The Peyton Manning era officially begins Sunday as the Denver Broncos open at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers. For the most part, experts are mostly split on who they're picking to win a rematch game from the Wild Card round of last year's playoffs. Denver won that matchup, 29-23, in overtime.
For that reason — the two teams seemed so evenly matched last season, and that appears to be the case again on paper in 2012 — experts are split with a slight edge to the Broncos.
From SB Nation's Joel Thorman:
Not a bad test for Peyton Manning, who returns to real NFL action. The Broncos were good enough to beat the Steelers in last year's Divisional round of the playoffs and they've seemingly gotten better with the addition of Manning. Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, the Steelers are installing a new offense, Mike Wallace is rusty and there's the usual question of whether the defense is too old.
I'm picking the Broncos, but I can't say I'm all that confident about it.
ESPN's band of 12 NFL experts weighed in, and eight picked the Broncos. Of CBSsports.com's eight experts, five went with the Steelers. Two of three experts at Yahoo! Sports picked Pittsburgh, and four of six at USA Today went with Denver.
The math: Of the 30 experts above described, 17 chose the Broncos.
To find out who was right, watch the Broncos kick off Sunday against Pittsburgh at 6:20 p.m. MT on NBC.
For more news and notes on the Broncos, visit Mile High Report. For more on the Steelers, check out Behind The Steel Curtain. Head over to SB Nation's dedicated NFL hub for more happening around the league. Also be sure to check us out on YouTube.
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