Pre SB, Bronco fans could not get past their late season defensive surge, and the low total yards of the Seattle offense. To them, Manning wasn't leading the number one offense of 2013, he was leading the best offense of all time. Seattle's defensive ranking was a product of playing in the NFC west vs bad offenses, in their minds.
I watched a dozen Bronco games prior to the SB, and the finesse factor of their offense was plain as hell. Knowshon almost never ran vs even a 7 man front, and his 12 TDs were often a result of defenses playing nickel even on third and short vs Denver. Half of his runs came on audibles from Manning when a defense would over commit to stopping the pass. Finesse, finesse, finesse. I was stunned watching Bronco games how easy most teams made it for the Broncos by playing off cover against a team that would rather pass within 5 yards of the LOS. Against a QB who threw beyond 20 yards about 5 percent of the time. Of course, most teams hope pass rush can cover for secondary inefficiencies.
The worst part of the two week lead up was that Seattle's offense was a footnote for analysts and Bronco fans, who had to ignore that the Denver D was SLOW as hell. Somehow they turned Brady throwing to nobody into a defensive masterpiece in their minds.
To the average Denver fan, retrospect says the game ended when the snap sailed over Manning's head. I say bullshit. The game ended when Percy did an end around and the Denver D realized the simply could not hang with our speed. Watch every snap thereafter, if Percy runs through the middle of the Denver D, he get attention from two or even three. Our young team shot itselves in the foot at first, and a bad spot on Russell's scramble only got us three, but the die was cast when Percy went around the corner and was within inches of breaking a long run. They knew it, and we knew it, they were too slow.
Bronco fans and sites were also spreading a myth that the Bronco offensive line was a superior pass block unit, completely ignoring how a QB with the fastest release in the league could skew those stats. games vs San Diego and a game vs the Jags, of all teams, made it clear just how vulnerable that offense could become when teams pressed Manning's receivers and made him go to 2nd and 3rd reads, but that didn't fit the narrative most were selling. Once again, retrospect has Denver fans lamenting injuries to the O line earlier in the year, but that is not the song they were singing before the SB.
One analyst, Adam Rank, said Seattle blowout. For all the right reasons. But hard hitting and press coverage are hard to quantify with dazzling stats, so most pundits rode the Denver dazzle straight to looking like idiots
) It's the offseason and something interesting to talk about and something we are all encountering at least to some degree.
