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DENVER -- Peyton Manning stuffed the football into his helmet and handed it to an equipment man for safekeeping. The connection: Flawless, as usual. The keepsake: Certainly one hell want to hang on to. The Broncos quarterback had an answer for everyone Sunday -- from Tom Brady to the New England defence to anyone who thought he couldnt win the big one. Manning is taking the Broncos on a trip to New York for the Super Bowl after another of his impeccably crafted victories -- this time, a 26-16 win over the Patriots on Sunday in the AFC title game. "Being in my 16th season, going to my third Super Bowl, I know how hard it is to get there," Manning said. Especially this time. Only three years ago, he could barely grip a football as he started the long comeback from surgeries that ravaged his neck and nerve endings. And only 53 weeks ago, he suffered a devastating loss to Baltimore in the divisional playoffs that derailed what looked like a Super Bowl trip in his comeback season. But Manning will get his chance for a second Super Bowl ring, after all. Hell try to become the first starting quarterback to win one with two different teams, at the Meadowlands on Feb. 2 against the Seattle Seahawks, who beat San Francisco 23-17 in the NFC title game. "Hes been remarkable," said Broncos coach John Fox, off to his second Super Bowl as a head coach. "Its unprecedented what he did." After packing away his football, Manning ran to the 30-yard line to shake hands with Brady. A bit later in the locker room, he celebrated with his father, Archie, and brothers Cooper and Eli, the Giants quarterback who surprised Peyton much the way Peyton surprised him by showing up at the NFC title game two years ago. The Indy-turned-Denver quarterback improved to 5-10 lifetime against Brady, but is now 2-1 in AFC title games. "I have a lot of respect for him," Brady said. "Certainly, hes a great player and he played great today." Though Manning threw for 400 yards, it was more dink-and-dunk than a fireworks show in this, the 15th installment between the NFLs two best quarterbacks of a generation. Manning set up four field goals by Matt Prater and put his stamp on this one with a pair of long, meticulous and mistake-free touchdown drives in which nothing came cheap. He geared down the no-huddle, hurry-up offence that helped him set records for touchdown passes and yardage this season and made the Broncos the highest-scoring team in history. The result: 93- and 80-yard touchdown drives that each lasted more than seven minutes; they were the two longest, time-wise, of the season for the Broncos (15-3). The Broncos held the ball for 35:44. They were 7 for 13 on third-down conversions. "To keep Tom Brady on the sideline is a good thing," Manning said. "Thats something you try to do when youre playing the Patriots." Manning capped the second long drive with a 3-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas, who got inside the overmatched Alfonzo Dennard and left his feet to make the catch. It gave Denver a 20-3 lead midway through the third quarter. From there, it was catch-up time for Brady and the Pats (13-5), and they are not built for that -- at least not this year. "We got in a hole there," Brady said. "It was just too much to dig our way out." A team that averaged more than 200 yards on the ground the last three games didnt have much quick-strike capability. Brady, who threw for most of his 277 yards in comeback mode, actually led the Patriots to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns. But they were a pair of time-consuming, 80-yard drives. The second cut the deficit to 26-16 with 3:07 left, but the Broncos stopped Shane Vereen on the 2-point conversion and the celebration was on in Denver. "Losing is never easy," Patriots defensive lineman Rob Ninkovich said. "But when you have somebody as talented as (Manning), who puts in as much work and effort, and has done it for so long, its a little bit easier to swallow." The trip to New York, where it figures to be at least a tad cooler than Sundays 63-degree reading at kickoff, will come 15 years after John Elway rode off into the sunset with his second straight Super Bowl victory. The Broncos have had one close call since -- when they lost at home to Pittsburgh in the 2005 seasons AFC title game -- but what it really took was Elways return to the franchise in 2011. He slammed the door on the Tim Tebow experiment and signed Manning to a contract, knowing there were risks involved in bringing to town a thirty-something quarterback coming off multiple operations to resurrect his career. Even without Von Miller on the field, Elway put enough pieces in place around Manning to move within a game of the championship. Thomas. Wes Welker (four catches, 38 yards). Eric Decker (5-73). Tight end Julius Thomas (8-85). "Its been a terrific group," Elway said as he hoisted the AFC championship trophy. "They worked their tail off all year." Manning knows how to make the most of all the options hes been given. This game started getting out of hand at about the same time Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib went out with a knee injury. Nobody else could cover Thomas, and Manning, who finds mismatches even under the toughest of circumstances, found this one quickly. "Talibs an excellent player," Manning said, "but Demaryius was going to be a big part of the game plan, either way." Thomas finished with seven catches for 134 yards, including receptions of 26 and 27 yards that set up a field goal for a 13-3 lead before the half. Denver got the ball to start the third quarter and Manning hit Thomas for 15 and 4 yards as part of the 80-yard, 7:08 touchdown drive that gave Denver the 17-point lead. It was 23-3 before Brady began the comeback that came up short. "Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning," Patriots defensive end Andre Carter said. "Hes a smart player and able to make adjustments when he needs to." New England came up a win short of the Super Bowl for the second straight year. The thought this week was that Bill Belichicks team was playing with house money, having well exceeded expectations for a team that lost a number of stars -- Aaron Hernandez, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski -- and has been plagued by injuries all year. But a loss is a loss and facts are facts. Belichick is stuck on three titles and hasnt won one since the NFL busted him for the Spygate videotaping scandal. "There were a lot of opportunities in the game that, if we were able to coach better, play better, execute better in any of those areas, it would have given us a chance," Belichick said. Manning said Belichick is the best coach hes ever had to go against. The quarterback insisted this weeks showdown against Brady was more Broncos vs. Patriots than Manning vs. Brady. He lets others decide whos the greatest at this or that. But he earned a chance to improve on his already-sterling legacy -- one that figures to leave him holding his fifth MVP trophy come Super Bowl week. A win at MetLife Stadium in two weeks would put him in the same company brother Eli, along with Elway, Roger Staubach and a few others as a two-time Super Bowl winner. Two weeks for Manning to prepare might feel like a lifetime. At times, his long, difficult comeback has felt like a lifetime, too. "Weve definitely come a long way in two years," Manning said. "And bouncing back from last years playoff loss to put ourselves in this position, it definitely feels very gratifying." Basketball Jerseys Black Friday . Szabados joined the Southern Professional Hockey League team last week. The 27-year-old goaltender from Edmonton backstopped the Canadian womens hockey team to Olympic gold Feb. Cyber Monday Basketball Jerseys . Trailing 5-4 in the third set, the 12th-ranked Isner fought off two match points and evened it at 5-5 with consecutive aces. The former University of Georgia star had his only service break of the match to go up 6-5 before firing the last four of his 30 aces to close out Ginepri, an Atlanta resident ranked 281st. https://www.fakebasketballjerseys.com/ .Y. - Terry and Kim Pegula have no immediate plans to tinker with their new NFL team. Custom Basketball Jerseys . - Diego Fagundez scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season in the 76th minute to lift the Revolution to a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Crew on Saturday night that kept New Englands playoff hopes alive. Cheap Basketball Jerseys . -- Creighton apparently has Villanovas number.THE FORMATIONS: Montreal Impact started the 2014 season in Dallas and their starting XI featured few surprises as new coach Frank Klopas stuck to the 4-3-3 shape his team adopted in pre-season. Klopas had a number of suspensions and injuries to deal with, including star man Marco Di Vaio, so he named Andrew Wenger up top and pushed Houssoun Camara into the centre-back position. First round draft pick Eric Miller got his first MLS start at right back. Collen Warner joined Hernan Bernadello in central midfield with Felipe playing as the attacking central midfield. FC Dallas had a number of injuries themselves with goalkeeper Raul Fernandez and key defenders George John and Zach Loyd missing. New coach Oscar Pareja also adopted a 4-3-3 system that he was familiar with in Colorado. THE GAME: This was a very entertaining match full of tactical adjustments and questionable referee decisions that played a significant impact on the final result. Montreals 4-3-3 turns into a 4-2-3-1 on the counter attack but also, importantly, when they press and this was the theme of the game early. Klopas had his front four press intelligently and the young backline of Dallas, combined with opening day nerves as Pareja later admitted, made it a very difficult opening 15 minutes for the home team. Montreal started on the front foot, causing many turnovers deep in their opponents half. The wide players of Dallas can be electrifying in attack but have little will to defend their flanks, putting pressure on the central midfield pair to carry the load. This works well if the playmaker, in this case Mauro Diaz, cuts in and takes away Hernan Bernadellos distribution but this didnt happen. With Bernadello free, Felipe had license to move forward and this is how Montreal opened the scoring in the 10th minute. Justin Mapp, rightfully so, got the headlines for the goal, cutting in brilliantly on the right, beating three defenders, and supplying scorer Sanna Nyassi at the back post, but it was Felipes run forward that forced the back four to shift over and leave Nyassi unmarked. Montreals dominance continued after the goal, with Bernadello running the show. The Argentine DP sent a long ball over the top for Andrew Wenger to run on to and his cross found Felipe who should have made it 2-0. Bernadello is a very important player for Montreal in this system, and as they play on the counter he is very good at supplying long-range passes to feet, rather than an easy square ball that keeps possession but does nothing for their attack. With Montreal in control, Dallas rocked them back with an equalizer that was their first real threat on goal. A simple ball over the top wasnt cleared by Matteo Ferrari and Fabian Castillo got in behindd to tap home.dddddddddddd It was the goal Dallas needed to calm down and for all of Montreals good play to open the match they were now level. THE TURNING POINT: Diaz will be an interesting player to watch for Dallas this season. With David Ferreira gone, he is now their playmaker. At 1-1 he started to get more touches on the ball and drift away from Bernadello. In the 23rd minute, he shuffled out to the right side and dribbled his way towards the box, facing up with Jeb Brovsky. The left back showed him inside, a route Diaz accepted and as he got in front of Brovsky, the Impact man touched him and he went down. A penalty was awarded and it was very harsh. Blas Perez stepped up and blasted home. Montreal would spend the rest of the game behind. The deficit was increased to 3-1 shortly after half-time when Diaz scored a brilliant free kick just outside the area after Bernadello had been deemed to handle the ball when he was turning away blocking a shot. Once again, the decision seemed very harsh. THE POSITIVES: Impact would make it 3-2 later in the game when Wenger scored an outstanding header from a Felipe cross. It was a goal out of nothing and that is exactly what Montreal will need this season from Wenger, whether Di Vaio is playing or not. Tactically, the midfield central three will cause opponents many problems this season if Bernadello and Felipe play at a high level all season. This is where they will be able to dictate a matchs style. They can counter well and maintain possession, while also protecting the back four. The introduction of new signing Santiago Gonzalez, at 3-2 after 68 minutes, was an exciting one for Montreal and showed some flexibility from Klopas. The Uruguayan was immediately pushed up front, to play just off Wenger, and the midfield turned into a diamond. It made the visitors narrower but this took away the desire of FC Dallas to stretch the game. Once again, Montreal dominated this stretch of the match but the score line within it failed to show that. THE NEGATIVES: Both Dallas and Montreal faded badly last season after starting well so it is difficult to know just how good Dallas are this season but they certainly caused Montreals back four some problems. The left side of Brovsky and Nyassi defensively were often exposed and Klopas had to put Miller there late in the game, bringing on Calum Mallace to play right back. THE STAR MAN: For Dallas, it was, unquestionably, Diaz although Castillo had a very good game. Mapp was Montreals best player and his pace and ball control caused Dallas issues throughout. It was no coincidence that both Castillo and Mapp played on the same flank, allowing each other to attack the full back in one-on-one situations. ' ' '