The problem with the MVP award is that the entire team played well, particularly the defense, Wilson, and Harvin.
Agree the DL was great, but so were the LBs, including Smith, and the defensive backs.
Even though his name wasn’t called much in the game, Sherman had a huge impact. Manning threw 49 passes but only threw into Sherman’s coverage 5 times, completing 2 for just 10 yards. Sherman essentially removed whatever receiver lined up to the outside on the right of the Broncos offense. Given that meant generally covering Demaryius Thomas, Decker, or Julius Thomas, that is a huge impact.
And Chancellor was also awesome. He set the tone for the game on the Bronco’s second offensive series — the series right after the safety and ensuing Seahawks FG — when he lowered the (Legion of) Boom on Demaryius Thomas on a crossing route, stopping him for a 2 yard gain. Then after the ensuing punt and subsequent Seahawks FG, on Denver’s next series he first stopped Welker on 1st down for a 5 yard gain, and then intercepted Manning on third down. Denver was soon down 15-0 after having run just 7 plays from scrimmage, and the game was essentially over. Chancellor was the biggest impact player on defense to that point.
Wilson’s numbers also don’t do justice to his play early when the game was still in doubt. On Seattle’s first drive, he converted their first third down with a pass and appeared to scramble for another first down on their second third down, but the refs didn’t give it to him, so they kicked the FG. On Seattle’s second drive, he converted 3 straight third downs on passes, and the last third down was the end zone play Nate broke up, which could have easily been a TD pass. On Seattle’s third drive, which was a short field after Chancellor’s interception, Wilson completed 2 passes to combine with 3 runs to lead to a third down at the Denver 5, and his pass into the end zone drew a DPI penalty to set up Lynch’s TD. Wilson had 104 yards of offense on those drives that led them to the 15-0 lead. The fact that he added 2 TD passes later was just gravy.
