Well, better late than never I suppose.
I’ve been pretty busy lately, moving to the greatest city in the country
(that’s right, Oakland!), so I’ve only now had enough time to sit down and
write my Super Bowl recap. However, I
believe the delay in my recap has allowed me to fully absorb what happened a
week ago. In short, it was an awful game
from a neutral standpoint. It was possibly
the least entertaining Super Bowl I have ever witnessed. However, the one upside of the game was that
the clear cut, best team in the league was crowned champion, which has not
happened in a little while. I finished
the 2014 playoffs with a respectable 7/11 playoff predictions and 6-3-2 ATS
(against the spread). Let’s take a look
at where I went wrong with my Super Bowl pick, by examining what happened, why
it happened, and what it all means.
Seattle Seahawks 43, Denver
Broncos 8
From the very first snap, this game was all Seattle. The snap over Manning’s head into the endzone
was a harbinger of the awful things to come for the team wearing orange. In the end, the game came down to a couple
things: turnovers and speed. These are
the two areas where the Seahawks dominated.
In my mind, Seattle made three key defensive plays that I remember, and
they were all against screen passes. The
Broncos run a great screen game, which generally keeps their opponents honest
against the rest of their pass game.
Additionally, these simple throws often help Peyton get in a
rhythm. On these three plays that I
remember, Seattle were incredibly fast to the ball and were able to blow the
plays up either at the line of scrimmage or shortly after. They were simply too fast for the Broncos’ offense, something the Boncos' receivers, in particular, seem to lack.
As for turnovers, it would be tough to blame any of the turnovers
solely on Peyton. His first interception
was caused by a mistake by Julius Thomas, and Manning got hit on the arm on the
second interception. He also had a
fumble, which came on a 4th down, when the game was already out of
reach. What made these turnovers so
valuable was that the Seahawks did a phenomenal job of holding onto the ball
themselves. A team will rarely win with
a -4 turnover differential.
Ultimately, when Percy Harvin returned the second half opening kickoff
for a touchdown, the game was over. And companies
that payed for prime advertising time during the fourth quarter were probably
pretty upset by the prospects of losing viewership at the end of the game.
So, I whiffed on my Super Bowl prediction. However, I dominated my prop bets, including
the coin toss. The only bet I’m not sure
about is whether Pam Oliver or Erin Andrews were on TV first. Other than that, I got all five other bets
correct. That’s quite impressive if I do
say so myself.
Anyways, more importantly, I feel pretty silly for picking the Broncos now. I mean, a few posts ago I said, “By winning
this game [against the Panthers], the Niners set up the third and final matchup
of the season between, in my opinion, the two best teams in the NFL. The winner will represent the NFC in the
Super Bowl, most likely as the favorite to win it all.” As in, I had already deemed the Niners and Seahawks to be the top two teams in the league. So,
why did I go against my gut? I had
already stated that these were the two best teams, AND the Seahawks were pitted
as underdogs at the Super Bowl’s kickoff.
It should have been obvious for me to predict a Seattle victory at Super Bowl XLVIII; however, I must have been blinded by my awe
of Peyton Manning. I felt as though, if
he had a chance at the end of the game, he would get it done. Obviously, I was very wrong about this
because he didn’t have a chance, and if anyone was going to come through in the
clutch, it was the Seattle defense.
Looking ahead, we have a Seattle team who is young, talented, and hungry for more. They will continue to be an intimidating
force next season; however, I don’t expect them to repeat as champions. I will admit that I found myself rooting for
the Broncos at kickoff. Peyton Manning
has always been my favorite player to watch.
As a Raider fan, I was pretty devastated when he signed as a free agent
for the Broncos. However, during the
Super Bowl, I put the rivalry behind me and just rooted for Peyton
Manning. He is a likeable guy, he runs
an offense more entertainingly than any quarterback before him, and he is
arguably the greatest of all time (it is a tough argument to make though,
considering I haven’t seen most of the other quarterbacks in this argument play
before). Super Bowl XLVIII may have been
Peyton’s last shot on the big stage, and that probably only adds to the sting
of what was a devastating defeat.
In spite of the total lack of competitiveness in the Super Bowl, I saw one
glaring positive that came from the game: the return of defense to the
NFL. In a league that is always adding rules
to make the game easier for the offense, defense was the dominant factor for
the Seahawks this season. Seattle’s
secondary is physical and fast, and that showed throughout the playoffs. Fortunately for Seattle, the
playoffs is an environment that generally sees fewer penalties called, which was beneficial
to a very physical Seattle secondary.
And I, for one, was happy about that.
I love watching a great defense, and when cornerbacks and safeties are
allowed to play receivers physically, I think the game benefits. There are too many nearly indefensible timing
routes in the NFL these days; it is nice to see that a talented defense still
has the ability to make plays against even the best offense in the league.
In conclusion, congratulations to the Seahawks and to Seattle. The fans truly got behind their team this
year, and the team deserved it. This
season was fun, and up until the Super Bowl, this was one of the most exciting post-seasons
in recent memory. For now, we head to
the off-season, which will be full of anticipation for every team, as owners
stay busy, trying to improve their team in any way possible. I can’t wait until next season, for every
season brings new hope to every single franchise, even the Raiders.
