Super Bowl Odds: Bronco’s Aerial Prowess Faces Test in Sherman, Seattle Secon-dary
by Bovada Sportsbook Staff | Jan. 20, 2014
After getting booted in the Divisional Round of last year’s postseason to the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens, Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos are dead set on going all the way in 2014, just as their Super Bowl futures have suggested all season.
Their bid for top honors and the Super Bowl has been about as subtle as a Richard Sherman post-game interview. (Fitting, considering that Denver will collide with the Seattle Seahawks at XLVIII in two weeks time.)
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Early NFL odds for the football finale give Manning and the Broncos the slight edge with a 2.5-point spread as their seemingly unstoppable aerial game may be the one that can finally overwhelm Sherman and the rest of the Seahawks’ secondary.
Unlike the San Francisco 49ers, where Sherman had one, maybe two, elite receiving threats to contain, the mere presence of Manning has made virtually any wideout on the field for Denver an im-portant target.
Sherman may fancy himself the best cornerback in the game, but even if he nullifies Demaryius Thomas, they’ll still need to come up with an answer for Eric Decker and Wes Welker. Even tight end Julius Thomas caught a dozen touchdowns for the Broncos over the course of the 2013 cam-paign.
Through two postseason games so far, the Seahawks have been up against clubs that pride themselves on their defense. Sure Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints are an offensive explosion waiting to happen, but for the most part it was their ability to shut opponents down (they had the second most effective pass defense in the league this year) that pushed them into the playoffs.
What those contemplating betting on Seattle at Super Bowl XLVIII need to think about is that in Denver, head coach Pete Carroll and Seattle face a new breed of animal, one whose rush defense is admirable, but whose ability to gain yardage is almost otherworldly. In addition the their 340.3 pass-ing yards per game, Knowshon Moreno and Montee Ball have powered the club to the 15th most po-tent ground game in football.
All things considered, both teams may be theoretically capable of matching each other in various aspects of the game, but in reality something is always bound to break. Perhaps that’s why the 48-point over/under total has gotten early play.
One other notable difference for Seattle is that in New Jersey, the Seahawks won’t have their infamous 12th man, the raucous crowd that literally and figuratively holds the power to induce earthquakes at CenturyLink Field. Say what you want about the impact of intangibles when it comes to betting, but don’t try to tell us that the energy in that Seattle stadium didn’t at least partially con-tribute to the chaos on the field!
Is this the year Seattle perseveres, desperate for the upper hand in their first Super Bowl ap-pearance since a 2005 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers? Or will Manning take home the second ring of his illustrious career, Denver’s first since the club’s second of a back-to-back in 1998?
It’s hard to say for sure, and the Super Bowl odds reflect as much, but that’s why the season finale is so highly anticipated.
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