Denver's o-line made three critical mistakes early, hurting Denver's momentum throughout.

[ReMeDy]

Center:

This is the obvious one. Manny Ramirez's bad snap to Manning resulting in the early safety. It placed an ominous cloud over the entire Bronco's offense.

 

"The Broncos were supposed to snap on Manning's shouted cadence but no one upfront heard him. As Manning stepped up, center Manny Ramirez heaved the snap past Manning. 'I thought I heard him,' Ramirez said."

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_25048459/broncos-peyton-manning-super-bowl-blowout-seahawks

 

I hate to say, but I believe Ramirez will get some death threats over this. That's the nature of this league on the world's biggest stage when tons of money is on the line.

 

Left Guard:

Horrible and obvious tripping penalty. Zane Beadle sticks his leg out so far, it looks like he's doing splits. It's as if he didn't trust Manning to elude the pressure, so Beadle played his trump card. On the following 3rd & 13, Seattle DE, Cliff Avril, blows past Right Tackle Orlando Franklin and hits Manning in the arm as he attempted to throw. The batted ball hung in the air. Seahawks linebacker Malcom Smith — the game's MVP — made a break on the ball, snagged it, and scored a 69yd INT touchdown.

Right Guard:

Horrible false start penalty on 3rd & 4, resulting in a 3rd & 9. Manning made a 5yd'ish completion that would have been a first down without the penalty. Denver then goes for it on 4th down and fails. That 4th down decision wouldn't have happened without the penalty. Huge momentum shift. You can't have false starts on 3rd & short.

 

This was the trifecta of mistakes early compounding the Bronco's chemistry issues: The bad snap from the Center, the tripping by the LG, and the false start by the RG. You can place a bit of blame on several issues, but it was these three stooges on the o-line who ultimately blew it.

[New Zealands #1 Colts Fan]

And we thought we had O Line problems at the Colts..........................

[Synthetic]

Defense wins championships, and that defense destroyed Denver's offense.

[chad72]

Defense wins championships, and that defense destroyed Denver's offense.

 

100% the truth.

 

Here is the cold hard fact - the Denver D had not generated a SINGLE turnover vs Rivers or Brady. Nada. Zilch.

 

So, their plan is to hope Peyton will dominate time of possession vs Seahawks like he did vs the Chargers and Patriots and THERE WAS NO PLAN B. That D was not going to blitz, be aggressive and have playmakers to generate field position with turnovers to generate scoring.

 

It was all in with Peyton. Peyton and the offense struggles, the deck of cards comes tumbling down. No plan B.

[21isSuperman]

Peyton's OL played horribly.  I wasn't convinced they would do that well when they lost Clady.  Their OL stats may be good, but I think that's due to a variety of factors including Peyton getting the ball out quickly.

[Moose Of Woe]

It was all in with Peyton. Peyton and the offense struggles, the deck of cards comes tumbling down. No plan B.

Gee, why does that sound so familiar?

 

*Sees 1999-2011 Colts*

 

Defense? Special Teams? Coaching/discipline? Nah...who needs 'em?

[Synthetic]

100% the truth.

 

Here is the cold hard fact - the Denver D had not generated a SINGLE turnover vs Rivers or Brady. Nada. Zilch.

 

So, their plan is to hope Peyton will dominate time of possession vs Seahawks like he did vs the Chargers and Patriots and THERE WAS NO PLAN B. That D was not going to blitz, be aggressive and have playmakers to generate field position with turnovers to generate scoring.

 

It was all in with Peyton. Peyton and the offense struggles, the deck of cards comes tumbling down. No plan B.

 

 

Seattle's defense is one of the very best I have ever seen. I know I ragged on them all year long, but I have to give them credit. They have manhandled every great QB they've played. Only divisional opponents that know them well like St Lous, SF, and Arizona really gave them fits.

 

 

The way Denver's offense came out playing, i don't think they expected Seattle to play as aggressive. They ran those same plays all year long and it worked out very nicely against the worst defenses in the league, but up against the juggernauts they had no answer.

 

 

Reminds me of the Super Bowl though the Saints won. All we heard about was don't blitz and how the blitz was not going to work against him, and the Saints came out and were blitzing him hard and putting him on the ground and what do you know; pick 6 happens on a blitz. The Seahawks did the same thing, they applied pressure and were blitzing and it totally threw him off.

 

 

Manning is a great quarterback but he does not thrive under pressure by any means. The Saints proved it, the Seahawks totally destroyed him tonight with pressure, hell even Pittsburgh back in '05 showed that he was not invincible against a great blitz. Brett Favre had this same issue his entire career. If you go through a lot of Favre's big playoff loses, most the time he was getting banged around hard. When Favre said that Manning was closest thing to him, he wasn't lying.

 

 

Denver played one of the weakest schedules of the entire season. The toughest defenses they played were NE and KC, and neither one of them are as physical or disciplined as the Seahawks. K.C. on one hand is extremely overrated, cause the minute they started playing tougher teams, it was like they ran into a brick wall. They couldn't even hold a 28 point lead over the Colts, and that defense looked pathetic against better teams. NE was banged up all year long and we all know how bad they look in times.

The main reason Denver got all those records and stats is because their schedule was so weak. They had no idea what they were going up against tonight and they were totally dominated.

 

 

 

The Seahawks were ready to play Denver cause they had just crushed a great Saints team (whom I truly believe would have beat Denver tonight) and an even better 49ers team. They didn't play cupcakes all year long (even though I said they did). They played some great teams and were ready for the Broncos.

[Andy]

The offensive line was pretty bad, but also, Manning made some horrendous decisions too. 

 

He knows he's going to get hit, his arm as well, and he decides that he wants to fling it down the field. He was not smart in this game. 

 

He was also not in sync as well. 

 

The irony is, the offense that carried them all season, failed them in this game. The defense only allowed 29 points, which considering all the things that happened (bad field position, picks, great ST play from the Seahawks) is not that bad. It's the OFFENSE that failed them, and that offense starts with Peyton Manning. My favorite player of all time, but I won't shy away from saying he was a bust in this game. 

[chad72]

The Seahawks played the Broncos WRs the same way the Colts' DBs played them. Tackle them well, little to no YAC, dare Peyton to go deep where they can recover with their length and force him to be exceptionally accurate. Even Pagano referred to that at the Pro Bowl saying that Peyton will make his plays but you have to limit their YAC, which is what the Colts did vs Peyton.

 

Peyton just kept throwing underneath, DT ran east west more than north south on critical occasions, Seahawks DBs played tight, clocked them WRs on the short routes and the Broncos never adapted or took shots as much earlier. None of the shots they took had much of a chance of success either, IMO. Peyton had a sub-par game. He actually had a better game vs the Saints in 2009 than this.

 

I remember when the Seahawks game happened in Indy, Andrew Luck said that we have to stay aggressive and take shots down the field to negate the Seahawks' defensive aggression. That is how the colts won with Luck's shots deep to T.Y. when those guys played single high safety.