Now Marshall and the defense must work toward again being the league's best without perhaps the most cerebral quarterback ever to play the game exposing every mistake they make.

"Just being on the sideline looking, I'm like, 'Man, it's different,'" Marshall said. "We've got [Mark] Sanchez, Paxton [Lynch} and Trevor [Siemian], but it's just different without 18.

"I'm not going to lie, it was a sense of comfort when you had 18 under center. Everybody was at ease. Last year, he didn't have his best year, but regardless, you still went into the game each and every snap comfortable because we had Peyton Manning under center.

"Yeah, he threw all of those interceptions, but regardless, I think everybody still believed in him. We all did. He came out and played lights out against New England. It was just a sense of comfort that, 'OK, we've got Peyton; we're good.' Not to be relaxed, but, 'We've got 18 under center.'"