Prior to Super Bowl XLVIII, Peyton Manning never had been held to fewer than 17 points in any of his 35 games with the Denver Broncos.
Manning's record-breaking offense was promptly humiliated, managing just a single garbage-time touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks' tough, deep, versatile defense.
To hear All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman tell it, one of the best defensive performances in Super Bowl history might have fallen short of his teammates' lofty expectations.
"Did we know we'd hold the Broncos to eight points in the Super Bowl?" Sherman wrote Friday in his column for TheMMQB.com. "Honestly, we're a little upset it wasn't a shutout."
Considering the quarterbacks they vanquished along the way, it's fair to say the 2013 Seahawks have joined the 1970s Steelers, the 1985-'86 Bears, the 2000 Ravens and the 2002 Buccaneers as the most dominantdefenses of the Super Bowl era.
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"Some said Denver's offense would outgun us," Sherman continued. "They said nobody cares about defense anymore. Offense wins championships. But we took pride in being great and being No. 1 in a lot of categories. We wanted to cement our legacy as one of the best defenses to ever play in the NFL, and we did that."
Sherman is right. In a pass-happy, offense-inflated era, defense still wins championships. Of the 16 defenses to reach the Super Bowl with the NFL's No. 1 ranking, 13 have emerged victorious.
In the latest "Around The League Podcast," the guys ponder the future in both Seattle and Denver and break down the teams who intrigue them most this offseason.