Manning shines in Pro Bowl
HONOLULU – Peyton Manning finished his prolific season at the Pro Bowl with more of the same: another bunch of touchdown passes, another record and another award.
And another win in a game that doesn’t matter.
Manning threw three touchdown passes to extend his career record for the NFL’s all-star game, while Michael Vick led the NFC to 17 points in a second-half comeback that fell short in the AFC’s 38-27 victory Sunday.
Manning, the regular-season MVP after breaking Dan Marino’s NFL record with 49 touchdown passes, completed just six passes for 130 yards. But three were spectacular scoring tosses, and the quarterback was named the player of the game in his fifth trip to the Pro Bowl.
Manning, whose Colts were eliminated by New England in the second round of the playoffs, didn’t have the award clinched until the AFC defense finally slowed down Vick, who nearly rallied his club in his first appearance at the Pro Bowl. If Manning is at the peak of his game, Vick clearly is on an incredible climb.
“I’m not going to say I wasn’t holding my breath over there once Vick started to roll around, but our defense did a great job of stopping him,” Manning said. “It was good we got the game this year after we let the lead slip away last year.”
The sting of another playoff loss has faded a bit for Manning, but it’s never far from his mind as motivation. He was at ease in the face of the NFC’s best pass rushers, and his precision staked the AFC to a lead it never lost.
“You could win a lot of playoff games with all the weapons we had out here,” Manning said. “It’s almost too tough to pick where to throw sometimes.”
Pittsburgh’s Hines Ward caught a touchdown pass and returned an onside kick for a score, and three Chargers stars led the clinching TD drive in the fourth quarter of the AFC’s seventh victory in nine meetings.
“It’s a great consolation prize for not being able to play in the Super Bowl,” Ward said of the victory and the $35,000 winners’ share for the AFC.
This game didn’t quite have the offensive fireworks of last season’s 107-point marathon, won in a thrilling NFC comeback, but Manning and Vick thrilled the 26th straight sellout crowd at Aloha Stadium with exhibitions of their strengths: Manning’s expert throws and Vick’s jaw-dropping elusiveness and creativity.
Manning has thrown 11 TD passes in the Pro Bowl, four more than any quarterback in NFL history. He hit Colts teammate Marvin Harrison, Ward and San Diego’s Antonio Gates in the first 25 minutes while the AFC built a 28-10 halftime lead.
But Vick was determined to make a splash in his first trip to Hawaii. He led three straight scoring drives after entering the game in the third quarter. Vick was 14 of 24 for 205 yards and a score and became the first quarterback to throw a touchdown pass and rush for a score in the same Pro Bowl.
When the NFC tried an onside kick in the second quarter, Ward leaped for the ball and outran several defenders for a 39-yard score.
It was the first touchdown on a kickoff return in the 55-year history of the Pro Bowl.