People bet on all sorts of things when the Super Bowl comes around — the halftime score, the coin toss, the MVP and, of course, the victor — but probably only a handful of people predicted the outcome we saw on Sunday night at Super Bowl XLVIII.
The Seattle Seahawks earned their first Super Bowl win. They had only appeared in the Super Bowl once before, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005. Though the 43-8 blowout wasn’t that exciting for fans to watch, it was still a historic victory for Seattle.
Hype always surrounds football’s biggest event, but this year’s game was especially notable because it took place in New Jersey, the first Super Bowl to be played outdoors in a “cold weather” city. Fans and commentators never failed to mention the fact that the game could possibly be played under a foot of snow. This game was a true challenge because the weather factor raised the stakes for this season’s two most competitive teams. In the end, New Jersey had a mild weekend, saving its snow for Monday morning. Don’t blame it on the sunshine, though, Denver.
As the saying goes, “offense wins games, but defense wins championships.” You have undoubtedly heard some coach say this and brushed it off with a shrug. Last night’s game was a pretty clear example of this wisdom. The Denver Broncos came in with the league’s best offense, yet the team only posted eight points against the league’s best defense.
It will be pretty hard to write off the quote after Sunday night’s contest. No one on the Seahawks roster, except for maybe the humble linebacker Malcolm Smith, would deny that the defense earned the Seahawks this trophy. Smith is the first defensive player to win the MVP honor in over 10 years. The fact that we were on Wikipedia looking for the last time there was a shutout at the Super Bowl, and found that it had never happened before, reflects the unrelenting dominance of the Seattle defense. Smith might have even earned himself a portrait on a Wheaties box!
For many people, the allure of the Super Bowl was Bruno Mars, EBAs wings and Budweiser commercials with cute Labrador puppies. For those spectators, the game did not disappoint. In most years, they would miss the action when they return to their reading after a commercial break. They might, however, be the ones that did Super Bowl Sunday right this year.
For the Denver Broncos, the game was a downward spiral from the very first snap. It was pretty much over before the first commercial break. There was never a glimmer of it being a good game. Even the Broncos’ one touchdown was anticlimactic.
We try to stay away from analyzing statistics, as we really have no business interpreting numbers, but we can’t help but see the irony in the fact that statistics couldn’t even explain what happened on Sunday night.
For example, Peyton Manning set a record for the most completions in a Super Bowl game. And simultaneously, his offense fell behind by the biggest margin in Super Bowl history before finally getting on the scoreboard. Some say numbers don’t lie, but there’s a difference between lying and not telling the whole truth. The entire first half, the Broncos couldn’t even kick a field goal, so clearly completions can only get you so far.
Neither of us had strong allegiances to either team (they were playing in Maddie’s home stadium, but our attachment ends there). We were looking to be entertained, and not only by the commercials. It got to be hard to watch, as passes were intercepted, catches dropped and quarterbacks sacked. We scheduled our weekend to get our work done so we could watch the game without distractions, but we found ourselves looking for other things to do by the time the 30-minute halftime finished. Maybe it should have snowed — at least that would have made one aspect of the game a little more exciting. No one likes to be disappointed, but our lack of entertainment is nothing compared to the nightmares that Manning will have until next season begins.
