Bronco Meltdown Post Mortem

[Mizzougrad96]

I think it taints his legacy. Is that fair? I don't know...

It's not like it's going to cost him the HOF, but you're not going to be hearing Manning GOAT references again anytime soon.

 

[Batman]

I don't see where this game taints Manning's legacy, in that the breakdown by every Bronco was so complete, I'm not sure Manning at his best could make much of a difference. Of course, he wasn't at his best. With his receivers not able to get separation, it became that much more apparent that his arm doesn't have the zip it used to. Being 37 and coming off of neck surgery (when he couldn't throw a ball 10 yards at any speed) will do that to you.

Agree completely with this. I posted something to that effect while the game was going on, that while Manning wasn't very good, this wasn't entirely his fault. As you said, all of the Broncos played like crap.

More than that, the Seahawks played the game of their lives. That defensive effort -- hell, the total effort -- was on the same level as Villanova shooting 78 percent against Georgetown in 1985. It was a very good, championship-caliber team playing at its absolute peak when it mattered most. I'm not sure this year's Seahawks are among the greatest teams of all time, but for four hours on Sunday they certainly were. The way they played in that game, they could probably beat most of them. Denver would've had to play an equally perfect game to have any chance, and obviously they did not.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Batman-
Seattle also played San Francisco three times, a very good Arizona team twice and Rams squad better than people think.
At the end of the day, Brady's teams never crapped their pants like this, in the biggest game of the year.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I think it was the most embarrassing loss in Super Bowl history.

There have been worse beat downs, but not by favored teams with the league MVP at QB.

Buccaneers over Raiders, 2003. Gannon didn't have Star Wars numbers, but he was MVP, and Raiders were - inexplicably - favored by the likes of SI and ESPN.com.

But that beatdown wasn't worse. Halftime score, third-quarter score, final score were all substantially closer, as was the entire tenor of the game. (The Raiders actually led briefly, and it was tied after the first quarter.)

 

[FileNotFound]

I think it taints his legacy. Is that fair? I don't know...

It's not like it's going to cost him the HOF, but you're not going to be hearing Manning GOAT references again anytime soon.

I don't know. I don't think Montana's 49ers could've beaten the Feb. 2, 2014, Seattle Seahawks. They played probably the best 60 minutes of football that I've ever seen an NFL team play. Manning was by no means good, but the Seahawks made it clear on both sides of the ball that every Denver action was going to be met by an equal and devastating reaction. There wasn't much Peyton Manning was going to be able to do about that.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I agree with Batman. I have never seen a rout in football that wasn't a murder-suicide pact. But even if the Broncos had avoided almost all of their many self-inflicted wounds, they still would've lost by 10 or more. Seattle just wasn't going to be beaten by anyone Sunday night.
3 Octave: It is my contention that the diet of mush that is the AFC East has had a real negative influence on the Patriots. They didn't play as wretchedly in the AFC title game as Denver did Sunday night, but they were never really in the game at all.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

New England was lucky to catch the other teams at the ebb of their franchise lives (although the Jets have usually been more competitive in the Brady-Belichick era than they were in Fart's boyhood).
But sending those teams into their spirals is also some function of being good.
Also fortunate Indianapolis was moved into its own soft-serve ice cream of a division, what with an expansion team and the seven-year-old Jaguars.

 

[Batman]

Batman-
Seattle also played San Francisco three times, a very good Arizona team twice and Rams squad better than people think.
At the end of the day, Brady's teams never crapped their pants like this, in the biggest game of the year.

Agree the Seahawks played a tougher schedule overall. Was just saying that pointing out that the Broncos were overrated because they beat up on Jacksonville and Tennessee wasn't the way to go about it in this particular season since both Seattle and Denver played the AFC South.

I'm not looking to reignite the Manning-Brady debate here. I won't argue Manning left stains on the bed that will might never come out even if he wins the next two Super Bowls.
I will suggest, though, that Super Bowl XLII is in the same ballpark as this one. Or should be. The Pats were 18-0, a double-digit favorite against a mediocre Giants team, and had a chance to cement their status as the greatest team of all time, hands down. And they scored 14 points and lost. Even though it wasn't a blowout, it was certainly an appalling failure on the level of this year's Broncos team, given the stakes.

 

[Batman]

I think it was the most embarrassing loss in Super Bowl history.

There have been worse beat downs, but not by favored teams with the league MVP at QB.

Buccaneers over Raiders, 2003. Gannon didn't have Star Wars numbers, but he was MVP, and Raiders were - inexplicably - favored by the likes of SI and ESPN.com.

But that beatdown wasn't worse. Halftime score, third-quarter score, final score were all substantially closer, as was the entire tenor of the game. (The Raiders actually led briefly, and it was tied after the first quarter.)

That Raiders loss was made more humiliating after the fact, when NFL Films showed John Lynch calling out the Raiders' plays. It was their worst possible match up (they might have beaten the Eagles) made worse by poor preparation. The ensuing decade of futility for the Raiders has only made it worse.

 

[Boom_70]

I think it was the most embarrassing loss in Super Bowl history.

There have been worse beat downs, but not by favored teams with the league MVP at QB.

Buccaneers over Raiders, 2003. Gannon didn't have Star Wars numbers, but he was MVP, and Raiders were - inexplicably - favored by the likes of SI and ESPN.com.

But that beatdown wasn't worse. Halftime score, third-quarter score, final score were all substantially closer, as was the entire tenor of the game. (The Raiders actually led briefly, and it was tied after the first quarter.)

That Raiders loss was made more humiliating after the fact, when NFL Films showed John Lynch calling out the Raiders' plays. It was their worst possible match up (they might have beaten the Eagles) made worse by poor preparation. The ensuing decade of futility for the Raiders has only made it worse.

NFL Film of this one should be interesting. There is a story that Sherman and
crew cracked Manning code for tagging his receivers and what routes they
would run.

 

[poindexter]

There is a story that Sherman and
crew cracked Manning code for tagging his receivers and what routes they
would run.

I hear Sherman went to some fancy college for smart people.

 

[Mark2010]

Maybe the media will learn not to tongue a player's rectum for destroying Oakland, Jacksonville, Tennessee and a host of other bad teams during the course of a season.

Um, what would you prefer? Losing? Winning on a last-second field goal that bounces off the upright? You play whomever is on the schedule and play as well as you can. And, unlike college, you don't even get a say in that schedule. You just go play the freakin' games as they appear on the schedule, with whatever players are healthy that week.

 

[Mark2010]

The Broncos didn't get a first down or cross midfield until it was 15-0, and as soon as they did, the pick-six made it 22-0.

That was their third possession of the game. Seattle did a good job of keeping the Denver offense on the sideline early. But Denver had the ball for most of the second quarter.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Fourth possession, dumb****.

 

[RickStain]

There is a story that Sherman and
crew cracked Manning code for tagging his receivers and what routes they
would run.

I hear Sherman went to some fancy college for smart people.

Thugs be stealin'

 

[Mark2010]

I actually felt sorry for the Broncos and that's pretty rare for me to feel that way about a pro sports team or athlete. But the way everything that possibly could go wrong went wrong at the worst possible time, it reminded me of a few too many moments in my own life.

But, at the end of the day, it was still just one game. You pick up the pieces, try to feel good about your many other accomplishments, remember that 30 other teams didn't get as far and look to the future and move ahead.

So what should Denver do in the offseason? It's clear they're not going to cut Manning and start over --- nor should they. And Vonn Miller is expected to be back from injury next season. So what areas of the team would you address first if you were GM?

 

[amraeder]

I actually felt sorry for the Broncos and that's pretty rare for me to feel that way about a pro sports team or athlete. But the way everything that possibly could
go wrong went wrong at the worst possible time, it reminded me of a few too many moments in my own life.

But, at the end of the day, it was still just one game. You pick up the pieces, try to feel good about your many other accomplishments, remember that 30 other teams didn't get as far and look to the future and move ahead.

So what should Denver do in the offseason? It's clear they're not going to cut Manning and start over --- nor should they. And Vonn Miller is expected to be back from injury next season. So what areas of the team would you address first if you were GM?

Secondary

(The Miller injury hurt. The Clady injury probably hurt even more)

 

[Mark2010]

Yeah, agree with that. Nice to see Champ Bailey get to a Super Bowl, but it's time to go.

 

[MileHigh]

Champ might be back, but he's not coming back for $10 million. After getting beat like a rented mule Sunday night and last year in the Baltimore playoff game, yeah, the end has come.

 

[MileHigh]

Elway/Fox presser right now. Elway was asked how long it took him to get over his Super Bowl losses.

"I'm still not over them. This one just got added to the list."