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Thursday Night Observations

I feel like we've seen a lot of bizarre games the last couple seasons, and this one was among the most. The first 20 minutes there was no scoring, both offenses were terrible and under 42 looked like a lock. Somehow the total finished at 55 (the two defensive TDs helped), and Peyton Manning engineered an 80-yard drive in the final two minutes against a good defense in a hostile environment. Of course, the ending was the strangest of all - the Chiefs had 35 seconds left in a tie game, played it safe by handing it off and lost on a fumble return for a TD. I bet Andy Reid kneels on it next time.

Manning can't move at all, is playing behind a shaky offensive line and probably can't absorb too many more hits before he's through. But while he's upright, he still has excellent accuracy, timing and touch, and he was willing to throw down the field too.

Emmanuel Sanders will be a PPR monster again, but Manning's looking for him in the red zone too. There is no real third receiver yet, and Owen Daniels has a bit role in this offense. Both Sanders and Thomas, who was bodying-up smaller DBs on the final drive, are going to see a ton of targets again, perhaps more even than last year.

C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman couldn't get going. If the Denver line can't block, it's a problem because Manning can't drop back 650 times and take all those hits. Anderson was hampered by a toe injury, but it's unclear what his share of the workload would be when healthy. It might be only 60/40 or even 55/45.

Alex Smith simply does not throw down the field. That means Jeremy Maclin could catch 85 passes and still score only five or six touchdowns.

The beauty of drafting Jamaal Charles in the first round instead of say, C.J. Anderson, is you know Charles won't lose his job after two fumbles, one of which cost his team the game.

It's one thing for Brandon McManus to be booming these field goals in Denver's thin air, but he kicked a 54-yarder tonight in Kansas City.