How They Got Here, Weeks 13-16

Cory Puffett

You may be wondering why I don’t just go right on through Week 17 here, but because each team played four games during this four weeks stretch I had to do a little separation. So instead, tomorrow I will publish weeks 17-20, week 18 being their bye week during the wild card, week 19 being the divisional round, and week 20 of course being the conference championship.

Week 13

Denver Broncos (at Kansas City)

Peyton needed a few drives to shake off the rust from a poor performance in NE the week before. But he and Eric Decker had a nice connection on this night going against a rookie cornerback for KC. Decker had four touchdown passes and Montee Ball had a nice game on the ground.

The defense was all over Alex Smith in the pocket. They underestimated his ability to run, but Smith doesn’t run that much so it didn’t kill them. It certainly helped that the Chiefs’ receivers dropped a couple passes that looked very catchable, but Denver’s secondary was playing very well and even the linebackers were doing well in coverage.

Seattle Seahawks (vs. New Orleans)

As good as Seattle’s defense has been all season, they took it up a notch in this game against the Saints’ prolific passing attack. They got great penetration up front to throw Brees off his rhythm and the secondary was all over his receivers. Even late in the game when they pulled their safeties back a bit, Seattle was quick to the point of attack and eventually forced a failed fourth down attempt.

Seattle’s offense has had better games, it seemed like the defense carried a little more weight in this game, but the Seahawks did have a couple really nice looking drives, including a great two-minute drill at the end of the first half. It started when New Orleans took a timeout following a tackle for a loss and then Seattle converted 3^rd & long and drove down the field for a touchdown.

Week 14

Denver Broncos (vs. Tennessee)

I have a few interesting notes for the offense. They had several drops in the game but still managed to run at least one play in Titans territory on every possession of the game. In addition, Peyton Manning had 4 touchdowns and no picks on 59 attempts, which was two more than his career high. That’s notable because the temperature at kickoff was 18 degrees with a wind chill of between 7 and 11 degrees.

Denver’s defense was inconsistent. They gave up negative yards on three drives but also gave up three touchdown drives of 70+ yards. Their special teams were not very good either. They gave up a big return to the DEN 3-yard line in the first half and then had a return TD of their own negated by a block in the back.

Seattle Seahawks (at San Francisco)

Seattle’s defense just looked overmatched in this one. Even though they only gave up 19 points, they came on five separate scoring drives and only one of San Francisco’s field goals was particularly long.

On offense, the Seahawks looked okay. They did a good job balancing the pass with the run in the first half and it resulted in two touchdown drives. But the offensive line collapsed in the second half and neither Wilson nor Lynch could get much going.

Week 15

Denver Broncos (vs. San Diego)

Denver’s offense didn’t play nearly as badly as it felt like they did at the time. When you only get the ball for about 19 or 20 minutes, it’s hard to expect a whole lot. It also doesn’t help when your average starting field position is inside your own 20 and your opponent only has one drive start inside theirs.

The Broncos had some issues with zone coverage on defense early in the game. Ryan Mathews had a lot of rushing yards but that was mostly because of the number of rushes. Denver’s defensive line had a hard time stopping him, but he rarely got beyond the linebackers. Giving up just 27 points on 40 minutes worth of defensive possessions isn’t something to be ashamed of.

Seattle Seahawks (at NY Giants)

When you go up against an offensive line as sorry as New York’s, it’s hard to qualify the excellent play by Seattle’s defensive line. There was no doubt on this day, though, how dominant Seattle’s secondary was. Four interceptions off Manning, several broken routes, and just all around tight coverage.

The offense left something to be desired. Marshawn Lynch wasn’t that impressive out of the backfield and Russell Wilson had a few uncharacteristically inaccurate passes.

Week 16

Denver Broncos (at Houston)

Manning and his offense were very sluggish, maybe picking up where they left of the previous week. They had one really good drive in the first quarter and a few field goal drives, but it took a takeaway by their defense to jumpstart the offense. Manning threw three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

The defense did a great job to limit the damage and keep Denver out front despite their low score through three quarters. Von Miller went out with a knee injury early in the game and Champ Bailey played limited snaps as the nickelback.

Seattle Seahawks (vs. Arizona)

Seattle’s defense played a near perfect first half. They let Arizona make a long opening drive but ended it with a pick in the end zone. Seattle had three picks in all in the first half and only gave up a field goal. And even though Arizona had a few more scoring drives in the second half, there were some lucky plays and some controversial calls and I give a lot of credit to Seattle’s defense for playing so far.

The Seahawks offense, though, is a different story. As good as Wilson and his receivers were in Arizona, at home against the Cardinals they didn’t look so good. Now, a lot of the blame falls on the offensive line, which was putrid. But Wilson was not as effective outside the pocket as usual and the receivers didn’t always run great routes.

I should be able to get through the last six games in time to publish my notes on those on Sunday before the Pro Bowl, and I’ll write something up later in the evening about the game. Maybe it’s just my unique love for the NFL, but I’m pretty excited for this matchup between Team Sanders and Team Rice.