Broncos' Manning, Bailey not perfect, but still beat Bengals

[Denver Native (Carol)]

CINCINNATI — We learned two essential things about the Broncos during their 31-23 victory against Cincinnati.

No. 1: Denver can be a championship contender without quarterback Peyton Manning acting like a football god every Sunday.

No. 2: Only a fool (like me) even thinks about calling Champ Bailey too old to play NFL cornerback at age 34.

"Everybody's looking for reasons to make me old. Yeah, I'm getting old. And I'm not as fast as I used to be. But I'm still good enough to play corner. It's just a job," said Bailey, laughing.

read - http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_21928447/broncos-manning-bailey-not-perfect-but-still-beat

[cmc0605]

Good article.

Champ never ceases to amaze me. I will continuously defend the argument that he is a top 5, probably even top 3 corner, even to this day. Even if you bring Revis back from injury I'd probably take Champ in a must-win game over any other corner. He is still superb in coverage and a far better tackler than most defensive backs in football.

I actually thought he had a good game, against someone who is probably only rivaled by Megatron as the best WR in the league. Champ did give up a few plays, a few of which were expected, others were "out of character" (especially the touchdown, where Champ didn't seem to have any idea where the ball was). But he was also white-on-rice on A.J. Green on many other plays. One of the tough things about being a corner is that you can shut a guy down 9/10 plays, and all it takes is getting beat once for you to look pathetic in the eyes of the millions of fans. And it's very hard to play corner (I've done it) even against guys slower than you, since they have the advantage of knowing the route, and usually it's just not physically possible to cover all possible routes with one technique. In other circumstances, what looks like a "bad play" is actually a rather heads up play...like Champ getting the defensive holding call after he knew he got beat deep. That happens sometimes, and it's better to give up 5 yards and a first down, then a huge TD.

It's also worth noting that most, but not all of Green's catches were on Champ. Wesley Woodyard had inside coverage on at least one button hook route ( and missed a tackle that turned into a big gain). A couple others were "acceptable catches" (when you play corner and it's 3rd and long, you don't usually mind giving up a 3 yard catch for example). The deep 30+ yarder and the TD were the only big impact plays by Green as far as I can tell.

[NightTerror218]

Champ also tripped on a play too. Green's first big catch

[MOtorboat]

Champ also tripped on a play too. Green's first big catch

The play where he got shoved?

There is no doubt that Champ Bailey is one of the best cornerbacks playing the game, and an all time great. There is also no doubt that Champ Bailey IS a CORNERBACK. Not a safety, like some idiots will tell you.

[bcbronc]

hahaha, MO gets so butt hurt over Internet discussions. Whether the discussion is Champ, DJ, Knowshon, etc, how dare anyone question MO's generic football wisdom. MO, if the conversation hurts your feelings so bad, don't partake, m'kay.


I really don't get why making a switch comes up at all in mid-season interviews. It's one thing for us to discuss it on a message board--I personally find the theoretical discussion about the evolution of the game pretty interesting, even if some posters are too intellectually stunted to discuss it--but I don't understand why a reporter would bother asking after GM8. When the change happens, it will be made early in the offseason to allow Champ plenty of time to work on the techniques he'll need.

He's still playing CB at a high level--probably one of his better seasons in the last few years--but even if he wasn't you wouldn't move him now. Things would have to be going pretty bad to make a drastic change like that in the middle of the season.

[Simple Jaded]

The number of impact S's in the NFL is at an all time low, in large part due to the evolution of the game, but you go ahead and theorize the sense of switching a perfectly good CB to S instead of just drafting a S. He may not even be any good at S but even if he could it doesn't mean he should.......

[Fullback32]

Yeah Champ had some struggles yesterday, but he also had some greatness. AJ Green is a top receiver. You can't shut a guy like that down everytime.

[Chef Zambini]

your honor, I would like to introduce "excuses' in to the defense of Champ baily.

[Fullback32]

Did the article happen mention whether or not Lance Ball should ever be allowed on the field again?