomas who stole the show in the first half with Andre Caldwell being the odd man out with only one score. To put Peyton's remarkable 7-touchdown performance into perspective a tad bit easier, the Kansas City Chiefs threw for a total of 8 touchdown passes all of last year. Hall of Fame QB John Elway who is now the executive vice president of football operations for the Broncos, threw for a measly 7 touchdown passes his entire rookie season in 1983. Not to discredit Peyton in anyway but though there's been more praise of the Broncos offense, it could be as much a story on the criticism of the Ravens defense. Baltimore who didn't allow their seventh passing touchdown until week 10 last season, has already seen that total reached in their first game of the year which can't bode well for a team that's predominately known for their defense. 

While the team was somewhat expected to take a step back on defense this season following the departures of Ed Reed, Paul Kruger and the retirement of Ray Lewis, nobody expected a performance or lack there of of this magnitude. After all, no Ravens team has ever allowed 49-points in their 18-year existence. But before we start dubbing the 2013 Baltimore Ravens as the worst defense ever, let's let the dust settle and see how they bounce back at home where Thursday night's game should have been played all along. After failing to strike a deal with the Baltimore Orioles who the Ravens share a parking lot with, John Harbaugh's team was forced to open the season on the road, a rarity for defending Super Bowl champion teams and the first to do it since the 2003 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But back to the man of the hour, Mr. Peyton Manning. I wish I had said this before the start of the season but I'm gonna go ahead and pick Peyton to win the MVP this year. After last night's performance, how could you not? Though the MVP voting polls aren't open just yet, the award is pretty much Peyton's to lose as he's an early favorite to win it.

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