Peyton Manning's goal setting gets passing grade for Broncos

[Denver Native (Carol)]

Before the season began, Peyton Manning wrote down a list of goals. It sounds so normal, so mortal, so not what a player who's on pace to shatter a handful of NFL records would do.

So how are you doing on those goals, Peyton?

The quarterback can't help but laugh. Nothing else he can do, not really. Laugh, shrug, smile, explain that he's only four games in.

About 800 miles southeast of Denver, they're not laughing. They're maybe wishing Manning stuck a little closer to whatever those written goals were, because goodness knows he's beating them. The goals, that is — but possibly the Dallas Cowboys too, come Sunday.

rest - http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_24227676/mannings-goal-setting-gets-passing-grade-broncos

[Joel]

His answer says it all: Just four games in it's unlikely he's met or surpassed any of his personal preseason goals. For one thing, he's a well documented perfectionist, for another, he's not satisfied with a single title or just winning his division (when HASN'T he won his division?) I admit being VERY curious about those goals, but doubt he ever shares them, lest various critics say he arrogantly expects superhuman accomplishments, demands too little of himself and/or focuses too much on himself and not enough on the team.

Trite and hackneyed as it sounds, I think we've performed so well because the whole team's taking it a game at a time and never satisfied with ANY performance, however great. When they walk into a press conference after a 52-20 divisional win and say, "we left plays on the field; we can, should and will do better," it has the ring of sincerity. Unlike most pro sports, in the NFL a team can do everything right, every week, all season long only to know the bitterness of the seasons abrupt end if they let up even briefly in just one game. No one need tell PFM that, especially the way last years 12 game winning streak ended.

If he or the team were complacent I'd be worried; as long as they're not neither am I.