Broncos vs. Seahawks: Twitter Reaction and Full Postgame Quotes

The Denver Broncos suffered their first loss of the year in Week 3 against the Seattle Seahawks. In a rematch of Super Bowl 48, the Broncos came up short 26-20 in overtime.

There’s no such thing as a moral victory—this is a loss, plain and simple. However, it’s a loss the Broncos can learn from going forward.

There were many positives to highlight from this game—on both sides of the ball.

The Broncos started off strong, with a long drive early, but it only resulted in a Brandon McManus 24-yard field goal. Mike Klis of The Denver Post highlighted the team’s secret to move the ball early in the game:

"

15 play drive, 7:06 taken up. Pass protection superb -- two TE set the secret. Manning was accurate. But after 15 plays and 7:06, just 3 pts

— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) September 21, 2014"

The two-tight end sets helped protect Peyton Manning better but did little to help jump-start the ground game. The Broncos wanted to run the ball to keep the Seattle defense honest, but after one half that was proven ineffective, as Jeff Legwold from ESPN points out:

"

#Broncos 14 carries, 15 yards rushing in first half.

— Jeff Legwold (@Jeff_Legwold) September 21, 2014"

Once Virgil Green was lost with a possible concussion, the Broncos' philosophy had to change. Manning talked about this change after the game:

"We changed a little bit once Virgil went out and then of course being down two scores we became somewhat one-dimensional, which is not what you want versus these guys," Manning said. "The run game just wasn’t working for us, especially being down two scores. We were forced to throw it a lot, more than we wanted to every single play and that kind of put us in a one-dimensional phase."

One thing that was working for the Broncos was the play of wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders. At the half, Sanders had six receptions for 55 yards (9.2 avg.). He became just the fifth Bronco in the last 24 years to record five catches in the first quarter (five catches, 42 yards).

Sanders, the team’s replacement for Eric Decker, immediately proved his value on the opening drive.

"

Sanders>>>Decker ....already making more of a difference v #Seahawks than ED did (1 catch, 6 yards)

— Cecil Lammey (@cecillammey) September 21, 2014"

Sanders finished the game with 11 catches for 149 yards. For the second consecutive week, Sanders set a new career high for receptions and yards in a single game. Sunday also marked the second career 100-yard receiving game for Sanders.

Manning had his first 300-yard passing game of the year, and it marked only the fourth time the Seahawks have allowed a 300-yard passer over the last three years (2012-now).

A late fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Jacob Tamme marked the 100th touchdown pass Manning has thrown as a member of the Broncos. Manning becomes the fastest player to reach 100 touchdown passes with a new team (35 games) in NFL history.

The Broncos offense evoked a lot of emotion from those watching the game. At times they were playing poorly, as evidenced by this tweet from Tom Pelissero of USA Today:

"

Don't think I'm overstating it to say the #Broncos offense looks just horrible.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 21, 2014"

The Broncos' ground game was especially poor. Led by Montee Ball, Denver rushed for only 36 yards on 20 carries as a team. Ball fumbled on the team’s first offensive play of the game, and the Seahawks turned that gaffe into three points.

Ball talked about what happened on that play. “I was trying to do too much. Especially with a team like Seattle, you take what they give you. I was trying to jump around. That didn’t work too for me. I have just got to run to the hole.”

Watching the offense struggle to run the ball was difficult. Later in the game, the passing offense got the team back on track.

Pelissero later tweeted this when Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas caught the two-point conversion that sent the game to overtime.

"

This is awesome.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 21, 2014"

After the game, Manning commented on how he can take positives away from the overtime battle.

"Last time we got down early in the game and never got anything going so we need to get something going here in the second half, defense had a good turnover, kind of springboard us and got a touchdown there and, like I said, we went 80-something yards, no timeouts with under a minute, it’s not easy to do against that defense,” Manning said. “Those are the things you take from it, that you get in that situation again, if you get in that situation again, having been here before, you know you can do it. That’s what I try to build on things like that.”

This game was a big test for the Broncos. They failed the exam, but there are things they can take away from their performance.

They need to find a way to play four complete quarters. For three weeks in a row, the Broncos have averaged about two quarters per game where the offense is out of sync. Getting more from their ground game would help their cause.

Defensively, the Broncos need to figure out a way to defend more athletic quarterbacks. Each week this season, they’ve struggled to slow down quarterbacks who can keep plays alive with their feet while keeping their eyes downfield.

How good are the Broncos? We found out on Sunday that they are capable of hanging with one of the NFC’s best teams. In order to win the Super Bowl, the Broncos will have to be better than they were in Week 3.

All quotes and injury/practice observations obtained firsthand. Record/statistical information provided via email from the Denver Broncos unless otherwise noted.