After all that time and energy, not to mention the column inches and radio segments, it proved to be a moot point. In the end, it was much ado about nothing.
Manning or Osweiler? Osweiler or Manning? There wasn’t a person in Denver who didn’t have an opinion on the debate that defined the 2015 season.
It’s been the topic of conversation all season long, from Nov. 15 until the final gun sounded on Sunday against the Patriots; everyone had an opinion about who should be the starting quarterback for the Broncos. It was the most divisive debate that Broncos Country had seen in quite some time; perhaps nothing short of Tim Tebow had conjured up such emotion from both sides of an argument.
In the end, however, it really didn’t matter; the player behind center for the Broncos was almost immaterial to the team’s chances of advancing through the playoffs and reaching Super Bowl 50. Given the current state of the game, where almost every team’s fate is determined by its quarterback, that’s a remarkable statement.
But that’s the case in Denver, where the clock is being turned back to a bygone era, to a time when defense won championships and garnered the headlines. Because as the Broncos ready themselves for the franchise’s eighth trip to the Super Bowl, it’s clear that they are winning in ways that are no longer the norm in the NFL.
To be fair, this isn’t a knock on the two players the Broncos have used this year at the most position in sports; both Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler are more than capable of leading their teams to victory, something they’ve both shown on multiple occasions during a tumultuous season. Most teams would love to have either quarterback guiding their ship.
But that doesn’t diminish what Denver’s defense has been able to accomplish this season. In a league dominated by quarterbacks, where the rules are written to tilt the field toward the offense and the high-priced signal callers, the Broncos have found a way to make hay on the other side of the ball.
Yesterday’s win over the Patriots provided the perfect example of how Denver has turned the NFL blueprint on its head; instead of winning with offense, the Broncos were able to advance to the Super Bowl by being dominant on defense. On a day when Manning and Company mustered only 244 total yards, 12 first downs and 20 points, a victory over the defending champs was still in the cards.
That’s what happens when a team can rattle the best quarterback in the history of the sport. Prior to yesterday, Tom Brady hadn’t been hit more than 12 times in a game this season; the Broncos made contact with the future Hall of Famer 23 times during a performance that left the Patriots signal caller rattled, to say the least.
However, Denver wasn’t able to put New England away. Multiple opportunities to build a two-score lead turned into one punt after another, keeping the game close throughout.
Time and again, the Broncos defense was asked to make a play with the game on the line. And at every juncture, they were up to the task.
In the second half, New England took possession of the ball on five occasions while trailing by one score or less. And five different times, the Broncos were able to prevent the defending champions from putting a game-tying score on the board; they forced two punts, saw two drives end on downs and were able to pick off Brady’s two-point conversion attempt in the waning seconds.
Today, that type of performance is almost hard to comprehend. In a pass-happy league, it’s hard to imagine that a defense could come up big on that many occasions; it’s even more remarkable given that a four-time Super Bowl champion was the one trying to make plays and score points in the second half of the AFC Championship Game.
But that’s what Wade Phillips and Company were able to pull off on Sunday. With a trip to the golden anniversary of the game’s biggest event on the line, Denver’s defense was able to thwart the (arguably) best quarterback in the history of the league when it mattered most.
It’s something everyone should have seen coming. All season long, the Broncos have had a championship-caliber defense – one that could carry a team to a title, no matter how anemic the offense might be on a weekly basis.
The Buccaneers in 2002. The Ravens in 2000. And the Bears in 1985.
Those were the examples most often cited when trying to illustrate how a defensive-focused team could wind up on the game’s mountaintop. But it didn’t seem as if anyone truly believed that the Broncos could join that elite class.
That’s why the debate raged about Manning and Osweiler; in the end, everyone thought that the play of the quarterback, as has almost always been the case in the history of the league, would determine Denver’s fate. It was a logical assumption.
But in the end, the 2015 Broncos proved to be an exception to the rule. In a league that is dominated by quarterback play, the orange and blue were seemingly unaffected by whoever was lined up behind center on a weekly basis.
That’s why 17-of-32 for 176 yards was inconsequential on Sunday. While that type of ho-hum performance from the most important player on the field would normally derail a team, the rather pedestrian numbers posted by Manning in the AFC title game hardly made an impact on Denver’s day.
And it wouldn’t have mattered what his understudy, the player a lot of people in the Mile High City want to see playing, would have accomplished either. Short of throwing a bunch of ill-timed interceptions, the Broncos’ fate against the Patriots wasn’t going to be determined by their quarterback.
Denver was going to win or lose against the Patriots based on the performance of their defense; they simply needed the offense not to make any crippling mistakes, the types that lead to easy scores for the opposition. And for the most part, the Manning-led attack was able to accomplish that goal.
As a result, the Broncos are headed to Santa Clara. Their trip to Super Bowl 50 was almost entirely because they relied on their defense, asking that side of the ball to carry the load time after time after time.
They answered the bell, paving the franchise’s way to another shot on the game’s biggest stage. And in the process, they quieted the biggest debate in Denver sports.
It doesn’t matter who is playing quarterback for the Broncos at the moment. As long as they play conservative football on offense, the orange and blue have a shot.
So in the end, everyone was been debating about nothing. The QB battle in Denver has been much ado about nothing.
