The Denver Broncos Super Bowl XLVIII Performance and “Embarrassment”

Denver Broncos head coach John Fox runs off the field at half time of the Super Bowl XLVIII against the Denver Broncos at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O (USA Today Sports)

Not to pour salt in the wound, but the Denver Broncos lost the Super Bowl in front of an average audience of 111.5 million people, which was more viewers than any television program in U.S. history.

Ugh!

That brings us to the word of the day: Embarrassment.

The Broncos are far from embarrassing. The team went 13-3 for a second consecutive year, they won the AFC West for three straight years, and they dominated the San Diego Chargers and the New England Patriots to make it to the Super Bowl.

There are plenty of clubs that would have loved to have played in their seventh Super Bowl of all time.

However, when a reporter asked Peyton Manning if he thought the Broncos put on an embarrassing performance, Manning said,

“There’s a lot of professional football players in that locker room that put in a lot of hard work and effort into being here, into playing in that game,” Manning said. “The word ‘embarrassing,’ is an insulting word to tell you the truth.”

Was Manning just trying to give the Seahawks a little bit of credit? That’s debatable.

If Manning was actually getting defensive about the word being used then maybe he’s wrong.

The Broncos performance on the world’s biggest stage was in fact embarrassing. For a team to put up just 8 points and allow 43, that’s not playoff caliber football. From the first snap of the game to the first

snap

, errr, kickoff of the second half, there was zero focus and intensity. In fact, the cheesesteak I ate during the game had more juice than the Broncos had, and the dog begging for it had more focus.

If the Broncos were not capable of so much more, then we could argue that ’embarrassing’  is not the right word to use.

This was a two-point spread of a game. It was the two best teams in the NFL. It was the No. 1 offense against the No. 1 defense. It’s what was “supposed” to happen. It was the NFL’s dream matchup.

It was supposed to be a back-and-forth brawl with blood, sweat, and tears. Well, if you’re a Broncos fan, the tears part might be dead on.

Despite what Manning says, Sunday’s performance was embarassing. It wasn’t so much embarrassing for fans. It was embarrassing for the players. It was embarrassing because the team could offer so much more.

111.5 million viewers. How embarrassing.

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