Most has been said.
I watched 3 quarters of Denver vs our JV squad in Jacksonville and knew we had this one. As mentioned above, the cover 3 press we run is a major changeup. Even the greats like Payton will decrease in effectiveness when they have to make 3 reads to find that open guy. And while I consider Payton to be the GOAT, his arm is way diminished, and the only guys to give us much trouble have been plus arms. Essentially, with Payton rarely passing more than 30 yards down field, and in fact probably 90 percent of his passing under 15 yards, Denver is playing red zone offense on the entire field. Red zone defense is right in our wheelhouse.
Von Miller being out didn't help you at all. There were other injuries that hurt you as well. Now, to be fair, even when healthy, there are still only 2 players from your D that could start in Seattle, Knighton and Miller. I am not being snobby, schematically we are so different that they are it.
And of course, honest Denver fans will admit that for two weeks, the focus was on your O and our D, but few spent much time talking about our offense and your D. I have to admit I was surprised by how well Denver shut down Lynch, but when I reviewed, Denver was committing 8 and even 9 to stopping the run. Our pass catchers might be a bit small, but the Denver secondary was just plain outmatched. No pass rush from Denver didn't help your cause.
I still think you would have had a 50/50 shot vs the Niners, who play a lot more off zone, which really favors your screen game. And while it has become popular to say the NFC CG was the real SB, the Niners would have gone to the SB without Bowman. A very big deal. Still, I think Kaepernick would have run circles around your D. At least 30 for both teams, all things considered. Also, lest I forget, Iupati would have been out.
If Denver puts together a similar year next season, the SB would be on grass in Phoenix, probably with the roof closed. That would favor Manning a bit. Still, if he is facing our D and scheme, I would have trouble saying he can win if the Broncos don't run 35 times, which they can't do with present personnel. Lets be honest, Denver's run game is a changeup that Payton calls when it is clear the D is set up to stop the pass. Not a staple, a changeup. Essentially, we present the same look either way, and don't do a lot of pre snap moving around to try and confuse the O. We make it about matchups, which unless Denver has the draft and free agency season of all time, would still favor us.
However, in your favor is the one matchup I have not talked about, and that is all the missing O-line. Once again, pre SB people were kissing the collective butt of your O-line because Peyton Manning's genius had them giving us what, 18 sacks total on the year? Not to be mean, but most of those guys are frauds, just like most of the guys in front of Manning in Indy were frauds. The man has the quickest release and reads on the planet, those jokers were more protected than bald eagles by that release. But, and this is the big but, if the missing players on that line are back and healthy next year, that is a big deal for Manning. Clady is the real deal, as were the others. Now, that isn't a free pass for you to beat us, but it is an important detail.
Props for checking in here, that had to be the an awful game to watch for Bronco fans. It had to be one fun season watching your team rack those points, though.