Denver Broncos (AFC No. 1 Seed) vs. Seattle Seahawks (NFC No. 1 Seed)
February 2nd, 2014, 6:30PM
Met Life Stadium, East Rutherford New Jersey
Peyton Manning will be a hall of famer for his work in the hundreds of game he has played. If the Seattle Seahawks win Super Bowl XLVII, Russell Wilson will be the difference maker in this, the biggest game he may ever play. And yet, he is just 5 feet 11 inches, 25 years old and playing in his second NFL season.
Fact is just like Tom Brady went unseen, Russel Wilson was a man overlooked by far to many very smart NFL personalities. Despite his logging back to back to back 3,000 passing yards seasons in his final 3 years of college football, Wilson was overlooked by every NFL team at least once before he was drafted deep in the 3rd round by the Seattle Seahawks. From there however, he, like Tom Brady outshined everybody picked above him as even number one pick, Andrew Luck has had his struggles. Wilson has played every Seahawks game since he was drafted and has been the number one reason they went from a 7-9 team in 2011 to the playoff game winners in 2012 and the Super Bowl finalists in this season. To sum up, after 2 NFL seasons, Russel Wilson has the best passer rating in the NFL (101.2) and has already thrown for 6,475 passing yards and has led his team through just 9 losses out of 36 games.
The only man with a better win/loss record in that time is the man that Wilson will be going up against Sunday in East Rutherford: Peyton Manning.
Much like Russel Wilson, Manning was a man overlooked by many even after the wonder he solicited in his years with Indianapolis prior to his neck surgeries in 2011. Prior to 2012, he was facing some fierce demands that he retire and yet, there was one team in this league that believed in him. During the off season, the Denver Broncos decided to give up on Tim Tebow and fork over 18,000,000$ to sign one of the greatest QB's in NFL history in Manning. Since then, the 37 year old Manning has tossed 92 touchdown passes and added upwards of 10,000 passing yards to his illustrious passing statistics. In 2013, he was the man behind the most prolific offence in NFL history.
So here we are, Russel Wilson vs. Peyton Manning or is it Peyton Manning vs. Richard Sherman and Russel Wilson against... um, who plays superstar caliber defense for the Broncos? Nobody. As great as Manning is and as promising as Wilson may be, the biggest part of this game is actually the defenses that will be trying to counteract the two QB's.
We start with Seattle.
As hard as it is to believe, Richard Sherman is not the only person on the Seahawks defensive squad. But nevertheless, he has been crucial to every single Seahawks win against a good offensive team. Sherman grabbed 8 interceptions in 2013 and ended 38 different plays via one of his tackles. 2 weeks ago in San Francisco Sherman defended 2 passes and logged 1 tackle. But nevertheless, his biggest play in that game was the last one where he batted the ball away from Michael Crabtree in the corner of the end zone. Within minutes of that, Richard Sherman was screaming at Erin Andrews about stuff very few people could understand but in this world of intense competition a little yelling and screaming is nothing when you compare it to the cheating and the cheap shots that we have seen in the last few years.
But beyond Sherman there were 3 other Seahawks named to the Pro Bowl this year and though they did not play in the meaningless game, such a nomination truly signified the power of this Seattle secondary.
In less than 48 hours we will be in New York, grinding our way through the first cold weather Super Bowl in history and so that will be one of the many match ups we will be looking at Sunday afternoon. We will see Manning vs. Wilson, Manning vs. the cold, the Denver receivers vs. Richard Sherman and the Seahawks secondary as well as Wilson vs. the Denver defensive line. Those are the matchups and as we look at them, the winner of this football game will be the team whose players win more of those matchups.
Prediction
The Seattle offensive line will be good enough to defend Terrence Knighton and give Russel Wilson time to throw the ball downfield to any of his stellar receivers. As for Denver all we have to do is look back to the AFC Championship vs. New England. The Denver defense was good enough to give Manning time to rip things apart in the first half but they still faltered in the 2nd half as Tom Brady came alive and tossed 2 touchdown passes. That worked against a New England team devoid of a real receiving core but it will not work against this Seattle team that will for one limit Manning's points early and then likely shut him down if their season looks to be in jeopardy late.
It will be close but in the end I predict a 30-23 win for Seattle.
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