Super Bowl 48: Make your predictions (closing poll early Sunday morning)

[hunter05]

The timing of that post was awesome

 

[mt8thsw9th]

If been watching online which was delayed by about 5 minutes...it was nice to turn it on upstairs in real time and see points 35 and 36.

 

[mt8thsw9th]

I'd, rather (thanks autocorrect).

 

[Oppo]

Sea gets a safety, defensive td, lynch td, and 50 yard fg

Got the first three right

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Too bad there's no prize, but
mt8thsw9th
 
was the closest in picking this one.
 
No one had the Seattle 31-35 when the poll closed.
 
Well done!

 

[Super Nomario]

I think this game is going to be low-scoring like the four playoff games these two teams have played to date. Even if both offenses are efficient (as Denver has been in its two playoff games), neither side is likely to give up the big play and both offenses are likely to be establishing the ground game, resulting in a low number of possessions game.
 
I'm fascinated by Denver's O vs Seattle's D. Manning likes to line up his O and make the defense declare what it's doing (as Chris Brown details in his article at Grantland). Seattle's D usually doesn't try to confuse anybody; they put their corners on the outside receivers and play cover-3 behind it. Both sides are used to being able to win one-on-one battles; it's entirely possible that early on we see one side getting the upper hand and the other side having to adjust and go outside their comfort zone on the fly.
 
Denver's D played really well against the Patriots last week despite being short-handed, while Seattle's O has been kind of suspect for a while. On paper, they should be able to put up points (Seattle was 8th in points scored while Denver's D was 22nd in points allowed) but I'm not sure it will be that easy, especially since they like to run the ball a lot (2nd in rushing attempts; 31st in passing attempts) and Denver's run D is stronger than their pass D (10th in YPC against; 17th in YPA against).

So most of what I wrote was wrong, but I was interested in how my middle point played out, especially the bolded sentence. Denver wasn't winning the one-on-one battles they usually do, and everything fell apart.
 
I remember when the Pats played Seattle ... everyone remembers they lost that game, but they moved the ball really well; Brady threw for 400 yards, and it could have been a blowout early if they'd been able to execute better in the red zone. They ran a lot of 5-wide formations and threw quick passes out of it to spread the field and give Brady easy reads. I didn't see any of that from the Broncos last night. I can't remember a play where they didn't have a back in the backfield. It seemed like they expected their attack would work against Seattle like it had against pretty much everyone else, and they had no plan B when they struggled.

 

[bluefenderstrat]

Add me to the Seattle by 18-21 club.
 
I see at least 3 Denver turnovers, including one on special teams. None will be deemed Peyton's fault (tipped/deflected pass, fumble after hand-off, etc.) All will prove costly. And all will allow us to enjoy something we've seen far too little of this year: The Manning Face.
 
Not rooting for either team.

 
Not bad!