kearly
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This game was one of the better ones of the Russell Wilson era. It's right up there with the Chicago game in 2012 or the Texans game last year. In terms of wild swings of emotion, this might have been the most intense game in many years.
The emotion of this game went from nervous doubt, to supreme confidence, to lingering doubt, to outright fear, to elation of near certain victory (Chancellor pick), to horror, to victorious triumph.
Peyton Manning very nearly brought his team back to victory in one of the guttiest performances of his career, and yet as quickly as the Broncos roared back into the game, Wilson and Lynch slammed that door shut. For as heroic as Manning was, he'll probably not sleep a wink tonight while muttering to himself "tails never fails."
And this happened between the best two teams in the NFL! It was only the sixth time ever that a SB duo met again the next season. And it was also the best game of the weekend.
Now that's going into the bye with style. Now all we have to do is wonder if Arizona can voodoo their way to 16-0.
I have to take my hat off to the Broncos. They had the right kind of gameplan for this game. They sold out to defend the short play, and they played physical. No fake-tough-guy dirty play in this one. Denver wants to be a legitimate tough team, and they showed that they've made real strides towards being a tough team in this game. They willingly let this game turn into a fistfight, and they damn near won it anyway. In our house. That's impressive.
John Fox probably had the worst performance of his career in XLVIII, but he had a good gameplan for Denver this time and his (or Adam Gase's) route running bag of tricks on the final drive of regulation was the work of an evil genius.
While the refs did blow some calls in this game, they seemed to blow calls both ways and they generally let both teams get away with a lot of stuff. In particular I saw a ton of holds by Denver's OL go uncalled, and a ton of iffy pass protections by Seattle go unpenalized. All things considered, Seattle usually wins when the officials avoid taking center stage.
Wilson finally paid big for a boneheaded throw, and for a few minutes it felt like Seattle was going to give the game away. But other than a few nightmarish series in the 4th quarter, I thought this was yet another amazing game for Wilson where he made plays despite rarely having open receivers downfield. And though Lynch's YPC was low, I thought he made a huge difference in this game as well. His diving TD to seal the game was vintage Lynch. He makes great plays look goofy, which is part of why I'll miss him so much when he's gone.
I am not concerned about Seattle's defense. That 4th quarter was weird, and no other team has faced anything close to the gauntlet of QBs Seattle has to lead off the year. I love how Seattle's run defense has looked, and though Seattle is hurting for sacks, it seems like they get the QB to hurry his passes more than any D in the league.
I am just a little concerned about the offense. Even though it's humming pretty well, it seems like a lack of deep ball presence really has defenses creeping up on the short stuff. Seattle needs to stretch the field in the worst way. Having only 1 deep attempt is a concern for me, especially since the success of that attempt should have goaded Seattle into throwing deep a lot more often.
Right now, I think last year's Seahawks team is the better version, but that will change the moment Russell Wilson gets his deep ball groove back and is throwing deep 4-5 times a game like he used to. I think the only thing separating Seattle from a 35 points a game average is getting defenses to stop cheating up so much.
The emotion of this game went from nervous doubt, to supreme confidence, to lingering doubt, to outright fear, to elation of near certain victory (Chancellor pick), to horror, to victorious triumph.
Peyton Manning very nearly brought his team back to victory in one of the guttiest performances of his career, and yet as quickly as the Broncos roared back into the game, Wilson and Lynch slammed that door shut. For as heroic as Manning was, he'll probably not sleep a wink tonight while muttering to himself "tails never fails."
And this happened between the best two teams in the NFL! It was only the sixth time ever that a SB duo met again the next season. And it was also the best game of the weekend.
Now that's going into the bye with style. Now all we have to do is wonder if Arizona can voodoo their way to 16-0.
I have to take my hat off to the Broncos. They had the right kind of gameplan for this game. They sold out to defend the short play, and they played physical. No fake-tough-guy dirty play in this one. Denver wants to be a legitimate tough team, and they showed that they've made real strides towards being a tough team in this game. They willingly let this game turn into a fistfight, and they damn near won it anyway. In our house. That's impressive.
John Fox probably had the worst performance of his career in XLVIII, but he had a good gameplan for Denver this time and his (or Adam Gase's) route running bag of tricks on the final drive of regulation was the work of an evil genius.
While the refs did blow some calls in this game, they seemed to blow calls both ways and they generally let both teams get away with a lot of stuff. In particular I saw a ton of holds by Denver's OL go uncalled, and a ton of iffy pass protections by Seattle go unpenalized. All things considered, Seattle usually wins when the officials avoid taking center stage.
Wilson finally paid big for a boneheaded throw, and for a few minutes it felt like Seattle was going to give the game away. But other than a few nightmarish series in the 4th quarter, I thought this was yet another amazing game for Wilson where he made plays despite rarely having open receivers downfield. And though Lynch's YPC was low, I thought he made a huge difference in this game as well. His diving TD to seal the game was vintage Lynch. He makes great plays look goofy, which is part of why I'll miss him so much when he's gone.
I am not concerned about Seattle's defense. That 4th quarter was weird, and no other team has faced anything close to the gauntlet of QBs Seattle has to lead off the year. I love how Seattle's run defense has looked, and though Seattle is hurting for sacks, it seems like they get the QB to hurry his passes more than any D in the league.
I am just a little concerned about the offense. Even though it's humming pretty well, it seems like a lack of deep ball presence really has defenses creeping up on the short stuff. Seattle needs to stretch the field in the worst way. Having only 1 deep attempt is a concern for me, especially since the success of that attempt should have goaded Seattle into throwing deep a lot more often.
Right now, I think last year's Seahawks team is the better version, but that will change the moment Russell Wilson gets his deep ball groove back and is throwing deep 4-5 times a game like he used to. I think the only thing separating Seattle from a 35 points a game average is getting defenses to stop cheating up so much.
!)
