Key Factors in the Loss

[t96]

-Mike Remmers/Michael Oher and the lack of gameplan to help these guys on the edges. They got absolutely destroyed, but the offensive coaching did absolutely no favors in helping them. I saw Dickson in there blocking a little bit, but I don't think he ever even touched a guy. The Broncos have amazing defensive ends but they can absolutely be planned for with good coaching. That wasn't there tonight.

-Cam's play. This is not as big a factor as others and he made some huge plays and passes in the game, but he didn't play like I thought he would on the biggest stage of them all. Normally in the pocket he can feel that pressure especially when from the right side, not his blind side, but on both strip sacks he didn't see it at all (it was there ridiculously fast, but typically he'll see it and just take the sack without cocking his arm back to throw, which led to it getting hit and the ball coming out). There were a few plays I saw where he stepped up in the pocket and back into pressure where the entire other side of the field was wide open. He missed some easy throws. He was by no means the reason we lost, but he did not play his best game. I truly think this will make him stronger in the future and make him even better, but we'll just have to find out.

-The receiver play. The only one who showed up was Philly fuging Brown, who went out with a concussion. Ginn and Funch each had a few decent plays but they couldn't get separation consistently and I think I counted nearly 10 drops by Cotch, 1 from Philly, Ginn and Stew, maybe someone else. KB back will be huge.

-Undisciplined play. There were countless stupid penalties on offense and defense and special teams play was horrendous once again, and unfathomly poor ball security. We couldn't capitalize on possible turnovers (Josh dropped 2 easy ones that he made earlier in the season) and uncharacteristically couldn't protect the ball on offense. I was honestly shocked by this. We played like we did in the 2nd half of the Seahawks game, not the other 6 quarters this postseason. No idea where to go from here on this.

-The Refs. They were in the Broncos favor. There was no way we were winning the game the way we played no matter what the refs did, but there were definitely some terrible calls. The challenge in the beginning was clear as day a catch. On the field goal there was a clear offsides penalty by a mile that even the Broncos-biased announcers pointed out. This text is small for a reason (sorry for those with poor eyes, I can barely see it myself). This was not the reason we lost.

[JawnyBlaze]

I didn't think Oher did a terrible job.  Almost all of the pressure was either allowed by Remmers, or a RB/TE not picking up their blitzer.  I saw both Dickson and Fozzy at times completely miss the blitzer and let them run free to Cam.

I thought Cam played well given what he had to work with.  He was handcuffed by Shula and set up by Remmers to fail.

Can't argue with the WR play.  Ginn had a few good plays, I'd give him a net positive on the game, but Cotchery was horrible and Funchess had one great grab but a few drops.

Agreed on undisciplined poo.

100% agreed on the refs, all your points.

[Snake]

5 turnovers and refs. 

[davideinstein]

Broncos defense was the difference in the game. 

[zacka77ack]

Mike Shula ran the ball over the right guard/tackle ON EVERY FIRST DOWN.  This is the most mind boggling stat of the entire night.  HOW DO YOU DO THAT?  EVERY 1ST DOWN.  HE RAN.  I'm sitting here with my mouth wide open because I am so confused by the vanilla poo we saw tonight.  Where were the Ted Ginn end arounds?  Like if you want to stick to your guns and call the same plays every time, at least call one that worked.  The entire offense played horribly tonight, but Mike Shula had them starting in horrible down and distance every drive.

[arieslibra1]

Funchess should got the ball more. I don't know why Cotchery got more PT than Funchess down the stretch.

[frash.exe]

The Panthers had no answer for that fuging Miller/Ware pincer attack the entire game. Denver pretty much lived off that maneuver all fuging night. Cam could never get settled and played rushed. It's like playing story mode in MK9 and Shao Kahn just keeps spamming that fuging plasma hammer.

[Ivan The Awesome]

What really stuck with me tonight was Riveras comments at the half. Basically saying they weren't changing the gamelan. That it would come down to whoever had the ball last. 

[t96]

2 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

I didn't think Oher did a terrible job.  Almost all of the pressure was either allowed by Remmers, or a RB/TE not picking up their blitzer.  I saw both Dickson and Fozzy at times completely miss the blitzer and let them run free to Cam.

I thought Cam played well given what he had to work with.  He was handcuffed by Shula and set up by Remmers to fail.

Can't argue with the WR play.  Ginn had a few good plays, I'd give him a net positive on the game, but Cotchery was horrible and Funchess had one great grab but a few drops.

Agreed on undisciplined poo.

100% agreed on the refs, all your points.

Oher wasn't as bad as Remmers but did not play well at all. He couldn't hold a single block in the running game and let up some bad pressure. It didn't result in sacks and strips like Remmers did but he did give up a lot of pressure.

As for Cam. I'm by no means disappointed in his performance. He made some spectacular plays and throws and played well for the most part. The pick was on Ginn. The fumbles were absolutely more on Remmers than Cam. That being said, he did miss easy throws, and not just early. Those throws may not have made a difference but they are throws that should be made. He did well for some of the near-sacks getting the ball away but I do believe on those pressures from the right from Remmers he could've been aware enough to not be cocking back to pass and could've just tucked and dropped down for the sack. If it was from the blindside I would've understood it more but I think he could be able to see that pressure coming, or feel it. Maybe not, just the feeling I got.

I don't know about Ginn. He should've caught the INT, that would've been a 1st down and goal instead of a turnover. And I thought on that huge passing play to him on the first drive of the second half he went out of bounds way too early. Could've gotten another 5 or even cut it back inside and possibly taken it to the house. I thought he played scared for some reason, but maybe he's just always played that way. Not sure that would've made a difference on the missed field goal or not but in the Super Bowl I don't know why in the hell you'd go out of bounds instead of for as many yards as possible. And he was running full speed it's not like he would've needed to fight for the extra yards and lose ball security. All he had to do was keep running straight and let his momentum take him forward instead of going sideways out of bounds... Maybe I'm nitpicking..

[tondi]

You aren't going to commit 4 turnovers in the SB and win, even if you are playing against a QB who can't throw the ball more than ten yards beyond the line of scrimmage.  TOs lost us the game and we have no one to blame but our players and coaches who apparently thought they were attending a coronation instead of an actual NFL game against a team that wanted to fug them up. 

Add in penalties and dropped passes and you have a scenario that is pretty much unwinnable despite our defense playing lights out the whole game.  Thanks for pissing away one of the most winnable SB's ever due to poor coaching, lousy concentration, and piss poor ball protection against a team that could only beat you in one way and thats the exact way we allowed them to beat us.

I hope our entire organization doesn't drink any of the "it was a good run" kool aid BS and realizes they just wasted a prime opportunity to win it all because they were completely unprepared for the game both mentally and physically on offense and special teams.

I hate our defense played lights out and limited Denver to under 200 yards of offense yet surrendered 24 pts due to the rest of the team crapping the bed and acting like they had no fugging business being in the stadium.

Maybe twenty years from now when we finally get back to the SB we will finally not crap the bed and actually have the ENTIRE team show up and play to win.

[JawnyBlaze]

Just now, thomas96 said:

I don't know about Ginn. He should've caught the INT, that would've been a 1st down and goal instead of a turnover. And I thought on that huge passing play to him on the first drive of the second half he went out of bounds way too early. Could've gotten another 5 or even cut it back inside and possibly taken it to the house. I thought he played scared for some reason, but maybe he's just always played that way. Not sure that would've made a difference on the missed field goal or not but in the Super Bowl I don't know why in the hell you'd go out of bounds instead of for as many yards as possible. And he was running full speed it's not like he would've needed to fight for the extra yards and lose ball security. All he had to do was keep running straight and let his momentum take him forward instead of going sideways out of bounds... Maybe I'm nitpicking..

Yea, I mostly agree with you.  Ginn should have caught that INT, that was a f-up.  And Ginn has always been quick to hop out of bounds, he's so slight of frame he's scared of taking big hits.  That's just what you get with Ginn.  I definitely said right after that play that if he had just cut right he would have had a free lane to the end zone.  Both defenders were facing the sideline and wouldn't have been able to react in time.  But still, for a while there he was the only receiver catching the damn ball and moving the chains, so that's why imo it was a slight net positive for him on the night.

[CLG]

Denvers defense is elite.

So I'd have to say.. the reasons we lost are.. 

Receiver drops/fumbles

Special teams woes

Lack of "personality" that we preach so much about. 

[t96]

2 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

Yea, I mostly agree with you.  Ginn should have caught that INT, that was a f-up.  And Ginn has always been quick to hop out of bounds, he's so slight of frame he's scared of taking big hits.  That's just what you get with Ginn.  I definitely said right after that play that if he had just cut right he would have had a free lane to the end zone.  Both defenders were facing the sideline and wouldn't have been able to react in time.  But still, for a while there he was the only receiver catching the damn ball and moving the chains, so that's why imo it was a slight net positive for him on the night.

Philly played the best of the wideouts in my opinion, without a doubt. Funch had a few nice plays but couldn't get consistent separation. Philly was wide open all game before the concussion, picked up 80 yards and Cam missed him wide open twice (first pass from him and then another later). He had one possible drop (not sure if it was official or not, there was some contact from the DB) that I thought he absolutely should have caught and didn't but other than that he played amazingly and was easily our best wideout this postseason.

[CarolinaNut]

drops and turnovers..killed our drives..i thought we actually moved the ball well on them but we would find a way to drop a big pass or fumble *cough TOLBERT cough* and kill all our momentum..

 

we should have been giving remmers help on every passing play..remmers is awful and has been for most of the season

 

shula had the most vanilla game plan..no end arounds..running it on every damn first down..long developing plays..shula had a good year but he didn't bring his A-game tonight

 

Defense was fantastic!  hate it for that side of the ball, they played their hearts out.