Has Denver Closed the Gap With Seattle?

[58Miller]

Seattle was much better than us in the Superbowl. The game this last Sunday was much closer and hard fought with Seattle scoring 14 pts in the final 5 minutes of the second quarter and Denver scoring 17 pts in the fourth quarter to tie it up.
In the end Denver had to respect Marshawn Lynch and the Seattle ground game opening up huge running lanes for Wilson and Wilson directed a masterful game winning drive. Seattle is still the better team. More balanced offensive attack, and they still have the leagues best defense.
All that said Has Denver Closed the Gap? Many Seahawk and one Charger fan (No Ring No Glory) argued before the season Denver wasn't even close, and the loss of Eric Decker, Zane Beadles, and Knowshon Moreno actually made us worse.
Also added was that Ryan Clady, Rahim Moore, Von Miller, Derek Wolfe, and Chris Harris made no difference in the blow out and the additions of Talib, Ware, Ward, and Sanders wouldn't matter.

Who was right and who was wrong?
Turns out Clady is pretty good Manning had a lot more time to throw this past week than the Superbowl.
Emmanuel Sanders has not only replaced Decker but he is better, 11 catches for 147 yards Sunday compared to Decker's 1 catch for 6 in the big game.
Knowshon looked good week 1 and Ball has struggled but Knowshon being out due to injury for 6 to 8 weeks makes his loss a non factor.
On defense Rahim Moore is having his best season so far he is all over the field, and Derek Wolfe helped hold Lynch to a 3.38 yac avg in the game, his biggest play was on the safety him and Marshall gang tackled Lynch.
How bout Von, 8 hurries and sack, Ware had a sack and his penetration on the following play forced the sack.
Talib tipped the pass that Harris picked, and Harris pretty much kept Harvin in check all day.
TJ Ward played great coverage on Zach Miller, had a sack and came in to put hits on Lynch all day.
Pete Carroll said he felt his team played better than in the Superbowl on Sunday and if you believe that what does that tell you about Denver?
The Broncos are still working on their oline run blocking and figuring out if Ball is the guy or will CJ Anderson or dark horse Juwan Thompson be the main back long term. Other than that Denver's defense is going to be special, they have a lot of speed and play makers and once they have more time together they will be one of the most feared groups in the league. Along those same lines Peyton with Welker back and Sanders balling out without much help from DT so far, its only a matter of time before we are averaging 30+ pts a game again.
So in conclusion YES DENVER HAS CLOSED THE GAP ON SEATTLE! And Charger fans we already were better than your squad! Your keep away game wont work with us, Denver scored 8 pts in 42 seconds against the leagues best defense in the toughest place to play. Oh and last I checked Rivers can't run which has been Denver Achilles heel this season. Same Bronco team that beat you guys 2 out of 3 games and now they pass block better with Clady and they have a defense now. Bolts fans enjoy running your mouths because come week 8 reality is not going to be fun for you guys. Thursday Night Payback is coming.

[NoRingNoGlory]

This has all already been hashed out in a previous thread.
http://forums.denverbroncos.com/show...h-the-Seahawks

[dizzolve]

Yes Denver has closed the gap

That first fumble probably ended up being the difference in the game. If Ball could have just held on - it could have set the Broncos on a completely different path on Sunday

Defense did an awesome job of holding momentum to 3pts though. But still if no fumble, Ball ends up running harder all game, and we probably would have actually seen the gameplan they prepared all week - but the way it all came about - they had to ditch the gameplan and resort to contingency plans we could have been better prepared for although foreseeing what did happen would have been pretty tough.

Love how the defense is looking despite where it's ranked

[58Miller]

This has all already been hashed out in a previous thread.
http://forums.denverbroncos.com/show...h-the-Seahawks

No Ring you claimed the gap between Denver and Seattle was the size of the Grand Canyon!
Defend yourself!

[RolandDeschain]

I don't think you're on equal footing. Get back to the Super Bowl this season and we'll find out.

[Spice 1]

When it comes to Seattle, Idt it's as much about closing the gap as it is changing the gaps. Statistically, we had the highest scoring offense in league history last year. That did us some super cool favors in the super bowl. I think our current roster, particularly on defense, stands a better chance of matching up with Seattle than last year.

Ima go ahead and throw this out there for smack consumption: Aqib Talib is the 4th best corner in the league. Thoughts? I mean, look at how far improved our secondary is compared to what we had in the SB. Champ was struggling mightily, Harris was out, hell look at the safeties. Nothing against Adams, but damn...

I think this is one of those uncommon cases where the defense is going to gradually improve. Getting Trevathan back, while Von and Harris return to form. New faces becoming comfortable with one another. I got faith.

[arapaho]

I don't think you're on equal footing. Get back to the Super Bowl this season and we'll find out.

you might not even make it back..lol

[RolandDeschain]

you might not even make it back..lol

Oh, I know. This is the smack forum, however; no?

By the way...You guys are lucky the refs missed that horrifically blatant facemask against #93, O'Brien Schofield.

http://thebiglead.com/2014/09/21/pey...aryius-thomas/

Look at that first animated GIF, he's ripped to the ground by the facemask and STILL gets back up and nearly gets to Peyton for a sack. Combine that with the Seahawks getting screwed out of that fumble, and let's just say that the Broncos aren't as close to the Seahawks as the final score would indicate, in my opinion.

[arapaho]

did we close the gap...yes

the pundits and seahag fans, and of course our resident bolt trolls claimed all summer the injuries we had didn't matter, we did manage to make it to the game, but the road to getting there wasn't against elite teams as the one we faced it was against the pats and bolts, where even with the losses of key players we were still the better team

on offense, just the return of a all pro LT improved manninga protection greatly, now we reshuffled the deck and if they could get their run blocking down its an huge improvement over what we fielded in the SB

sanders is a big improvement over decker, I loved decker but his inability to be successful against tight press and his constant crying for flags was enough to say adios...speed over the top is huge and when DT gets it going...look out

defense

...............SB starters...............................week three starters
LDE-----------malik Jack------------<<<<<----------------wolfe
DT--------------s Williams------------------------------------------
NT--------------potroast-------------------------------------------
RDE--------------s Phillips--------------<<<<<<-------------d ware
SLB---------------Irvin------------------<<<<<<--------------miller
MLB--------------lennon----------------<<<<<<---------------Irvin
WSB---------------trevathan----------->>>>>>>------------marshall..........but will be back
LCB-----------------Bailey---------------<<<<<<--------------talib
RCB----------------DRC -----------------<<<<<<---------------harris
SS-----------------ihenacho-------------<<<<<<---------------TJ ward
FS------------------adams---------------<<<<<<----------------Moore

this defense aint even cracked its potential yet

[eviltwin]

I would say you've closed the gap considerably. Just beefing up and getting guys back on defense accomplished that. My whole take on last years SB was, i thought Denver would score, but i thought Seattle would scored with you because half your defense was in street clothes.

I thought we would win because we'd get more key stops. That game unfolded unlike anything i'd ever imagined.. You guys had a bad game, we had our best game of the season in all three phases.

I knew this last game would be much tighter, i thought it would of played out a little differently but the end result is what I was predicting.

To respond to the OP's question, you have definitely closed the gap, that game Sunday looked every bit like the games we've played against SF in the last two seasons, brutal, tight and down to the wire. (Minus the two blowouts of course). If these two teams was to make it back for a rematch, you wanna talk about must watch tv...

[baphamet]

Denver has taken a step back this season, they are not as good as they were last year. sure there defense is healthier but offensively they are not as good.

about what i expected going into the season though.

[ERoyal248]

Denver has taken a step back this season, they are not as good as they were last year. sure there defense is healthier but offensively they are not as good.

about what i expected going into the season though.

Eh thats too early to say.

I'll wait to see how they do when they dont face the worst matchup in the league against their offense, Seattle.

Still alot of new pieces that need time to gel.

And even at full strength, im not sure i'd take last years team over this years with both fully healthy..

[ERoyal248]

The gap is a little smaller but Seattle is still better.

[arapaho]

Eh thats too early to say.

I'll wait to see how they do when they dont face the worst matchup in the league against their offense, Seattle.

Still alot of new pieces that need time to gel.

And even at full strength, im not sure i'd take last years team over this years with both fully healthy..

bap is a troll....come on, hes gonna speak his troll talk about what he thinks...in the end this team is a lot better then last years team

[arapaho]

The gap is a little smaller but Seattle is still better.

you think...had we had the much much faster DT as opposed to marshal, do you think he woulda spyed Wilson and stopped him

had we played that game in Denver without the seattle noise, would we had done more?


I don't consider them a better team...they win some positions, we win others