SEATTLE — The script flip produced drama, but not the accompanying happy ending. The Broncos defense played terrific, but the offense couldn’t secure the victory with a late push. The exact opposite played out in the opening two wins, the offense racing to big leads and the defense showing elasticity of yoga instructor.
The loss stung, but the Broncos closed the gap, leaving CenturyLink Field better equipped to compete than they were in the Super Bowl.
“I didn’t think they would go down on the field like that at the end,” Ward said. “They are a good team. I will give them that. At the Super Bowl, they obviously beat us badly. I wasn’t there, so I can’t speak to that. I just know what we have here and what they have over there, we are supposed to have a game like that. A lot of people thought they were going to just punch us in the mouth. I knew that wasn’t going to happen. We were down two touchdowns, but we fought. I knew the guys on this defense weren’t going to let that fly.”
Demaryius Thomas continues to fight inconsistency. He has been targeted 27 times through three games, same as last year. A season ago, he had 20 catches, compared to 11 this year. He has struggled with drops, with three in the opener and another one Sunday.
Footnotes
–Wes Welker took a big hit following an interception. He wasn’t pleased, asking the ref. Welker received his third concussion in nine months in the preseason. “
–Peyton Manning offered an interesting observation, saying the loss of Virgil Green early in the game to a concussion had more of an impact than most realized. “The game didn’t start out the way we wanted to. We had a good second drive. I thought Virgil Green’s injury was significant—it changed some things and limited us a little bit formation-wise that we were going to try to do… I missed Julius (Thomas) in the end zone, not a good throw by me. It would have been nice to get the touchdown there, so we changed a little bit once Virgil went out. Of course being down two scores we became one-dimensional, which is not what you want against these guys. It wasn’t working for us, especially being down two scores. That put us in a one-dimensional phase.”
–Pete Carrol was shocked that the Broncos tied the game in the fourth quarter. It called it a defensive breakdown on Jacob Tamme’s score. “We were trying to make the right call, and get out of there. I was so disappointed that they hit us on that double move that they did. We had the guys on the other side all ready for it, and they got it going. [Denver] did a great job with it. I was disappointed that I didn’t get the word to the guy to alert him on it. A little bit stunned that we let it happen so easily, that was lousy. It set up for a great finish. I kind of like the dramatics. It was pretty good.”
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