Regular Season Week 3
(0-2) Denver Broncos at
(1-1) Seattle Seahawks
The 12s were as loud as ever, hoping to witness a repeat of what occurred in the Super Bowl 7 months prior. Seattle won the toss and deferred, making Manning and the Broncos go to work against the best defense in the NFL.
Just like the Super Bowl, the game started with a mistake from the Broncos. On a handoff to Montee Ball up the middle, Ball was hit by Cliff Avril and spun off of him. As Ball fell to the ground he was fighting for extra yards when Kam Chancellor poked the ball out, picked up by LB Bruce Irvin, and ran back to the seven yard line, First and Goal Seahawks. The refs went to the booth, and after extensive scrutiny reversed the call (I saw the play myself and thought there was not conclusive evidence). Anyways, Manning was unstoppable all the way down to the Seattle 2, where the Seahawks made a 3 play stand to force a field goal. Wilson would get sacked on 3rd and 5 on the ensuing drive, pushing the Seahawks put of field goal range, and after a punt, Manning led the Broncos down the field again, capping it off with a play action pass to Emmanuel Sanders for a one yard score. Seattle would get the ball back, and after a three yard toss play to Lynch, Wilson showed off his arm on a jump ball to Percy Harvin, who caught the ball in stride, shed his defender and went 77 yards for the touchdown. The Broncos went down the field again and scored on a 1 yd run from Ball. Seattle drove the ball down to the Denver 20 on a two minute drill when Wilson found Harvin in the corner of the end zone with 5 seconds to play in the half (the catch would be reviewed and confirmed).
Halftime
Denver Broncos: 17
Seattle Seahawks: 14
Both Manning and Wilson had a hard time getting anything going in the third quarter, mostly due to the acrobatic pass defenses by Aqib Talib and Richard Sherman. With 5:51 in the fourth Seattle would get a 24 yard field goal after failing to convert on a third and 1. Things were tied at seventeen and Denver had the ball on their own 30, third and inches. The handoff was to ball, a dive play, when BAM, Kam Chancellor shot the A gap and popped the ball from Ball, as Chancellor fell on it to recover the fumble. Seattle now had the ball with 3 minutes to play, tie score. After a few short runs by Lynch, Wilson ran a play action, rolled out of the pocket, pump faked to Zach Miller, looking, tucking the football, great block from FB Derrick Coleman, and the dive, and he's in, touchdown, Russel Wilson, a six yard scramble.
Denver would get the ball, 1:51 left on the clock, 2nd and 10, Manning pumps, looks, can't find anyone, and bam there's second string DE Benson Mayowa, poking the ball loose and diving to recover. But the ball pops out of his hands, there's a scramble for the ball, when finally LG Luis Vasquez falls on it amidst a pile of lineman. Although they got the recovery, it was a huge loss of yards. 3rd and 24, Manning drops,
nobody open, he tucks the ball and is sacked by Michael Bennett, one of the league leaders in sacks. 4th and 31, Broncos lining up to go for it. It's an out route to Emmanuel Sanders, he's running, and is punched out of bounds by Jeremy Lane after a pickup of about 20. The Seahawks would get the Ball but Denver had two timeouts. First down and a pickup of 5. 2nd down, stuffed in the backfield. On third down Lynch slipped a tackle and trucked over a linebacker for a first down Seattle. And that would just about do it for the Seahawks
Final Score
(0-3) Denver Broncos: 17
(2-1) Seattle Seahawks: 24
Game Stats:
QB P. Manning: 20-26, 240 yd, 1 td,
WR P. Harvin: 2 rec, 97 yd, 2 td
MLB B. Wagner: 8 tak, 3 tfl, 1 sack
SS K. Chancellor: 8 tak, 1 pdef, 1 ffum
KR P. Harvin: 3 kr, 95 yd