SEATTLE
Every move the Denver Broncos made for 7½ months was made with an eye toward the matchup they faced Sunday.
Not just a Week 3 visit to Seattle for a Super Bowl XLVIII rematch against the Seahawks, who survived Denver’s rally to win – again – 26-20 in overtime. The Broncos needed to get better, particularly on defense, if they wanted to be ready for teams such as Seattle in January and February.
And on that front, there were signs Sunday general manager John Elway’s plan has a chance to work, even if the way things played out showed these Broncos are still a work in progress.
“You lose by 30 or you lose by one, it feels the same,” Broncos receiver Wes Welker said. “It can go either way in the NFL sometimes. We didn’t play our best ball (Sunday), and it cost us.”
For the better part of 59 minutes, Peyton Manning and the Broncos’ offense appeared every bit as helpless as they did back in that 43-8 title-game blowout against Seattle’s vaunted defense, complete with a turnover on their first play from scrimmage.
Yet time and again, the revamped Broncos defense – with some key players healthy again and millions invested in free-agent pickups in cornerback Aqib Talib, safety T.J. Ward and end DeMarcus Ware – kept them in a game Denver trailed by two touchdowns as it entered the fourth quarter.
Ware helped hem in Marshawn Lynch for a safety. Talib tipped an interception to Chris Harris Jr., who missed the Super Bowl with an anterior cruciate ligament tear. Ward combined with Von Miller, also coming off an ACL, to stop Lynch on third-and-7 and give Manning one more shot late in regulation.
“They showed some things we didn’t see on film,” Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin told USA TODAY Sports. “They made us have to adjust and play some things that we didn’t practice during the week. Definitely, they were a better team.”
The Broncos still weren’t good enough. Seattle won the coin toss in overtime and drove 80 yards in 13 plays for Lynch’s winning 6-yard plunge – their third long touchdown drive of the day, after a pair of Russell Wilson touchdown passes in the second quarter on the way to a 17-3 lead.
But with the reigning MVP Manning under center, the Broncos surely figured the offense could do better than the one-dimensional attack they showed after falling in a hole and losing blocking tight end Virgil Green to a concussion. Just look at the six-play, 80-yard drive for a tying touchdown and two-point conversion after Manning got the ball back with 59 seconds to go in regulation.
“When you lose a game like that, what you do is go back to the plays before that,” Manning said. “You say, well, if I would’ve hit Julius (Thomas) in the back of the endzone (in the first quarter), if we don’t turn it over on the first play, maybe that is a potential 10-point swing there.”
Harris’ interception set up a short field Manning exploited for a 3-yard touchdown pass to Thomas, cutting the deficit to 17-12. And the Broncos had a chance to take the lead on their next drive, before Manning made a bad decision and throw for Welker up the seam that Seahawks Kam Chancellor intercepted and returned 52 yards to set up a Seattle field goal.
Only in overtime did the dam break, with dynamic Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson accounting for 56 yards with his arm and legs and Lynch – held to 69 yards on his first 23 carries – gaining 19 on his last three to send the crowd of 68,447 at CenturyLink Field into hysterics.
“We’re not saying ‘at least the score is better than the Super Bowl’ or anything like that,” Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton said. “We felt we could come in here and win.”
Perhaps there’s another crack at the Seahawks awaiting Feb. 1 on a neutral field in Glendale, Arizona. If so, it’ll be the Broncos’ offense that needs to rise to the occasion against a Seattle defense that remains as tough as any.
And there’s something comforting in that for Elway and company, given that they know what Manning is capable of doing – and what the defense showed it’s capable of doing Sunday.
“Those guys (Sunday), they played their butts off to keep us in the game,” Thomas said. “It definitely wasn’t the outcome that we wanted, but I think we’ve learned a little bit and we’re still growing as a team.”
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