As Denver Broncos fans finished up jumping, screaming, running around and hugging strangers on Sunday night, many of them flipped over to Fox to find out who would stand between their beloved Broncos and eternal glory. Depending on what time they eventually flipped that channel, they likely saw a score like 17-0, 24-7, 34-7 or if they just saw the final, 49-15.
Whatever it was, at that moment, their heart skipped a beat, they’ve seen a score like that before. That 34 point margin of victory is, actually, one point less than the Broncos average margin of defeat in their five Super Bowl losses, interestingly, exactly matched by their latest Super Bowl snooze-fest, a 43-8 loss at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks.
Somewhere, in the back of their minds, Broncos fans were worried Cam Newton and the high-powered Panthers could serve up another whopping.
There’s no magical fix or special reason the Broncos have fallen flat in 70-percent of their appearances on sports biggest stage, but you can look to that latest game, a game that featured some of the same players that will play in Super Bowl 50 for the Orange & Blue, and ask, “What went wrong?”
The Seahawks may have been the better team on the field that day, but they weren’t 35 points better than the highest powered offense in NFL history on any given day.
You look to the preparation.
It’s no secret that there was partying, and lots of it, there was the odd hotel switch, there was the lack of preparation for one of the loudest fanbases in the league coming in and taking over the place. No matter how you look at it, it seems John Fox didn’t press any of the right buttons going into Super Bowl XLVIII, and while he wouldn’t say he was going to fade everything Fox did, on Monday, Gary Kubiak talked about how he would handle preparation.
“I’m going to go with my experiences that I’ve had going [to the Super Bowl],” said the Broncos head coach. “I’ve been a part of different forms of preparation to play in this game. I have my mind made up on the way I think we should do it. I’m going to stick to that.
“There are all kind of ways to do it,” he added. “But the bottom line is — you’re going to have to play a great football team and you’re going to have to play great to win. I mean that’s part of it. Distractions are a big, big part of it. [Vice President of Public Relations] Patrick [Smyth] and I are going to handle that together, and we’ll do that. Our players have done a great job with that.”
Kubiak’s experience can be trusted, after all, he was a part of both those rings that have a Denver Bronco stamped in the middle of them. But a head coach’s message can only go so far, the 53 men that will take the field in white jerseys on Feb. 7, are just that, men. They will have to handle their business personally.
“I think when you have 17 guys on the roster that haven’t made it, you can sort of let their feelings trickle throughout the rest of the 53,” 11th-year vet, DeMarcus Ware told media. “The guys really know what it feels like to go into a game and you’re really going to pull it off. Those guys are just letting us know their feelings in general.
“I’m excited right now,” Ware continued. “You probably don’t know it. You’re probably like, ‘Is DeMarcus excited or not?’ I am excited, but the thing is that you have one more game left then you can celebrate. Then you can do the things that this game is about. It’s still business for me.”
Of course, right now, it’s all talk. Until they trade the bright lights of the Super Bowl nightlife for the bright light of their iPad playbook, it’s all talk. But the Broncos have already begun to take care of the distractions, using Monday morning to start taking care of tickets, travel plans for their families, etc.
“Very impressed with how organized everything is already,” Kubiak explained. “I mean that just tells you what this organization is all about. Yeah, that’s important. I know the years that I’ve had the opportunity to go, you want to get all those things taken care of so you can focus on football. Our organization is on top of it, doing a great job already.”
In the words of Bay Area hip-hop legends, Souls of Mischief, “Sometimes it gets a little hectic out there,” but until you get that ring, it’s time to make like Tajai and, “Just chill.”
