I'm especially thrilled that America will not be subjected to bitter Seattle Whine again.
Posted on 02/03/2014 11:30:48 AM PST by Kaslin
What did you do during the second half? Surely that did not take all night.
doesn’t seem like it
It can be given a rest.
Quite so, at least I’m certainly hopeful it will be finally.
you might want to retract that...
Can you if possible give me the stats, because did not know how good the NFC west was. Thought other than for SF, Seattle was a “surprise” turnaround from really, very, very bad to being champs. Thank-you!
“Frankly I was stunned at the collapse of the Broncos”
Being a MLB or baseball fan, what I had seen Sunday, with the Broncos and the team’s BIGTIME collapse reminds me of the BIGTIME collapse of the Boston Red Soxs a few years back and the struggling that took place for two years before coming back to win it all in the World Series of 2013. Never expected a collapse of such proportions to come to Denver.
Now it is on to waiting for “pitchers and catchers” to show up for spring training.
Time now to put another NFL season to bed.
Retract? No. Modify, perhaps.
I know he won the big one...once. I know he has won some playoff games but his overall playoff record is 9 wins and 11 losses.
One game does not make a trend. Nor does it stand out as much as his string of playoff or Super Bowl losses.
Peyton Manning's One-and-Done record:
(Source; ESPN)
Score: Titans 19, Colts 16
Score: Dolphins 23, Colts 17, OT
Score: Jets 41, Colts 0
Score: Steelers 21, Colts 18
Score: Chargers 28, Colts 24
Score: Chargers 23, Colts 17, OT
Score: Jets 17, Colts 16
Score: Ravens 38, Broncos 35
Add to that the loss in Super Bowl XLIV.
And then there is Super Bowl XLVIII two days ago that makes it an even 10.
I don't dislike him. He IS a great QB. But he is not the greatest. And he IS way over-hyped. I just call them like I see them.
Didn’t miss it at all, I voted for him on the NFL website and it’s the first time who I voted for actually won it, his pick 6 functionally won the game. But none of that anything to do with the fact that the Seahawks eased off the pressure in the 3rd quarter and allowed Manning all the short completions he felt like, with no yards after catch. Once you’re up by 5 scores the clock becomes your opponent much more than the other team, so you don’t ball hawk as much, you don’t as many risks, you keep them on short yardage success, you basically say “you can have all the 5 minute scoring drives you can muster, because it won’t help”.
The original point was: the pass rush wasn't the reason the Broncos couldn't advance the ball; if it had been, Peyton would not have been able to clock in a record number of completions.
You can take the position that "he only had a record number of completions because we gave them to him," but that's essentially BS. Given the mauling the wide-outs were receiving in the deep secondary, the Broncos went to the dink-and-dunk game very early; long before they were down five scores. It did not succeed -- not because of the pass rush, and not because of the interceptions -- but because there was no yardage after catch.
Picks are splashy, and turnovers obviously played a huge role. But the play-in-play-out job of fundamental football: understanding assignments, discipline, physicality with receivers, and great tackling are what won the game.
And I’m pointing out that Peyton wasn’t advancing the ball until the Seahawks eased off the pressure. He had less than 100 yards passing at the end of the first half, 51 yards passing when he threw the pick six. He got most of his receptions in “garbage” time (which owing to the score was the vast majority of the second half) when the Seattle defense had gone into a variation of the prevent shell. The pass rush had a lot to do with his lack of success, he got hit a lot including on both interceptions.
The Broncos have been dink and dunk all season (the era of Manning airing it out seems to have passed), but early in the game they weren’t even completing those. Smart teams play the clock as well as the opposition. When you’re up 5 TD in the third the big thing you don’t want to do is allow big plays, so you ease off the defensive throttle, not taking as many chances. You actually outlined EXACTLY what the “nothing deep nothing cheap” mentality is: discipline, great tackling, no yards after catch. It’s low risk defense designed to make the other team slow down, as opposed to taking chances to shut them down. It’s the difference between the defender trying to jump in front of that pass knowing that if he misses the interception the receiver’s going to get a whole bunch of YAC, and staying behind the receiver to make sure he gets no yards after catch. In the first half they took risks to stop the Broncos, in the second half they stopped taking risks to make sure there were no big plays. It’s why 2/3 of Manning’s yards and reception were in the second half, the Seahawks went to garbage time defense which allows the other team to stack up meaningless stats but not points.
Don't forget that part of the reason the stats are hard to really interpret is that these NFC West teams have to play each OTHER, twice.
Once they go against other divisions you see them all do well. Like SF vs. Green Bay in that 5 degree cold, and then them knocking off the Panthers at home.
If you think Seattle is good, SF is almost exactly as good. They barely lost at Century Link, and were it not for a Frank Gore run, we would have won at Candlestick.
Everyone thought that Seattle was a one hit wonder last year with the surprising Russell Wilson, but we still only got stopped by the Falcons.
My guess is that SF and Seattle will both be the best teams in the NFL in 2014. The only question is who will take the division?
And the Cardinals will have something to say, too.
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