Defenses can dominate, but teams still need great QBs

In the wake of Seattle’s dominating defensive performance Sunday, there will be a rush to judge the future of the NFL — just as there was after the dominating offenses of ’09 Saints or the ’99 Rams.

Brilliant defenses have won Super Bowls and brilliant offenses have won Super Bowls.

It doesn’t change the simple fact that you must have a pass rush, running game and great quarterback to consistently win and have a chance at the big prize every year — which is, of course, the goal.

Personally, I’ll take a great defense any time. Like great pitching, defense doesn’t slump and gives you a chance to win every game.

But you must have a quarterback, and Russell Wilson’s brilliant performance Sunday is unquestionably the most overlooked aspect of the beating Seattle put on Denver.

The scary part for the NFC is Seattle was the second-youngest Super Bowl-winning team ever and the Seahawks don’t have to pay Wilson for two more years.

In the salary-cap era, it’s not easy keeping great units together, but with Wilson’s contract a couple years away, the Seahawks can focus on keeping their defense intact.

A comforting thought in Seattle. A frightening thought for the rest of the league.

Manning legacy

This is the kind of thing we do on sports radio all the time, and I find that laughter is the best medicine when it comes to the subjective.

Peyton Manning’s legacy is precisely what you want it to be. It is your opinion. It’s how you choose to remember him once he calls it a day.

I place him on the Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks, which puts him in the discussion of the greatest QBs of all time in my feeble mind.

If you believe he’s the best ever, Sunday’s humiliation doesn’t change that. If you didn’t think him one of the best ever before Sunday, that abomination only cements your belief.

A player’s legacy is merely what you choose it to be.

Is Dan Marino not among the greatest ever because — in a team game — his team never won a Super Bowl?

Would John Elway have been excluded from the discussion had he not won two after losing three Super Bowls? Does it matter that he carried his team to the first three he lost and was carried to the final two he won?

It’s absolutely fair to say that Manning was terrible Sunday, but so was the rest of his team. It’s fair to say he’s 11-12 in the playoffs and 1-2 in Super Bowls, but only Tom Brady and Brett Favre have started more playoff games in NFL history.

Peyton Manning is one of the greatest of all time. That, at least, seems beyond argument. The rest is up to you.

Experience

The Seahawks didn’t have a single player who had ever been in a Super Bowl. Yet, from the very first play, it was the Broncos who looked nervous.

Denver choked, plain and simple. The Seattle defense was spectacular, but we knew that before the game. Stunning was the way the Denver offense crumbled under the pressure of the moment.

Absolutely stunning.

Dog day

A report out of Seattle stated that about 30 people were watching the game at the Outlander Brewery in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, but it was such a bad game that by the fourth quarter, one of their three TVs had been switched to Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl.”

The reality

Teams that win the turnover margin are 36-3 in Super Bowls.

The stat

The last five regular-season MVPs to reach the Super Bowl have lost the game.

The tweet

From @sportspickle to Fox Sports Live: “Your next Super Bowl ad should just be a scrolling text that says: ‘Watch us ... we don’t have Chris Berman ...’”

The disappointment

That game was like waiting all year for Fourth of July fireworks and getting a Celine Dion concert instead.

Peyton Manning

Omaha called. They’d prefer you use Topeka next season.

Just asking

How upset was Tom Thibodeau that Pete Carroll pulled Russell Wilson?

Just thinking

That first-snap snafu was the worst miscommunication since, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”

And finally ...

You have to at least give the Broncos’ defense credit. They did all they could to keep Peyton Manning off the field.

brozner@dailyherald.com

ŸHear Barry Rozner on WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.