It took three games, but the timing between Peyton Manning and his new Denver Broncos' teammates finally looked precise Sunday.
By the time Manning left at the end of the first quarter, the Broncos led the 49ers 17-0 and the QB was 10 of 12 for 122 yards and two touchdowns. The 49ers won the game 29-24 on Sunday.
Eric Decker caught both of Manning's touchdown passes -- 10 and 5 yards -- settling the unease that set in among some fans after Manning threw no touchdowns and three interceptions the previous two weeks. Manning ended his day with eight consecutive completions and looked like he did during his halcyon days in Indianapolis.
"That's something that takes time, takes experience," Decker said. It's a feel-out process. We had a couple of trial runs the first two games. I think the more we play together, the more experience we get, the more comfortable we get, and that's something, again, we've got to keep building on."
Many of the 70,263 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High had left long before the final gun, satisfied that the Broncos' first-teamers had answered the questions that arose in the previous two weeks. The balky timing that bogged down the offense in the previous two weeks had faded, and the defense overcame a shoddy performance against Seattle's running backs eight days ago by holding San Francisco RBs to 14 yards on eight first-half carries.
"The whole week of practice was different," DT Derek Wolfe said. "There was more purpose in practice this week. I think guys were taking it more serious. We had to bounce back from what happened."
San Francisco had just three first downs and 83 yards at halftime. more than half the yards game on one play, a 44-yard Alex Smith-to-Vernon Davis touchdown on which Von Miller and Rahim Moore lost Davis, allowing him to streak up the left sideline for the score.
"With this offense we've got with Peyton, we should be playing up (with a lead) a lot. So, a lot of teams, if you stop their run first early, you're going to make them one-dimensional," said DT Kevin Vickerson.
But it wasn't perfect.
"It's never as good as it seems; it's never as bad as it seems, so we'll definitely find some stuff to improve on once we go back tomorrow and evaluate it," said TE Joel Dreessen.
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