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Denver • That's the Peyton Manning the Denver Broncos and their fans have been waiting all summer to see. Magnificent. A machine. On the money. And no longer just a memory.

Manning was close to perfect in his final regular-season tuneup Sunday, throwing his first two touchdown passes for the Denver Broncos in a 29-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

In less than a quarter of work, Manning completed 10 of 12 passes for 122 yards, including TD tosses of 10 and 5 yards to Eric Decker, and the only two misses were a dropped pass by Joel Dreessen and an errant throw to Brandon Stokley, who was held on the play but didn't draw the flag.

"I thought we did some good things today," Manning said. "We moved the ball pretty well and we got two touchdowns. It would have been nice to get three, had to settle to for a field goal. I thought the running game was good. Willis [McGahee] made some nice runs, had some nice holes by the offensive line, the receivers made some nice plays, as well."

Alex Smith threw a 49-yard TD pass and David Akers kicked five field goals for the Niners, who outscored the Broncos' backups 19-0 in the second half but lost wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. to an ankle injury early in the second half.

Panthers 17, Jets 12 • Tim Tebow got the fans fired up with a dazzling 20-yard run in the fourth quarter, but threw an interception three plays later as Carolina held on for the road victory. The Jets still haven't scored a TD through three preseason games. —

NFL preseason schedule

Wednesday's games

• Tampa Bay atWashington, 5 p.m.

• New England atN.Y. Giants, 5 p.m.

• Miami at Dallas, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday's games

• Atlanta at Jacksonville, 4:30 p.m.

• N.Y. Jets at Philadelphia, 4:35 p.m.

• Minnesota at Houston,5 p.m.

• Baltimore at St. Louis,5 p.m.

• Kansas City at Green Bay, 5 p.m.

• New Orleans atTennessee, 5 p.m.

• Cincinnati atIndianapolis, 5 p.m.

• Buffalo at Detroit, 5 p.m.

• Chicago at Cleveland,5:30 p.m.

• Carolina at Pittsburgh, 5:30 p.m.

• Oakland at Seattle, 8 p.m.

• San Diego at San Francisco, 8:05 p.m.

• Denver at Arizona, 9 p.m.