Super Bowl 48 blowout changed Broncos for the best
In sports, there are some losses that never really seem to do well and destroy a franchise for a long time. Chicago Cubs fans can’t possibly be over the Steve Bartman game. Vancouver Canucks fans are not even close to forgetting about their 2011 Stanley Cup Final defeat, and the Cleveland Browns will always remember “The Fumble.”
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For the Denver Broncos faithful, it seemed next to impossible to forget about their Super Bowl 48 blowout from the Seattle Seahawks – a 43-8 defeat. This came in the same season where Peyton Manning won the MVP, leading Denver to the highest-scoring offense ever while tossing 55 touchdowns in 2013 (breaking Tom Brady’s record of 50 set in 2007.)
What silver lining could there have been? The Broncos just messed a chance of being arguably the greatest champion ever, and they were embarrassed. But instead of sitting back in his office wiping his tears away, John Elway had an idea: Let’s get better. Let’s do to other teams what the Seahawks did to us.
That day, he realized defense wins championships. After all, the best offense ever did score eight points against Seattle.
So he signed future Hall of Fame pass-rusher DeMarcus Ware to a three-year deal, hard-hitting safety T.J. Ward to a four-year pact and added Aqib Talib to join Chris Harris Jr. in a dangerous secondary. Though the Broncos came up short in 2014, their defense was one of the most formidable units. Now, they had one more year to go on a deep playoff run, otherwise major shakeups would have to take place.
All Denver did was become the NFL’s best defense. Literally every win came down to a game-saving interception, fumble, sack or stop from their defense.
The defense dominated Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady and Cam Newton in the playoffs – by far the three scariest quarterbacks/offenses in 2015. That propelled them to a Super Bowl.
Without Ward and Talib’s toughness, and Ware’s ability to form a two-headed pass-rush monster with Von Miller, Denver had their defense in the making, and it guided them to a Super Bowl 50 championship. Cam Newton and the Panthers became the 2013 Broncos: A team that crushed opponents, led by the quarterback who won the MVP.
Denver’s built to compete for many more championships. Had they beaten Seattle, they wouldn’t have spent excessively for more talent in 2014. Elway would have begun a rebuild for the future. Instead, that loss helped them win it all two years later, and perhaps many more.
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