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afraid to throw against Seattle, even when behind. I found this to be maybe the best piece of evidence yet, that the Legion of Boom is truly that elite.

http://www.footballperspective.com/are-teams-afraid-to-pass-against-seattle/

And another one that also talks about Denver's offense:

http://grantland.com/features/a-tale-of-two-cities/

The money quote:

So, the numbers suggest we’re looking at perhaps the best offense of all time versus one of the 10 best defenses of all time.

monkey wrote:afraid to throw against Seattle, even when behind. I found this to be maybe the best piece of evidence yet, that the Legion of Boom is truly that elite.

http://www.footballperspective.com/are-teams-afraid-to-pass-against-seattle/

The stats don't always tell the full story. The fact is that we didn't face very many pass heavy teams. Just two of our 16 games featured passing offenses ranked in the top 10, the Saints and Falcons. 6 of our games, over a third of our schedule, were against San Fran (#30), St. Louis(#27), Tampa Bay (#32) and Carolina(#29). Then we had games against Minnesota (#23), Jacksonville (#22), and Tennessee (#21), all teams that started backup quarterbacks against us in our house. Our only divisional opponent that had a passing offense in the top 25 was Arizona at #13. The NFC West has the toughest defenses in the league, but we're not murderer's row when it comes to prolific quarterbacking.

And like the author said, the fact that we feature a run heavy offense with a quarterback that doesn't turn the ball over very often also helps sway those numbers.

I'm not disagreeing with your premise that our secondary is elite. They are. Anyone with half a football brain can decipher that they are the best in the business. But I disagree with your claim that it's the "best evidence yet". But I don't need no stinking evidence....lol!

I said that it MIGHT be Riv, might be.
You don't think it is, that's cool I say it shows that teams are scared to throw at us, and to me, that's the best evidence.

Our defense is up for the challenge.

Manning is gonna have to throw a Ton in this game, because I don't see their running attack being good enough to get it done. And sooner or later, Peyton's gonna force a throw or two and get picked. I think our secondary get's 2 INT's, at least, on Sunday.

Beyond that, the hunch here is that Lynch will have a good day running the ball. I don't care what the Broncos have done so far in terms of rush D. So they've held the Chargers and Patirots, big deal. They have not played a physical team like ours all year. So while this isn't Chicago vs N.E. from 28 yrs ago, it is a matchup of a bruiser against a more finesse approach.

Just do a little research about who each team has played. The defensive rankings of who each team played this season are glaring! The Chargers beat the Broncos in their house!

Also let's not forget PH is slated to play in this game and has a lot to prove. The Broncos D will be on their heels the entire game....no way the Broncos load the box, they know who they are on defense and now with PH, Tate, Balwin and Kearse (whom by some) are average at best know they have to respect this team. If the Hawks win time of possession and keep PM on the sidelines we win this game going away.

That said, I hope to see the Hawks DB's making serious contact at the line of scrimmage to knock the Broncos receivers of their routes just enough to allow the rush to get to PM.

Go Hawks!!!!!

I am a tad bit concerned about the "hurry up offense" Denver can employ. Not sure we faced much of that this year. New Orleans much?

Would love to hear from the football savvy here that I am worrying about nothing.

monkey wrote:afraid to throw against Seattle, even when behind. I found this to be maybe the best piece of evidence yet, that the Legion of Boom is truly that elite.

http://www.footballperspective.com/are-teams-afraid-to-pass-against-seattle/

BTW Monkey,

Very innovative Thread title with content lead in. I like it! I might try it to see if it works. HAHA

Clem7 wrote:I am a tad bit concerned about the "hurry up offense" Denver can employ. Not sure we faced much of that this year. New Orleans much?

Would love to hear from the football savvy here that I am worrying about nothing.

The wonderful thing is that our defense are a bunch of smart dudes. They are prepped for this. And sure, initially they might be able to dink and dunk on us. Even the hurry up by Brees resulted in throws to our db's and corners that they dropped because of the conditions.
This ordinarily would favor Peyton, but he would have to play perfect ball against our top ranked D. Since we have not been exposed to hurry up, much, he does not know just yet what we will do. We are not all on tape. This plays into our hands.
You can bet that Peyton has been studying the Arizona tape a bunch to see how Palmer won the game. You can bet that we and Max will not be suckered into that position again.

I posted this else where but when asked if he was going to "enjoy" New York City. Sherman said, 'outside of the shaking of hands and interviews, I will go back to my room and prepare. We are here to play football.'(or something like that).

We will be ready for Mannings' hurry up offense.

monkey wrote:I said that it MIGHT be Riv, might be.
You don't think it is, that's cool I say it shows that teams are scared to throw at us, and to me, that's the best evidence.

Perhaps. But from the evidence I presented, it would appear that most of our oppponents were scared to throw against a lot of teams.

Eaglehawk wrote:

Clem7 wrote:I am a tad bit concerned about the "hurry up offense" Denver can employ. Not sure we faced much of that this year. New Orleans much?

Would love to hear from the football savvy here that I am worrying about nothing.

The wonderful thing is that our defense are a bunch of smart dudes. They are prepped for this. And sure, initially they might be able to dink and dunk on us. Even the hurry up by Brees resulted in throws to our db's and corners that they dropped because of the conditions.
This ordinarily would favor Peyton, but he would have to play perfect ball against our top ranked D. Since we have not been exposed to hurry up, much, he does not know just yet what we will do. We are not all on tape. This plays into our hands.
You can bet that Peyton has been studying the Arizona tape a bunch to see how Palmer won the game. You can bet that we and Max will not be suckered into that position again.
You can bet that Quinn has formulated a plan to counter act this.
I posted this else where but when asked if he was going to "enjoy" New York City. Sherman said, 'outside of the shaking of hands and interviews, I will go back to my room and prepare. We are here to play football.'(or something like that).

We will be ready for Mannings' hurry up offense.

Thank ya, Eaglehawk. I seem to recall that Peyton against our #1 defense drove straight down the field rather easily in that preseason game. Settled for a field goal though I think.

I do think we'll be prepared. A little anxious today.

My pleasure Clem,
This long week is killing me too.

Also, you would think that Quinn remembers that march down the field, and has formulated a plan to counter this.
Our run defense is going to help slow down Manning's hurry.

I am sure that Quinn will dial up a few 3rd down blitzes, to hurry up the guy who is hurrying us.

Also, Quinn can call up man to man to prevent that slant on third and short.

If they spread their receivers out, then Quinn might call zone defense or max coverage where only 3 attack the LOS and the rest drop back.
This D could be one of the top 10 D's of all time according to some.

The Legion of Boom, if we win the SB might be talked about as a top ten D of all time along with the Steel Curtain(no one will be up there with that defense to be clear, they were the best of all time in my opinion), No Name Defense, Fearsome Foursome, and Purple People Eaters: but still, even if its an honorable mention, that is some damn good company.