Much has been made of Richard Sherman’s continual penchant
for opening his mouth and saying something that makes Twitter blow up and hits
the back page in local tabloids in newspapers all over America. Such is the frenzy of drama that ensues upon
the conclusion of Championship Sunday and kickoff of the Super Bowl. There are two weeks to break down every angle
possible to this one football game. Two
weeks to talk about what this game means to Peyton Manning’s legacy as an all-time
great.
As we’re closing in on 48 hours from kickoff, I figured I
would chime in with some of my own thoughts.
Richard Sherman has done a lot of talking, and there has been a lot made
of how this game will define Peyton Manning in comparison to some of the other
legendary quarterbacks.
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| Jeff Roberson/ Associated Press Sherman smiles at Super Bowl media day. |
My instant reaction after Richard Sherman broke off into his
rant after breaking up Colin Kaepernick’s pass in the end zone intended for
Michael Crabtree was very skeptical. Why
would Sherman talk trash and put the spotlight on him when his team just
clinched a trip to the Super Bowl and there’s still one more game to be
played?
Granted Sherman’s play backs up his talk but what exactly
was it accomplishing? Now all the
pressure is on Sherman to shutdown one of the game’s elite receivers Demaryius
Thomas, who’s been rather quiet about the match up. Sherman’s going to have to do just that
if his Seahawks are going to win. I can’t
see Russell Wilson keeping up in a shootout with Peyton Manning.
Seattle’s defense is going to have to turn in one more
outstanding performance to get over the hump.
Offensively, Seattle isn’t built to score lots of points. They like to run the ball with Marshawn Lynch
and occasionally Russell Wilson will make plays but they win because their
defense always plays well enough where they don’t have to score a bunch of
points. It’s a tall task for Seattle’s
defense on Sunday going up against the best offense in the NFL.
From Denver’s perspective, obviously they need to score
points. It’s what they do. While lots of conversation has been made
about Denver’s offense against Seattle’s defense and how the two teams are
mirror images of each other and have gotten here in different ways, Denver’s
defense has played well in the postseason.
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| Chris Humphreys-USA Today Sports Peyton Manning is in search of his second Super Bowl ring. |
Tom Brady never really got going against the Denver defense,
nor did Philip Rivers in the divisional round.
Now while both New England and San Diego don’t boast running backs of
Marshawn Lynch’s caliber, ideally that won’t really matter for Denver. It comes back to Denver scoring points. If Denver can move the ball on the Seattle
defense and score points then that’s going to force Seattle to do the same
thing which will probably make the Seahawks throw the ball more than they would
like.
Who knows what Seattle will get out of Percy Harvin through the air in this
game, but the bottomline is that if Denver can play with a lead and make
Seattle throw, I can’t see Seattle winning this game. Ultimately, I think Peyton Manning has too
much to play for. I think he wants to
silence the critics that believe he comes up small time and time again in the
playoffs. A motivated Peyton Manning
should be a scary Peyton Manning for the Seattle defense. If there’s a defense that can slow him down
enough for their team to have a chance, it’s Seattle. I think Seattle will slow them down to a
degree and I don’t see Denver putting up video-game like numbers offensively,
but enough to hoist the Lombardi.
Prediction: Denver 28, Seattle 20
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