With the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos preparing to meet in Super Bowl XLVIII this upcoming Sunday in MetLife Stadium with a chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, readers are already being inundated with articles covering every single angle of the game. There is absolutely no reason to go into Sunday evening without a strong knowledge of what to expect in the big game.
Here at The Sports Daily, we want to cover nearly every aspect of the Super Bowl. So here are our biggest positional advantages for the game:
Richard Sherman/Seahawks Legion of Boom vs Demaryius Thomas/Broncos WR corps
Isn’t it amazing how the elite play of one individual can be considered a matchup advantage going up against a receiving group that set NFL records during the regular year? This is how good Sherman is right now. He can line up against any one of Denver’s top-three wide receivers and lock them down. The common logic here seems to suggest that defensive coordinator Dan Quinn will put Sherman up against Thomas, who recorded 92 receptions for 1,430 yards and 14 touchdowns during the regular season.
According to Pro Football Focus, Sherman’s numbers were downright scary in the regular year.
He allowed quarterbacks to complete 51.7 percent of the passes thrown in his direction with two touchdowns and eight interceptions. In terms of being a lock down cornerback, Sherman gave up less than two receptions per outing and held quarterbacks to a 47.3 rating when targeted.
Here is his game-by-game breakdown (per Pro Football Focus).
People will point to Thomas’ connection with Peyton Manning during the regular season as one of the primary reasons this can’t be a major advantage for the Seahawks. And this could be true. Thomas caught 67 percent of the passes thrown in his direction during the regular year and was targeted nearly nine times per game. To put that into perspective, Andre Johnson of the Houston Texans was targeted 11 times per game and still put up less receiving yards than Thomas. I fully understand that difference in quarterback play between Denver and Houston, but that’s precisely the point. One of the primary reasons that Thomas has had success is because Manning is the one tossing the ball out there to him.
Looking at how upper-echelon receivers have done against Sherman and the Seahawks this year, it’s rather easy to come to the conclusion that they will be able to shut Thomas down.
| Wide Receiver | Team | Rec | Yards | TD |
| Steve Smith | Carolina | 6 | 51 | 1 |
| Anquan Boldin | San Francisco | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Andre Johnson | Houston | 9 | 110 | 0 |
| Reggie Wayne | Indianapolis | 6 | 65 | 0 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | Arizona | 2 | 17 | 0 |
| Michael Floyd | Arizona | 5 | 58 | 0 |
| Vincent Jackson | Tampa Bay | 2 | 11 | 0 |
| Roddy White | Atlanta | 1 | 20 | 0 |
| Marques Colston | New Orleans | 4 | 27 | 0 |
| Anquan Boldin | San Francisco | 6 | 93 | 0 |
| Michael Crabtree | San Francisco | 4 | 40 | 0 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | Arizona | 3 | 18 | 0 |
| Michael Floyd | Arizona | 1 | 31 | 0 |
While Seattle hasn’t faced a three-headed wide receiver monster that it will go up against on Sunday, it more than has the capability of lining up against them and coming out on top. If Sherman is able to take Thomas out of the game, it will narrow the field Manning can throw to, causing spacing issues for Wes Welker and Eric Decker. That has to be what Dan Quinn and Co. are thinking.
Marshawn Lynch vs Denver Broncos Run Defense
Denver’s defense has done a tremendous job against the run recently. Its yielding an average of just 70 rushing yards over the course of the last four games. Before that, the Broncos had given up 110-plus yards in eight of their previous 14 games this season. One of the reasons that Denver has improved against the run is the emergence of defensive tackle Terrance Knighton, who came over from the Jacksonville Jaguars last offseason. According to Pro Football Focus, Knighton finished in the top 10 of the NFL among interior defensive linemen against the run.
After playing relatively mediocre against the run up until Week 15, he’s been downright dominating in that category since.
For comparison’s sake, the +14.9 grade that Knighton has received against the run over the past five games represents a better overall grade in that category than all but six defensive tackles received throughout the duration of the entire 2013 regular season.
Then why call this a mismatch in Seattle’s favor? It’s rather simple. Marshawn Lynch has been one of the best running backs in the NFL over the past couple seasons and seems to only get better when going up against elite competition.
Including the postseason, Seattle has played eight games against defenses that finished in the top 10 of the NFL against run. Lynch was still able to tally an average of 4.2 yards per rush and over 75 yards per game. While not tremendous numbers in the grand scheme of things, that type of production will take pressure off of Wilson and the Seahawks passing game.
Shaun Phillips vs Russell Okung
Phillips has taken over as the Broncos most consistent pass-rush threat since Von Miller went down with a torn ACL back in December. Even when Miller was on the field for the few games that he did see action, Phillips was the player that opposing offensive lines had to focus on. He put up 11 sacks and 32 quarterback hurries on the season.
Meanwhile, Okung just wasn’t healthy during the regular season. Struggling through a toe injury, his pass protection faltered a great deal. The former Pro Bowl performer accounted for seven penalties and allowed nine quarterback hurries in just eight games. For comparison’s sake, he allowed just 13 hurries in 16 games during the 2012 campaign.
If Phillips is able to put consistent pressure on Wilson’s blindside, he could easily force the third-year quarterback to put the ball on the ground. Despite overwhelming success this season, Wilson put the ball on the ground 12 times and lost five fumbles in the regular year. He also turned the ball over on Seattle’s first play from scrimmage against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game.
Peyton Manning vs Russell Wilson
via ESPN Stats & Information
I hate considering this a mismatch for a few reasons. First, Manning and Wilson aren’t necessarily going up against one another. Second, one of them will be going up against a historically good defense, while the other one won’t be. Finally, Wilson has been a mighty fine quarterback in two seasons with the Seahawks.
However, it’s nearly impossible to leave this one out of the article.
Manning is coming off the best single-season performance for a quarterback in the recent history of the NFL. Not only did he break the record for touchdown passes and passing yards in a given year, Denver put up a league record 37.9 points per game during the regular season. Looking solely at Denver’s passing offense, it gained over 300 passing yards 13 times and more than 350 yards seven different times.
Seattle may possess the best defense in the NFL, but those are historical numbers that the Broncos and Manning put up.
On the other hand, Wilson hasn’t done a whole heck of a lot recently. Including the postseason, he has put up under 170 passing yards per game in his last six outings. During that same span, the Pro Bowler has accounted for five touchdowns compared to three interceptions. Just to put that into perspective, Manning put up four-plus touchdowns nine different times during the regular year.
While we can’t expect Manning to have anywhere near that type of success against The Legion of Boom, he is more equipped to put up the necessary numbers to counteract other factors that might occur during the game. An interesting dynamic here, however, is that the the quarterback that has thrown for the fewest yards has won five of the past six Super Bowls. Manning might be the more accomplished quarterback with a better opportunity to put yards up through the air, but this doesn’t mean that he will come out on top when the clock hit triple zero Sunday night.
In doing research for this article, I found that there aren’t a ton of mismatches in this game. In the end, we are going to be watching the top two teams in the NFL from the regular season go up against one another for the Lombardi Trophy. With a combined 30-6 record, there really aren’t too many holes on the Broncos and Seahawks rosters. The mismatches I previewed above may not even decide the outcome of the game. Rather, it’s the matchups that seem to be much closer on paper that will provide us a winner in the end.
