Broncos vs Seahawks: Common Opponents

It's Super Bowl week, and the trash talking and playful banter has reached a boiling point. Broncos fans say we're the best, and Seahawk fans rightfully defend their team. This war of words is turning into a war of attrition. Which team's fan base will prove to be right, and which will prove to be a troll? Let’s put this pissing match to the test right here and right now!

The Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks have faced five common opponents. What is truly spectacular is that they have faced them all in the same stadiums, thus eliminating any possible home field advantage that typically skews these comparisons towards one particular team. What's even crazier is that they each won and lost to the same team(s). I mean, how perfect of a comparison scenario could one ask for heading into the Super Bowl, right?

During the regular season, the Broncos and Seahawks have both faced the following teams:

• at Houston Texans
• at Indianapolis Colts
• at New York Giants
• vs Jacksonville Jaguars
• vs Tennessee Titans

Let’s look at these match-ups further, shall we?

Against the Houston Texans (Away)

How did each team fare against the Houston Texans? This is where stats don't tell the whole story even though they are skewed towards one particular team.

Denver put up 37 points to Seattle's 23. That isn't very groundbreaking news seeing we do have the Best Offense In The History Of the Known Universe, but what is noteworthy is this: The Broncos held the Texans to 13 points while Seattle held them to 20 points.

Wait, what? Dammit Pete, rinse your eyes out and have some coffee STAT! How can the greatest defense since Sparta have allowed more points than a Broncos defense without Von Miller? Well, easy, we are the better team. When Peyton and the boys get up by a few scores on you, you have to abandon what typically works, and that is exactly what the Broncos forced the Texans to do.

In the end, what everyone will remember from both of the Texans games is this: The Broncos kicked their dupa up and down the field, while Seattle barely escaped the win because of one of history's biggest fails of all time: A pick-six by Schaub when all they had to do was kneel on the ball for the win.

Advantage: Denver in a landslide

Against the Indianapolis Colts (Away)

This game just so happens to be the only where both teams lost. I'd love to talk smack about this game, but let’s be real here: both the Seahawks and Broncos struggled all day. The Colts took both teams down to the wire and narrowly defeated them. What's more is that the Broncos scored five more points than the Seahawks, but gave up five more points than Seattle. Both teams lost the game by six points in the Dome. I still can't get the sight of Peyton Manning looking like he was embarrassed to be donning the Orange & Blue out of my mind. All in all, there was no blowout either direction, so once again, there is no winner here.

Advantage: Neither team

Against the Jacksonville Jaguars (Home)

This game was supposed to be a beat-down of epic proportions for both teams. The Seahawks were supposed to whip the kittens by double digits, and Vegas set a 28-point spread for the Broncos. So what happened? Denver Scored 35 points (yawn), but, are you kidding me? Okay, I'll type it out, the Seahawks scored 45 points - by far the most of the season for them. Wow. The Seahawks limited Jacksonville to 17 points while Denver limited them to 19.

Those 19 points are misleading seeing there was a pick-six in there, but hey, I won't qualify anything. This common opponent meeting was a great victory for Seattle as it really made them the mainstream media's flavor of the month. This game was also the game in which Peyton Manning got hurt. The fact that the Broncos were able to put up 35 with a gimpy Manning should be a testament to their talent level, but make no mistake about it, this game was a major turning point in the Broncos season as Manning struggled on his hobbled ankle and shoulder for about 4-5 more weeks.

Either way you slice it, this was a more dominant and commanding victory for Seattle simply because they never seemed to struggle at any point of the game. The same cannot be said about the Broncos, as they did struggle early, and when Manning got hurt, they struggled for the rest of the day. Only the Broncos can put up 35 while struggling, but struggle they did.

Advantage: Seattle

Against the New York Giants (Away)

Welcome back to New York City gentlemen! Both teams have been here before! Early in the season, this was the site of the "Manning Bowl" where the Broncos thoroughly ripped apart and embarrassed Eli and the Giants 41-23, and the game was never as close as that score indicated. There were garbage-time TDs to keep it respectable.

Meanwhile, this matchup had amazing hype for Seattle, although the difference was that it was post-game hype instead of pre-game hype. In my opinion, this was the best defensive effort from the 2013 season for either team. The Seahawks shut out the Giants in New York. Nobody would have been surprised with a shutout if this game was in Seattle, but it wasn't. It was in New York! That is a defensive feat of strength that I think nobody could argue with. Seattle ended up winning 23-0.

So what does this tell you? Who had the advantage? Let’s see, both teams won easily. Both teams had their way with the Giants, but each team did it a different way. The Broncos dazzled the nation with offense, and their defense only gave up garbage TDs. Meanwhile, the Seahawks put on a defensive clinic that I guarantee you is being watched this very second by Peyton Manning. Seattle did enough on offense to win the game comfortably, and dominated defensively.

Advantage: Both

Against the Tennessee Titans (Home)

You all remember this game, right? If you don't, you might get told to "stick it where the sun don't shine!"

The Seahawks were in a back-and-forth game against the Titans all day. Hell, the Titans were leading at halftime and probably only lost because they ran out of time. What sticks out in my mind, however, is that this game was played in Seattle. We all know that Seattle is a different team at home than on the road (uh oh. They are the visiting team in the Super Bowl), which makes this nail biter all the more interesting. Seattle really should have embarrassed the Titans. They really should have. This game should have been the 45-17 beating that they laid down to Jacksonville. Instead, it was a narrow 20-13 victory. That isn't very impressive boys.

On the other hand, you have the Broncos playing in the coldest game since last year's playoffs. The "narrative" was that Peyton couldn't play in the cold. Yeah, remind me again how that turned out? Oh yeah, it resulted in a 51-28 prison scene! What's even scarier was that this was the game in which Von Miller left early, meaning our defense had to scramble to replace him. While I thought they would do better going forward even without Von, having a week's worth of practice to prepare is completely different than having to adjust on the fly. Regardless of what the Broncos had to do, they completely destroyed the Titans.

Advantage: Denver

Conclusion

So where does this leave us? Well, it leaves us with a score of two pushes, one advantage to Seattle and two advantages to Denver. There you have it folks. If we can take anything away from common opponents and how these teams played them, Denver wins a narrow battle.

It should be noted that in these five games, the Broncos put up 58 more points but gave up 38 more points, for a net of 20 points – an average score differential of points per game better than Seattle.

Peyton Manning also accumulated a 103.1 QB Rating while Russell Wilson "only" mustered an 86.1. Strangely enough, however, the Seahawks allowed a QB Rating of 59.7 on average to Denver's 68.2 I thought Seattle Defense wakes up and pisses excellence while Denver's Defense is the red headed step child? It looks like both defenses are capable of playing great football, especially when you factor in all the garbage time points that the Broncos allow - yes, allow!

Prediction

I look for this game to not be very close at all. I fully expect the Broncos to score early and often, while limiting Marshawn Lynch to 75-80 yards on the ground and Russell Wilson to around 200 yards passing and 30 yards or less rushing. Whatever garbage time scores the Broncos give up will keep the score closer than the game really is. But never fear Seahawk fans, we'll still be here to help you wipe your tears. We are, if nothing else, gracious in victory!

GO BRONCOS!!!

Special thanks to Topher for stats, much of which I didn't even need to use.