How Seahawks put Peyton Manning and Rex Grossman in the same Super Bowl sentence


Peyton Manning didn't have a very good performance in the Super Bowl. Of course, the QB chided for winning the public's praise with stats over big wins did ironically set the Super Bowl record for completions in a game, but that may be the only good thing he did.

To go along with those 34 completions, Manning also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.



So, how did the NFL's almost unanimous MVP and leader of the best offense in history stoop so low?

The Seattle Seahawks had a lot to do with it. They used the same game plan that the Giants and Jets used in their famous playoff defeat victories over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Get pressure with your front four and have seven guys in coverage. Against finesse teams like the Broncos and the Patriots of 2007-2012, this strategy can work to perfection if you have the right personnel.

The Giants had that dominant front four in 2007 and 2011 to get the job done against New England. Meanwhile, the Seahawks had the phenomenal secondary that was prepared for anything the Broncos threw at them.

MMQB:
“All we did was play situational football,” [Richard] Sherman said. “We knew what route concepts they liked on different downs, so we jumped all the routes. Then we figured out the hand signals for a few of the route audibles in the first half.”

The Seahawks plan for the Broncos' infamous crossing routes (remember the hit on Talib?) was to hit the receivers hard, make them not want to catch those passes, eliminate the yards after the catch. That's easier said than done for most teams, but most teams don't have safety Kam Chancellor.

MMQB:
“For us, we knew tackling the catch was going to be as big as anything,” said Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. “And I don’t think anybody embodies outhitting an opponent more than Kam Chancellor. He’s as physical as they come.”

“There’s a lot of quarterbacks that look off [the safeties] a lot,” said Quinn, “but he’s able to get rid of the ball so quickly that there’s not a lot of look offs just because of the nature of the Broncos’ offense. It’s not a deep-route [offense] where a quarterback may drop and look for someplace else to go. So that was important for us.”

The Seahawks defense wasn't really that complicated. They dared Manning to go deep on them, but he never had enough time to attempt to do so. Even if he did, that's not his or the Seahawks' game. Some early Denver miscues had them in a hole starting just 12 seconds into the game. They tried to dink and dunk their way out of it, but all that came out of that was an NFL record for completions and the worst Superbowl performance by a quarterback in eight years.

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