I get the feeling the national collective has made up its mind on this year’s Most Valuable Player, and that decision is: Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.

Peyton Manning is a front-runner for his fifth league MVP. (courtesy Jeffrey Beall)

It’s a respectable choice, and this isn’t at all to say Adrian Peterson isn’t fully deserving of the honor.  My hypothetical vote still goes to Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.

Here’s why:

• Rushing Yards as a Percentage of Total Offensive Yards: 49%
• Passing Yards as a Percentage of Total Offensive Yards: 71%

That rushing stat belongs to the Minnesota Vikings; the passing stat belongs to the Denver Broncos.  Those numbers are pretty self explanatory, but for the record, 49% of Minnesota’s offensive yards came on the ground while 71% of Denver’s offensive yards came through the air.

Adrian Peterson had a season for the ages, coming nine yards shy of setting a new single season rushing record.  He was the vast majority of the Minnesota rushing attack, but not all of it.  Twenty percent of the Vikings rushing yards came from players other than Peterson.

Conversely, Peyton Manning provided all but 12 of Denver’s passing yards through 16 games, or 99.998%.

Adrian Peterson is eyeing league MVP honors. (courtesy Mike Morbeck)

It’s a quarterback’s league, and the selection of Peterson as MVP would be a welcome change of pace.  However, if the award truly is about the player providing the most value to a team, it’s hard to argue Manning, leader of a 13-3 team, would take a back seat to Peterson.  As fashionable as it is to say the Vikings would be nothing without Peterson because Christian Ponder didn’t exactly light it up at quarterback, the fact still remains that the majority (51%) of Minnesota’s offensive output came from the arm of Ponder.

Take Peterson’s triumphant season out of the equation and chances are good the Vikings aren’t a playoff team.  Take Manning, the key behind 71% of Denver’s offensive output off the Broncos and its a guarantee Denver isn’t 13-3, and probably isn’t in the playoffs either.

Both are incredibly deserving, and both would probably love a Lombardi trophy much more than an MVP. At least for Peyton, let’s hope he gets the former.

Follow Denver Horse Force on Twitter at @DENHorseForce and Facebook at www.facebook.com/denverhorseforce.

Peyton Manning: Awards Man (personal photo)

He didn’t even play an entire game, yet Peyton Manning’s Week 17 numbers were impressive enough to be named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week.

It’s the Denver Broncos quarterback 23rd such honor in his career – his second with the team.  This is the first season since 2008 where Manning was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week multiple times in the season.

Manning was 23-of-29 for 304 yards and three touchdowns in the Broncos’ 38-3 blowout win against the Kansas City Chiefs.  His 144.8 passer rating was the highest of any AFC quarterback this season.

The Broncos lead all AFC teams with eight AFC Players of the Week, with Manning being the team’s only two-time honoree this season.

Coming up later today on DHF, we’re revisiting the battle for league MVP, and once again making the case for Manning over Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.

Follow Denver Horse Force on Twitter at @DENHorseForce and Facebook at www.facebook.com/denverhorseforce.

There are two things that made Sunday especially sweet in Denver: 1) Turning our clocks back, and 2) another Denver Broncos victory – their third straight.

Let’s focus on the latter.

Courtesy yet another strong fourth quarter, the Broncos pulled out a 31-23 victory against the Cincinnati Bengals, but it’s difficult to exactly pinpoint the game’s MVP.  Von Miller had three sacks, Eric Decker had two receiving touchdowns, including the late-game score that made it a two-possession game, and Trindon Holliday’s franchise record-setting 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown made us all forget this dismal debut a few weeks back.

And, oh yeah, there’s Peyton Manning, who had two interceptions, but never lost his cool.  As Mike Klis of the Denver Post put it:

But the Broncos would not have won if Manning were not a 15-year NFL veteran who has been through it all. In this game, he threw two, third quarter interceptions that turned a 17-3 lead seconds into the third quarter into a 20-17 deficit seconds into the fourth quarter.

Manning was staring at becoming the game’s goat.

Yet, after throwing those two picks, Manning calmly came back in his next two possessions to throw two, fourth-quarter touchdown passes.

That’s keeping it together.

Manning is now 8-0 all-time against the Bengals.

More postgame headlines:

• Bleacher Report: Who were the game’s winners and losers? (That is, besides the Broncos and Bengals, respectively.)
• Denver Broncos: See exclusive video of the team’s locker room celebration.
• Denver Broncos: Head coach John Fox talks about the Broncos’ performance Sunday.

Now I dislike being a Negative Nancy, but here goes: Guard Chris Kuper will miss some playing time with a sprained ankle.  The ankle isn’t broken, but the full extent of the injury won’t be known until Kuper is closer examined once back in Denver.  Guard Zane Beadles summed it up best:

“That’s the last guy we want to have this happen to, again.”

Other headlines:

• Bleacher Report: Peyton Manning continues to be an MVP candidate.
• Denver Post: Q&A with safety Jim Leonhard
• NFL.com: Are the Broncos the best team in the AFC?

Follow Denver Horse Force on Twitter at @DENHorseForce and Facebook at www.facebook.com/denverhorseforce.

Safety Steve Atwater, running back Terrell Davis and linebacker Karl Mecklenburg are still in the running for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2012.

The three – all Broncos Ring of Famers – are among the 26 modern-era semifinalists named Tuesday.  (Note: It’s usually 25 semifinalists, but there was a tie this year’s selection process.)

It’s the first time Atwater and Mecklenburg have been named semifinalists.

Atwater, who played for the Broncos from 1989-1998, was voted to eight Pro Bowls.  He’s also easily one of the hardest hitters we’ve seen in the NFL.  Need a reminder?

Davis was Super Bowl XXXII MVP, becoming the first player to rush for three touchdowns in a Super Bowl.  He’s also one of just six running backs to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, earning league MVP honors in 1998.

Mecklenburg was a 12th round selection (310th overall) in the 1983 NFL Draft.  He spent his entire career in Denver, playing in six Pro Bowls during his 12 seasons.

The list of semifinalists will be cut to 15 finalists in January.  The Class of 2012 will be revealed Feb. 4 in Indianapolis.

Wide receiver Rod Smith and former coach Dan Reeves are among the 77 nominees named in September that did not advance.

Follow Denver Horse Force on Twitter at @Aerys_Broncos and Facebook at www.facebook.com/denverhorseforce.

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In honor of Oprah’s final show on Wednesday, SportsCenter featured a segment of memorable finales.  The top ten list rightfully selected John Elway’s final game, his Super Bowl MVP performance in SB XXXIII, as the top swan song in sports history.  Meanwhile, Broncos fans overwhelmingly voted for Elway’s arrival in 1983 as the most important “franchise-turning” event in team history.

Do you think John Elway is talking about his awesomeness here?

Denver Horse Force reported on ESPN’s unscientific poll earlier this month.  At the time, Elway’s arrival was far and away the frontrunner, and the voting didn’t change much before the final results were tabulated.  Some fans even wrote in, expressing how even before Elway’s 2 world championships, he took the team to a consistently competitive level (and 3 other Super Bowls).

Denver Broncos history would likely read very differently if Elway hadn’t arrived in the early 80′s.  If you think that’s an overstatement, let us remember the first words out of owner Pat Bowlen’s mouth upon receiving the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy: “This one’s for John.”  Talk about your true franchise player.

Before Elway, the Broncos had made it to one Super Bowl.  He took them back 5 times.  Certainly it took Mike Shanahan and a running game to finally get those championships, but 3 Super Bowl appearances without a defined running game, or offensive strategy outside of “make something happen John,” is a remarkable accomplishment.

There were great quarterbacks in the NFL before John Elway, and there have been great quarterbacks since John Elway.  However – with the exception of Peyton Manning & Brett Favre – no other quarterbacks have been as firmly tied to a team’s success as Elway.  The Niners still won after Montana, the Cowboys got through the better part of a decade with more elite players than role-players, and the Patriots still went 11-5 with Matt Cassel.

Behold the famed Elway jersey, perched above my Indiana sports foam finger collection. (personal photo)

Much like Manning has done in Indianapolis, Elway gave the Broncos, and the fans, a collective belief that every game could be won.  That’s basically the driving motivation for every fan isn’t it?  We root for our teams because we believe there’s a chance they’ll win.  Elway used his illustrious 16 seasons to make the Broncos into a team where victories weren’t a matter of chance, but expectation.

Many Broncos fans probably have a portion of a bookshelf, or entertainment cabinet in their homes dedicated to a visual history of the team.  The “required viewing” section likely contains videos from both the Super Bowl championship seasons, but right next to them likely sits a VHS copy of “John Elway’s Greatest Comebacks.” The franchise and its supporters know the first two tapes likely wouldn’t exist without the last.