So who wins the SB

[cdumler7]

Honestly have no clue who wins this one. After watching the Bronco OL yesterday just completely dominate keeping Peyton upright I like the Broncos chances even with that great secondary. Even the best secondary is vulnerable if there is no pressure on the quarterback. Now I do know Seattle has a pretty good DL so I don't expect it to be as good as yesterday for the Broncos but we shall see.


I honestly think the Broncos will be fine against the run. They are playing their best defense of the season. Yes I know some on here are saying the Bronco defense sucks which if looking at the whole season is true but they did just hold 2 top 10 offenses that both have strong running games to 17 points or less. Some players are finally getting healthy for the Broncos that have been missing all season and they were a top 5 defense last season in almost every category so one could assume they can actually stop what some would call a somewhat mediocre offense in Seattle.


Should be a good Super Bowl either way but obviously being a Bronco fan how can I vote against my own team? Broncos 27 Seattle 17.

 

[Lemon Harang Pie]

I'm tempted to go with Seattle but I think Denver walks away with the W.

The Seahawks just haven't looked very good away from CenturyLink Field and they're having a tough time scoring points on offense. I think they'll slow down Peyton Manning and his offense but they're definitely not going to stop it all together. The deciding factor may be the weather though.

 

[Wheat]

Care to explain how other than an enthusiastic "LEGION OF BOOM!"

LOB, baby!

 

[SonnyCID]

I'm tempted to go with Seattle but I think Denver walks away with the W.

The Seahawks just haven't looked very good away from CenturyLink Field and they're having a tough time scoring points on offense. I think they'll slow down Peyton Manning and his offense but they're definitely not going to stop it all together. The deciding factor may be the weather though.

Weren't the Hawks tied for the best road record in the league? Yes, yes they were.

 

[RoboticDreams]

Maybe you could work out a deal and change it to this:

Because that's an improvement.

 

[Clayton]

Lets see...

-Both teams have massive homefield advantages taken away so they won't look quite as good as they did yesterday
-Seattle leads the league in penalties but Denver comes in 2nd. Cheaters do win
-That said, refs will come into play. Denver is the better media story, Seattle has Vegas
-Top offense vs Top defense. Top defense has won 3 out of 4 times, IIRC, in the Super Bowl but one of those times it was TB vs OAK and TB knew all of the plays. So Im going to throw out 'defense wins championships'
-Seattle is from the best division in football. Denver is from what is probably the 2nd best.
-Seattle has an advantage in special teams. Denver might have the quickest guy in the NFL returning kicks but Seattle has had a really good unit all year and Denvers has been subpar
-Peyton Manning doesn't get sacked and is always in the pocket. Russell Wilson is always getting pressured and is often getting sacked.
-Denver's run D is solid but I wouldn't eliminate the possibility of a beastquake/big play here for Seattle.
-Peyton Manning loves his TEs. Seattle shuts down TEs.
-Seattle plays pretty vanilla in the secondary but their talent level is much better than what KC was bringing. There aren't any holes in the Seattle secondary.
-Seattle's run D is hit or miss. They've had game where they've played a team and totally shut down a guy and then played the same team and let them get run all over. I'm not sure what the reason for this is other than Seattle plays to the level of their competition. (So does Denver if youve seen the JAX game).
-I'm not convinced that Denver's secondary is any good at all. Brady missed some open throws. That said, New Orleans was able to slow Seattle's offense down and Denver will be able to bring about the same amount of pressure. But that was because NO is a good pass rushing team and Denver is pretty subpar without Miller. Denver should get some sacks in but not many.

But the big thing in this game is the turnover margin. Seattle led the league in turnover margin. Denver was a push.

So I'm taking Seattle. Ugh
Rooting for Denver

 

[SonnyCID]

Lets see...

-Both teams have massive homefield advantages taken away so they won't look quite as good as they did yesterday
-Seattle leads the league in penalties but Denver comes in 2nd. Cheaters do win
-That said, refs will come into play. Denver is the better media story, Seattle has Vegas
-Top offense vs Top defense. Top defense has won 3 out of 4 times, IIRC, in the Super Bowl but one of those times it was TB vs OAK and TB knew all of the plays. So Im going to throw out 'defense wins championships'
-Seattle is from the best division in football. Denver is from what is probably the 2nd best.
-Seattle has an advantage in special teams. Denver might have the quickest guy in the NFL returning kicks but Seattle has had a really good unit all year and Denvers has been subpar
-Peyton Manning doesn't get sacked and is always in the pocket. Russell Wilson is always getting pressured and is often getting sacked.
-Denver's run D is solid but I wouldn't eliminate the possibility of a beastquake/big play here for Seattle.
-Peyton Manning loves his TEs. Seattle shuts down TEs.
-Seattle plays pretty vanilla in the secondary but their talent level is much better than what KC was bringing. There aren't any holes in the Seattle secondary.
-Seattle's run D is hit or miss. They've had game where they've played a team and totally shut down a guy and then played the same team and let them get run all over. I'm not sure what the reason for this is other than Seattle plays to the level of their competition. (So does Denver if youve seen the JAX game).
-I'm not convinced that Denver's secondary is any good at all. Brady missed some open throws. That said, New Orleans was able to slow Seattle's offense down and Denver will be able to bring about the same amount of pressure. But that was because NO is a good pass rushing team and Denver is pretty subpar without Miller. Denver should get some sacks in but not many.

But the big thing in this game is the turnover margin. Seattle led the league in turnover margin. Denver was a push.

So I'm taking Seattle. Ugh
Rooting for Denver

Both teams have been great on the road this year. Check out the splits. Seattle's defense has actually been better on the road.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Broncos 27 Seattle 17.

Good post...no rooting interest in the game for me...matchups favor DEN.

Trenches...SEA DL is good on the edges, but imo the elite players on the DEF are in the back 4...PM is too good to get beat by 4 good players vs 5 blocking. On the flip...the interior of the DEN DL won't be moved easily unless SEA breaks tendency and passes a lot early (Carroll being DEF guy is not gong to put that pressure on his young QB) I don't think SEA will run it well between the tackles...not enough to win the game.

PM has 5 guys that can go over 125 receiving...plus 2 capable RBs...that's a tall task to stop so it goes back to the trenches...SEA has to win that battle upfront to have a chance imo.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

One thing I'm curious about is which team the crowd will be backing. Neither team has much of a presence on the national level, it's not like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, Pats, Giants etc. that travel in droves and have fans everywhere. I know in the NYC metropolitan area people don't really have much of a dog in this fight one way or another.

 

[BF4L]

One thing I'm curious about is which team the crowd will be backing. Neither team has much of a presence on the national level, it's not like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, Pats, Giants etc. that travel in droves and have fans everywhere. I know in the NYC metropolitan area people don't really have much of a dog in this fight one way or another.

I think it will lean toward Denver. AFC and a Manning.

 

[Lemon Harang Pie]

Both teams have been great on the road this year. Check out the splits. Seattle's defense has actually been better on the road.

Really?

I would consider Seattle to be an awful road team and see their home field as their biggest asset.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

One thing I'm curious about is which team the crowd will be backing. Neither team has much of a presence on the national level, it's not like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, Pats, Giants etc. that travel in droves and have fans everywhere. I know in the NYC metropolitan area people don't really have much of a dog in this fight one way or another.

I think most SBs are fairly neutral crowds since a good portion are there on a corporate money...DEN fans have been expecting this since PM got there should have a good following, so I'm guessing slight edge to DEN.

 

[Lemon Harang Pie]

Weren't the Hawks tied for the best road record in the league? Yes, yes they were.

Yeah but they didn't exactly look great in those road wins and a lot of them were against really bad teams.

 

[SonnyCID]

Yeah but they didn't exactly look great in those road wins and a lot of them were against really bad teams.

OK, as opposed to the Broncos who ONLY played SB contenders on the road.

And define "didn't exactly look great", winning looks great to me. Look up the splits, Seattle has been even-keeled on the road vs at home. The defense was actually better on the road statistically.

 

[cdumler7]

Both teams have been great on the road this year. Check out the splits. Seattle's defense has actually been better on the road.

From just looking at points per game Seattle's defense is pretty much the same at home as they are away. Offensively though they have been about 3 points below the season average. The Broncos are the exact opposite where offensively they have been about the same on the road as they are at home where the defense gives up about 3 more points above their season average. So should be pretty evenly matched with both teams traveling.

 

[Morpheus]

What's Denver's D ranked at? So it's going to be a no brainer they can shutdown Beastmode?

Nothing is a given based on rankings.

Denver has been pretty good against the run all season, especially good lately when it really counts.

Blount came in to yesterdays game with 355 yards and 6 td's in the previous 2 match-ups and Denver held him to 6 yards and the Patriots to 64 yards total.

Denver held Ryan Matthews to 26 yards and San Diego to 65 rushing yards total.

Denver Defense has been playing very well right when it needs to be and have overcome all the injuries they have had to 6 defensive starters, 4 of which went on season ending IR. Von Miller, Kevin Vickerson, Rahim Moore and Chris Harris.

They have shown they can stop the run and that makes limits Seattle's ability to put up points.

Knighton was a beast yesterday, shedding double team blocks and stuffing the run and collapsing the pocket with pressure up the middle.

It's not a no brainer, but they have shown they can play good defense.

The question is how will Seattle stop Denver's offense.

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

Denver has an AVERAGE or MEDIOCRE overall defense.

But, they have an OUTSTANDING run defense that is peaking at the right time.
They might have the best run defense in the playoffs as of today right now.

Their weakness is a lack of pass rush plus mediocre pass coverages.
They are vunerable to a big tall strong pocket passer with a definitive elite go-to receiver.

Unfortunately for Seattle, their weakest part of the team matches up with Denver's weakest part.....which really eliminates the ability to exploit it as they neutralize each other.

...........

Unless Wilson and his receivers suddenly wake up, it could be ugly for Seattle.
But they do have 2 weeks to fix the passing game.

 

[Lemon Harang Pie]

OK, as opposed to the Broncos who ONLY played SB contenders on the road.

And define "didn't exactly look great", winning looks great to me. Look up the splits, Seattle has been even-keeled on the road vs at home. The defense was actually better on the road statistically.

By "didn't exactly look great" I mean they're a power house team at home and one that squeaks by teams like Houston or St. Louis on the road. Their margin of victory was twice as high at home and against NFC West teams, who they saw both home and away, their margin of victory is significantly more than twice as high at home.

It looks to me that the "12th man" is a significant factor in their wins.

 

[Clayton]

Both teams have been great on the road this year. Check out the splits. Seattle's defense has actually been better on the road.

Historically, both teams have some of the best home field advantages. This year, the advantage for Seattle is that they draw the other team offsides which partially negates how many penalties Seattle commits.

Obviously both teams can play on the road. We are getting the best team from the NFC and the best team from the AFC.

Is this a rivalry, btw? I know the AFC West used to have some really big rivalries like Chiefs-Raiders, Chiefs-Broncos and Raiders-Broncos. I'm not sure if there was ever anything big with the Seahawks though

 

[Clayton]

Unfortunately for Seattle, their weakest part of the team matches up with Denver's weakest part.....which really eliminates the ability to exploit it as they neutralize each other.

This is not true. The weakest part of Seattle is their pass blocking on their oline. Denver's pass rush is subpar without Von Miller.

There is a lot of 'strength vs strength' in this matchup. Very few 'weakness vs weakness' because even the weaknesses are still at least average. These are the marquee teams in each conference