ACE's Advice to Peyton: Let the Embarrassment In

Disappointment, regret, embarrassment, call it whatever you want, but
this picture sums up all these emotions and more for Peyton Manning.

With over a week now to fully digest what happened in the Super Bowl, all I can think of is how Peyton Manning can be anything but embarrassed by his performance in the biggest game of the year, and one of the biggest of his historic career?

Should he be embarrassed by his teammates or by his record breaking 2013 campaign? Absolutely not. The Broncos overcame numerous offseason distractions and a slew of injuries to make it to the Super Bowl. Manning himself had possibly the greatest regular season of any quarterback in the history of the game, despite having one of the weakest arms in the entire NFL (he is clearly still not the quarterback he once was physically before the neck surgeries). They should be proud of the way they fought all year long, except for what they brought to their final game.

Because of major losses on the offensive line and Manning's weakened arm, this offense entirely relied on Manning getting the ball out of his hands incredibly quickly and accurately to one of the great athletes he had at his disposal in space, and they did that better than any offense in the history of the game. However, even a casual football fan could tell you from watching the Seattle defense that throwing 3-5 yard passes all game was not going to work against the best tackling secondary possibly in the history of the NFL. They were not going to win this game by running a generic spread offense that looked like 90% of the offenses in college, yet that's exactly what they did.

The best coaches and players are great because they can adjust their game to what the other team is showing them. John Fox and Peyton Manning did no such thing and kept doing the same thing all game long and expecting a different result, which I am pretty sure is the definition of mental insanity. Not only did it not get better for them, it got consistently worse because the players no longer believed that what they were doing all year long was going to work against this stout defense. So why not change the game plan? Why not take some shots downfield just to keep the defense on their toes? Anything would have been an improvement from their predictable game plan.

Manning had never been held to less than 17 points in his Broncos career up to that point, yet his offense generated eight points in garbage time, while helping give away the game with a safety and a pick six. That's essentially generating a net of negative one point, and that's not even including all the points off of their other turnovers that Seattle benefited from. How exactly is that not embarrassing?

The Broncos' defense came to play, holding Marshawn Lynch to under 40 yards, only the second time that had happened all year long, and holding an explosive offense to two field goals to start the game despite being put in a compromised position thanks to the offense, or lack there of. So not only was the Broncos offense atrocious, but they were outshone by the unit that was supposedly the weakness of this team. Again, very embarrassing.

For Manning, this is yet another failure of his in a big moment, which does not help his reputation as a guy who shines in the regular season and disappears when it matters most. This was supposed to be the year in which he had no excuses for not winning a Super Bowl since this was by far the most talented team he has ever played with. Whether or not it is fair, he will be hearing about this game for the rest of his career, and really for the rest of his life.

At the end of the year, every team who has not won the Super Bowl failed to reach their goal. You learn from both the good and the bad to help you become a better team in the following season. Take that sting from the loss, take that embarrassment and let it fuel you to strive to be better. Russell Wilson used his last second loss to the Falcons in the 2013 playoffs as motivation to get himself to the pinnacle the following year. He did not want to feel that disappointment of failure again.

So I say to Manning, let that embarrassment in and remember it so that next time you have a chance at winning the big game, you do everything in your power to not feel that way again. If you have to go down, go down fighting. Don't play it conservative hoping some miracle falls in your lap to help you come back. Make that miracle come to you. Then maybe, just maybe, you will find yourself hoisting up the Lombardi Trophy once again.