The first play sort of sealed the deal.
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That first play would have been just a bump in the road for Manning and recovered easily.
Maybe next year will be without Manning and I don’t think he will be looking around for another team he could take to the super Bowl.
He was gracious when he was replaced as quaterback before, this time it will be his call and retire from a game that has turned devolved into the status of the WWE.
The very first play was bad for Denver and it all went downhill from there.
No that first play was huge, it showed they were nervous, then Seattle gets points on their drive, next thing you know Denver is looking at a game that’s 5 minutes old, they’re 5 points behind, and their only play was a disaster. So now they’re even more nervous. 3 and out. Another Seattle FG, now Denver is looking at a game that’s 12 minutes old, they’re 8 points behind, they’ve had 4 plays, no first downs, things are ugly. Tight teams get tighter when things go poorly, 3 and INT. Seattle gets a TD. Now they’re really tight, down 15, now first downs, 7 whole plays from scrimmage, a safety and an INT. They seem to shake off some of it, start putting a drive together, get some first downs, get to long FG range, pick 6. The game ended when Smith got into the end zone, Denver was deflated, they had failed in every phase of the game.
Tightness gets tighter, failure causes more failure. Happens in sports a lot. Especially for teams that have been front running and not faced any real adversity. Basically this whole game was like their second half against the Pats in the regular season, same kind of de-wheeling.