So why did Denver get thumped so bad in 2013?

Let's not undersell the injuries to their secondary.

I have no sympathy as we've played in plenty of postseasons missing key players or not having them 100%.

But I'm sure that played a role

Everyone here is so damn touchy.
Its like nobody should be critized and everything is perfect. I am not much a kool aid drinker or homer like most but it was a magical season and i will take another one next season.

I think Smith's pick six towards the end of the first half took the life out of Denver.

Up until then, it was still a two score game and the Broncos D had only given up one TD. If the Broncos had gone on to score on that drive and went into halftime trailing 15--7, after a lousy start of epic proportions, who knows how it would have turned out? But, with that play the game was over and, in the end, not as "close" as the final score indicated.

In recent years, no one has accused Peyton of being a "comeback kid." And, no one has ever accused Fox of that either. They packed it in.

The donkeys offensive line is the most overrated aspect of their team although they do a good job protecting somewhat.

Patriots1364life said:

The donkeys offensive line is the most overrated aspect of their team although they do a good job protecting somewhat.

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Peyton doesn't do it any favors when he holds on to the ball. It's not like every play there's pressure in his face from straight up the middle. I don't see him step up and fire much when the edge rushers are coming for him. He kind of just lingers and eats a strip sack or gets hit.

He also gets hung up on what he wants to do pre-snap and his post-snap reads have been awful, this year especially. The film showed wide open receivers all over the place on plays he was either getting sacked on from holding on to the ball too long, throwing into double and triple coverage on, etc. Against Indy he had wide open receivers everywhere and wasn't even looking at them.

Post season Peyton.

I definitely don't think this SEA team was as good as last year's, even with the stats. Honestly, they only 'came into their own' down the stretch when they played a slate of really weak QBs. The Packers were a few competent coaching decisions away from beating them. The Carolina game was a lot closer than the final score indicated, etc.

However, I don't think there's any doubt that if you took the 2014 Patriots and had them play SEA in last year's SB, they play a much more closely contested game than whatever the hell the 2013 Broncos did. Just a smarter, tougher team, with a quarterback who had a much better shot of taking down such a tough defense. Incidentally, Football Outsiders controlled for the difference between this year's SEA team and the one that defeated the Broncos (including a lower DVOA than 2013 and the injuries), and it in that context Brady still played way better than Peyton.

FWIW, if it weren't for a few big plays, I honestly think the Patriots would have blown them out. Outside of the third quarter they moved the ball on SEA the entire game. Outside of the size mismatch on Chris Hardball Matthews, they had done a good job of shutting the SEA offense down. But ultimately, even with injuries, even if they aren't as good as last year, that defense is still the best of the league, and 14 points in the fourth quarter is huge. Bottomline, the better team won.

Better Coaches..
Better Coaching...
Better Situational Coaching..

DarrylS said:

Better Coaches..
Better Coaching...
Better Situational Coaching..

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Better Ingredients...
Better Pizza...

I actually watched last years super-bowl 5-6 times and the 2012 Pats at Seattle game 4-5 times. What was obvious is that Seattle was going to force Manning to throw out routes the entire game. Manning does not have the arm strength to do that and it was obvious they were going to be in trouble.

In the 2012 game, the Pats attacked the Seattle D by throwing short out routes the entire game - and they were successful doing it.

Honestly, I think the Pats (2014) would have done well against Seattle last year as well. They match up well against that team.

Patriots1364life said:

Dude i am not trolling. That first pick was just a terrible throw. Anyway i am just happy he was able to redeem himself.

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I am happy you are happy, but if you have watched any of the miked up programs at all this last week, you would see he remained positive. Just please enough with the body language B.S. You want bad body language? Check out Manning.

Sandwiched between Denver's blowout Super Bowl loss to Seattle and New England's slim Super Bowl victory over Seattle were (2) other "head to head" games between common opponents. Early in 2014 Peyton and his Broncos lost to Seattle again (@ Seattle) however the game was competitive and required overtime. A few weeks later, the Broncos came to Foxborough and were NOT competitive. Seattle had a mild losing streak early this year because their linebacker was hurt and sat out a few weeks. On the other hand our Patriots had struggled early (KC & Miami) simply because they were not ready yet.

Jangles said:

Let's not undersell the injuries to their secondary.

I have no sympathy as we've played in plenty of postseasons missing key players or not having them 100%.

But I'm sure that played a role

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What role did it play? Thomas, Sherman, and Chancellor played the entire game.

PATS16N0 said:

I thought Denver was an `all time great offense`? Guess that was a bunch of media created nonsense.

Seattle didn't look like an "all time great team" last year until they beat the snot out of the favored Denver Broncos. After that, and not before, is when they became the 85' Bears.

Seattle was the #1 defense in the league this year. It was on a comparable level.

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The 2013 Seahawks were not particularly dominant in the first half of the season, so while Denver was getting all the accolades, Seattle was barely squeaking by. But after their 9th game (an OT escape of lowly Tampa Bay), something clicked. They blew out Atlanta, Minnesota, New Orleans, the Giants, and the Rams. Their two losses in the second half of the season were tight one-score losses within their division desperate to make the play-offs.

They ended the season as the #1 seed in the NFC, a top 10 offense (8th) and 1st in defense in the league. They were more balanced than the historic Broncos offense (1st) and defense (22nd).

The Broncos led the league in point differential (207). Second on the list? Seattle (186). The next closest team was San Francisco (134).

The Broncos played in a tough division that sent 3 teams to the playoffs while Seattle's division only had 2 play-off teams, but take a look at the records.

AFC West:
* Denver (13-3)
* KC (11-5)
* San Diego (9-7)
Oakland (4-12)

NFC West:
* Seattle (13-3)
* San Francisco (12-4)
Arizona (10-6)
St. Louis (7-9)

You could easily argue Seattle had a tougher division, especially considering the 49ers went to the Super Bowl the year before and would end up facing Seattle again in the Conference Finals, while San Diego won one game before losing to the Broncos and the Chiefs lost by 1 point in the divisional round.

And I think we're overlooking just how dominant the Seahawks defense was in 2013. The Bucs had the worst passing offense in the league, averaging 6.19 yards per pass attempt. The Seahawks defense allowed an average of 5.82 yards per pass attempt. The Panthers defense was fairly close in terms of yards and points, but the Seahawks forced 9 more turnovers, and third place 49ers were quite a ways back.

Simply put, the 2013 Seahawks were a much more balanced team than the 2013 Broncos. The Broncos set all sorts of offensive records and got all the press. But looking back, it really doesn't seem that surprising that a well-balanced team with both sides of the ball in the top 10 in the league would beat an unbalanced group.

There is a lot to be said about the dink and dunk strategy. It puts the ball out of the hands of Tom quicker and into the pass catchers that much faster. This means that the Pats get to exploit the weakness of a tough Sea defense which is having their LB''s have to make plays on smaller and quicker guys.

Also, when you get them the ball within 6 yards of the LOS, there's less of a chance to get crunched by a big hit. 2 yards further and Edelman, Vereen, and Amendola might get nailed by Sea. Den's pass catchers had to deal with that and that's probably why they seemed less inclined to "win" one for Peyton.

Wrath Mania said:

I definitely don't think this SEA team was as good as last year's, even with the stats. Honestly, they only 'came into their own' down the stretch when they played a slate of really weak QBs. The Packers were a few competent coaching decisions away from beating them. The Carolina game was a lot closer than the final score indicated, etc.

However, I don't think there's any doubt that if you took the 2014 Patriots and had them play SEA in last year's SB, they play a much more closely contested game than whatever the hell the 2013 Broncos did. Just a smarter, tougher team, with a quarterback who had a much better shot of taking down such a tough defense. Incidentally, Football Outsiders controlled for the difference between this year's SEA team and the one that defeated the Broncos (including a lower DVOA than 2013 and the injuries), and it in that context Brady still played way better than Peyton.

FWIW, if it weren't for a few big plays, I honestly think the Patriots would have blown them out. Outside of the third quarter they moved the ball on SEA the entire game. Outside of the size mismatch on Chris Hardball Matthews, they had done a good job of shutting the SEA offense down. But ultimately, even with injuries, even if they aren't as good as last year, that defense is still the best of the league, and 14 points in the fourth quarter is huge. Bottomline, the better team won.

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^ This post is the truth right here.

I agree, Seattle had a below average offense all year, the defense was average at best and they ran into all those scrubs at the end of year and was able to get home-field advantage and a suddenly revamped defense, according to the media. I was more worried about NE getting beat by the Ravens, and their suspect secondary, than SEA. Newton beat Carolina in the end, as he always does and Rodgers played on one leg and still pulled it off, before his team got complacent. I'm sorry but I just wasn't too impressed with Seattle this season. The only way the were gonna beat NE in that SB as far as I was concerned is if Brady pulled a Manning and choked the game away. If it weren't for the same scrubs in this secondary (Arrington and Ryan), year in and year out, making lame QBs look like Dan Marino, the score wouldn't have been as close. Twice on 3rd and 1, Beast Mode got stuffed, so I'm not sure why everyone is so confident that he would've scored on the final play. Brady carved SEA secondary up, he did it so fast that he deserves credit for their injuries. He wore them out and by the 4th quarter, he was able to do whatever he wanted to do to them. That's championship play by a seasoned champ.

I know statistically Seattle had the best D last year, but that's rubbish. Sad to say it, but Buffalo's D was better, I also thought the Rams had a better D. At least from where I sat.

SammyBlueCat said:

What role did it play? Thomas, Sherman, and Chancellor played the entire game.

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You're right. Being on the field = 100% ability all the time no exceptions.

Gronk's ankle in 2012 clearly didn't slow him down at all because he played and that's all that matters.

Jangles said:

You're right. Being on the field = 100% ability all the time no exceptions.

Gronk's ankle in 2012 clearly didn't slow him down at all because he played and that's all that matters.

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Care to show a single play where Kam looked debilitated by his injury?

One thing that gets overlooked is how good Denver d did keeping the Broncos in that game. The fact they were down just 2 scores late in the 2q after all mannings miscues and inability to maintain any drives is incredible. After manning pick 6 and har in kr td it didn't matter anymore. Shows how much manning sucked in that game and deserves a huge chunk of blame.

I think its pretty obvious. Peyton tends to freeze up in big moments(9 one and dones) brady doesn't (6 superbowls, 9 AFCCG.

the Broncos are a soft team much like most of Peytons teams. You hit them and they dont want to hit back. they wilt. The patriots did the same thing to them this year. and the COLTS the same soft colts who we blew uout by 38 points out physicaled the broncos.