2012 Baltimore Ravens
Once again, the Baltimore Ravens probably weren’t the best team in the NFL when they won their second Super Bowl in 2012 — as Broncos fans, we know that all too well — but it didn’t matter. Who cares that they backed into the playoffs, losing four of their final five games? Who cares that their quarterback was only slightly above average all season? Who cares that the only reason they even reached the Super Bowl is because Rahim Moore made the worst decision in football history (yes, I’m still bitter!)?
Joe Flacco, Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl, and in 50 years, that’s all we’re going to remember. And while it was a disappointing outcome for the Broncos at the time, it’s another example of why we should have hope going into this postseason.
The truth is that Flacco was elite during that playoff run. He may not have been before or after it, but he sure was during that four-game stretch where he threw 11 touchdowns, 0 interceptions and had a quarterback rating of 117.2; that’s a good deal better than the 22 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and 87.7 quarterback rating he produced during the regular season.
The Ravens won the Super Bowl because Flacco stepped his game up when it mattered most. More importantly, their playoff run was not decided based on how he played during the regular season.
The same will be true for the Denver Broncos. No matter how many arguments we’ve had over whether Peyton Manning or Brock Osweiler should be the guy come the postseason, we’re still attempting to predict how they’re going to perform in five/six weeks; based off what we’ve seen, nobody can accurately do that.
For one, if the Broncos do go back to Manning, I’m not sure we can expect him to play anything like what we saw through the first nine weeks. Again, if Manning really was dealing with a serious plantar fascia injury, then he’s probably been dealing with it since Week 1. If — and it’s a big if — Manning is healthier than he’s been in a long time, maybe we do see the “old Manning.”
Likewise, if it is Osweiler’s job, then shouldn’t we expect him to just continue to get better? Is there any reason to think he’ll be worse with eight games of experience than he was with one or two?
This is all a case for the idea that the Broncos haven’t reached their potential, that the offense will continue to settle into itself as the postseason nears. If that happens, don’t be surprised if we end up looking at the 2015 Broncos and their quarterback (no matter who it is) the same way we looked at the Ravens and Joe Flacco back in 2012.
