Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Super Bowl XLVIII Afterword: Broncos vs Seahawks

Jermaine Kearse spun out of four tackles on his way to a touchdown
in the third quarter of Seattle's dominating Super Bowl XLVIII victory.

Cory Puffett

We are two days removed from Super Bowl Sunday and I am still struggling to understand how Seattle dominated this game so thoroughly. The Broncos took away the Beast, Marshawn Lynch. Denver was penalized five fewer times for 60 fewer yards.

The Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl championships, though. They dominated in all facets of the game.

Marshawn Lynch and Robert Turbin combined for just 64 yards on 24 carries. But Seattle still outgained Denver by more than 100 yards on the ground because Russell Wilson and Percy Harvin combined for 71 yards on just five carries.

Russell Wilson only attempted 25 passes. Peyton Manning completed 34. But Wilson connected on 72-percent of his attempts for 206 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Percy Harvin was electric on special teams, but Seattle stuck with what got them here in the passing game. Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse combined for 131 yards and two touchdowns on nine receptions. Almost as impressive, those nine catches came on just ten targets.

The Seahawks’ defense only sacked Peyton Manning once, and it only went for a one-yard loss. But the veteran quarterback was hurried often and even scrambled from the pocket at times, which is very atypical.

That pressure from Seattle’s defensive line forced two interceptions. One was returned for a touchdown by Malcolm Smith, who won Super Bowl MVP honors for that, his fumble recovery, a pass deflection and 10 tackles.

Demaryius Thomas had 13 grabs on 18 targets for 118 yards and a touchdown. But most of his yards were after the catch because Seattle gave no room for Denver’s receivers to run downfield. Quite a few of those yards also came on a catch and run that ended in a fumble forced by Byron Maxwell.

Percy Harvin had just one kick return for 52 yards all season entering Sunday. He took his only kick return of Super Bowl XLVIII 87 yards to the house. Jon Ryan punted only once, and it was a booming 45-yarder. Britton Colquitt punted twice for Denver and his longest was just 31 yards.

We can talk about whether or not this loss affects Peyton Manning’s legacy. We can talk about what this loss means for Denver, who may lose key offensive pieces like Knowshon Moreno and Eric Decker to free agency this offseason.

But this is the Super Bowl, and when a team wins this game they deserve to have the focus placed on them. The Seattle Seahawks are world champions for the first time in franchise history and they beat a former AFC West rival to capture it. This is the city’s first championship since the SuperSonics beat the Washington Bullets in the 1979 NBA Finals.

Let’s talk about how, for the fourth time in five tries, the league’s leading offense failed to beat the league’s leading defense when the two teams met on this stage. This was the first time such a matchup occurred since 1991. NFL rules were supposed to favor offense much more than it did then. But Seattle’s defense still dominated Denver’s record-setting offense.

And how about Seattle’s own offense? They did pretty damn well for themselves. How does 6.2 yards per play sound? They picked up 2.2 more yards per pass attempt than Denver and 2.8 more yards per rush. They ran nine fewer plays than Denver but still outgained them by 35 total yards on offense.

Don’t forget the new storyline that most analysts didn’t even think about before the game. Is this a Dynasty? Will the Seahawks be to the 2010s what the New England Patriots were to the 2000s? They certainly could be in the short term, though it will be difficult to keep a lot of their pieces once their rookie contracts are up.

Remember that this was the youngest team in the NFL this season at 26 years and some change on average. Seattle is the fourth youngest victor in Super Bowl history.

This was one of the most dominating performances in Super Bowl history and the first true blowout since Jon Gruden’s Buccaneers dismantled the Oakland Raiders more than ten years ago. The fan in me aches for Peyton Manning. I know he wanted this championship and I wanted it for him.

But I pride myself on being able to set aside my fanaticism about Peyton Manning and the Washington Redskins when the time is right. And right now I am just glad I got to witness such a great moment in NFL history.

In 1987, the Washington Redskins crushed the Denver Broncos. It was the biggest blowout in Super Bowl history until two years later when the San Francisco 49ers obliterated almost the same Broncos team. 26 years removed, nobody remembers that the Redskins and Broncos offenses were almost identical in every way. They don’t remember that Denver’s defense was supposed to be vastly superior to Washington’s. We just remember that Denver blew a 10-point lead and lost 42-10.

We may not think so now, but by the time Super Bowl LX (60) rolls around many of us will have forgotten that Denver’s offense wasn’t just great, it was historically great. We won’t even remember how the NFL dodged a bullet with the weather. But we will always remember the way Seattle dominated every aspect of the game and walked away with the city’s first championship.

Final Score:
Seattle Seahawks – 43
Denver Broncos – 8

MVP: LB Malcolm Smith (10 Tack, FR, INT, TD)

Monday, February 3, 2014

Meyer’s Super Bowl Assessment

The Broncos got off to a rough start in Super Bowl XLVIII with
some miscommunication between Peyton Manning and his center.

Eric Meyer

Peyton Manning completed 34 of 49 passes for 280 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. His passer rating was a meager 73.5. Manning also had a fumble and missed twice on fourth down opportunities. The supposed greatest offense in NFL history scored a measly 8 points to Seattle’s 43 in Super Bowl XLVIII. Talk about a choke job, right?

Wrong.

The narrative of Peyton Manning being a lackluster postseason performer has some merit. An 11-12 postseason record (1-2 in Super Bowls) along with some less-than-stellar statistics give that argument some life. Manning hasn’t always had his best showings in January and has lost in pretty shocking and ignominious fashion in the past. But that narrative is inappropriate right now.

The reality is that Manning and the Denver Broncos lost on Sunday because they played a team that was so much better than them that they couldn’t even put up a fight. The narrative for this game ought to be that Seattle’s historically good defense went out and destroyed the league’s top offense.

Any talk of the Broncos squandering an opportunity or “choking” or not showing up is an insult to Seattle’s dominance. The fact is that the Broncos didn’t have a chance to choke. They didn’t have an opportunity to squander. They simply could not compete.

NFL fans, and even experts, do a funny thing when it comes to discussing quarterbacks and their legacies. Countless pundits and analysts will say that Sunday’s loss will stain Manning’s legacy, that he can’t be the greatest ever with a losing record in the Super Bowl.

What these pundits don’t realize is that by slamming Peyton Manning for not performing, they are implying that Seattle was a defense that Manning should have been able to beat. That couldn’t be further from the truth. You can say that Manning played poorly, and you’d be absolutely right. But he played poorly because Seattle forced him to hurry, to force it, and to throw underneath for minimal yardage.

The only conclusion that I draw about Denver from Sunday’s game is that their offense, and by extension Manning, was slightly overrated this year. Manning was the no-brainer MVP and his record-setting season deserves praise. However, the “greatest offense in NFL history” should score more than 8 points, regardless of whom they’re playing.

Denver had the luxury of playing a weak schedule almost all season, which undoubtedly inflated their scoring statistics. They had a perfect storm of sublime quarterbacking, a phenomenal supporting cast and a full helping of weak defenses to abuse. They shattered records as a result.

Because of their prowess, we put Denver on a pedestal. We concluded that they were an unstoppable unit and assumed Seattle would simply have to contain Manning, not dominate him. As a result, we act shocked. But we shouldn’t be.

Seattle’s defense was vastly superior to Denver’s offense, and it showed. Some would say that this was an embarrassing loss for Denver, but as Manning said, “The word ‘embarrassing’ is an insulting word, to tell you the truth.” I couldn’t agree more with that assessment.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

2013 NFL Predictions, Super Bowl XLVIII



Every week, the Football Freaks make predictions for every NFL game. Bonus games, in bold, are worth two points while all others are worth one point.

Bonus game (i.e. BOLD game) is the one that receives the most votes from the Football Freaks during each playoff round.


Day/Time
Game
CORY
P.
ERIC
M.
SEAN
K.
SASWAT
M.
Feb. 2 –6:30p
DEN vs SEA (FOX)
SEA
SEA
DEN
SEA


CORY
ERIC
SEAN
SASWAT
SB Record
1-0
1-0
0-1
1-0
Total Record
157-109-1
170-96-1
163-103-1
176-90-1
SB Points
2
2
0
2
Current Totals
204
226
215
234

Some of our listeners are competing with us to score the most points on game predictions this season. Below are their Super Bowl and season totals:


JAKE D.
EVAN A.
DANNY H.
SB Record
1-0
0-1
1-0
Total Record
162-104-1
161-105-1
163-103-1
SB Points
2
0
2
Current Totals
213
214
217


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