Why'd the Broncos get blown out in 3 straight Super Bowls?

[notthatbluestuff]

In the late 80s, John Elway led the Broncos to three Super Bowls (1986, 1987, 1989) but got destroyed in each of them, culminating in that 55-10 loss to the 49ers in SBXXIV. Did the problem lie with Elway himself? Was it the makeup of the Broncos roster? If so, what was the issue? Was coaching to blame? Or was it more due to the fact that the AFC was relatively weak/the NFC was so dominant? 

Edited June 5, 2020 by notthatbluestuff

[Hunter2_1]

Watched this not so long ago; 1989 - peak Montana in peak rhythm with his receivers. EASY for him. On the other side, 49ers rattled Elway early and often, and he crumbled. I don't know if you can blame makeup of the team, because they were clearly a tough team to beat, and also had the top D on that season I believe (?).

 

I don't know about the earlier ones, or any sort of recurring theme, but this game seemed like 'one of those games' for Denver where everything that could did go wrong. 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Hunter2_1

[August4th]

was the NFC on another level compared to the AFC back then? watching SB highlights of that era it was like "bringing a knife to a gunfight" on a football field

[MWil23]

At one point, the NFC won an absolutely CRAZY amount of Super Bowls...throw in four dynasties (The 49ers, the Giants, the Redskins, and the Cowboys), the greatest defense of all time (The '85 Bears), and that explains why Marino never won, why Buffalo never won, why Elway got blown out, and even why Steve Young/Brett Favre only won 1 Super Bowl each. You could make the argument for a lot of those years that the 49ers, Cowboys, Giants, and Redskins were essentially playing the "real Super Bowl" in the NFC Playoffs.

[DoleINGout]

47 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

At one point, the NFC won an absolutely CRAZY amount of Super Bowls...throw in four dynasties (The 49ers, the Giants, the Redskins, and the Cowboys), the greatest defense of all time (The '85 Bears), and that explains why Marino never won, why Buffalo never won, why Elway got blown out, and even why Steve Young/Brett Favre only won 1 Super Bowl each. You could make the argument for a lot of those years that the 49ers, Cowboys, Giants, and Redskins were essentially playing the "real Super Bowl" in the NFC Playoffs.

And then the Patriots, Colts, Steelers, and Ravens entered the chat in the 00's.

[MWil23]

5 minutes ago, DoleINGout said:

And then the Patriots, Colts, Steelers, and Ravens entered the chat in the 00's.

Very true, but you also have some that at least rose to the occasion every now and then to challenge those eras, like the 2002 Bucs, the Giants twice, the Seahawks once, the Eagles once, the Saints once, the Packers once, etc.

The 80's through the mid 90's was basically "The NFC wins the Super Bowl from 1981-1997 except for the 1984 Raiders".

That's 15/16 or 16/17...CRAZY.

[7DnBrnc53]

Their undersized defense was exposed in the first two Super Bowls. When they didn't get turnovers, they didn't succeed, and that was evident in those games. Then, in the third one, Denver had a better defense, but the 49er offense was in a zone, and the 49er defense exposed Elway's average supporting cast (outside of Humphrey, who was fairly limited due to a flak jacket over his ribs, which caused the fumble that blew the game wide open).

[DannyB]

2 hours ago, 7DnBrnc53 said:

Their undersized defense was exposed in the first two Super Bowls. When they didn't get turnovers, they didn't succeed, and that was evident in those games. Then, in the third one, Denver had a better defense, but the 49er offense was in a zone, and the 49er defense exposed Elway's average supporting cast (outside of Humphrey, who was fairly limited due to a flak jacket over his ribs, which caused the fumble that blew the game wide open).

 

Me looking for a single word of criticism from a Broncos fan for John Elway who had a 45% completion percentage and a 2 to 6 TD:INT ratio and averaged 13 points per game in those Super Bowls...

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by DannyB

[Chargers]

Simple, they didn't have Terrell Davis back then. If they did they probably wouldn't lose at all.

[Broncofan]

Outside of the SF-CIN game, the NFC just destroyed the AFC from 2002-9.    Elway just carried very meh teams.   Even worse, Dan Reeves pretty much handcuffed the O and only let Elway loose in the 4Q to win games.   Shanahan undid a lot of his amazing work with his WAS tenure, but he really transformed the O (and yes, getting Terrell Davis helped, but going away from Reeves was the key step there coaching-wise).

Ironically, the one winnable SB game was the WAS one.   Elway had a 10-0 lead before their D melted down in the 2Q, and it was 28-10 at halftime.    What ppl forget is that Doug Williams fumbled on the drive before the comeback started, but there was no replay.    That would have been a 13-0 o 17-0 game at that point.  Now, it's not like 1 play would have turned around the whole outcome - but it highlighted that DEN was at least competitive there.   With SF, it wasn't even close, the 49ers were just that much better.   The NYG game, they were competitive on paper - but frankly, the G-men killed DEN in the 2H after wearing them out in the trenches in the 1H.   

It was a pretty depressing time to be an AFC team fan - every year, the AFC teams would hope for "every given Sunday" mantra to kick in - but for CIN's game, it was mostly a blowout and confirmed the dominance of the NFC at that stage.    Can't really say we looked at any of those losses and said, "man, what might have been".   It was more a Q of whether or not Dan Reeves' style wasted the best years of Elway's career with no titles.  

Edited June 5, 2020 by Broncofan

[7DnBrnc53]

1 hour ago, DannyB said:

 

Me looking for a single word of criticism from a Broncos fan for John Elway who had a 45% completion percentage and a 2 to 6 TD:INT ratio and averaged 13 points per game in those Super Bowls...

 

Broncofan just said it best:

1 hour ago, Broncofan said:

Elway just carried very meh teams.   Even worse, Dan Reeves pretty much handcuffed the O and only let Elway loose in the 4Q to win games.   Shanahan undid a lot of his amazing work with his WAS tenure, but he really transformed the O (and yes, getting Terrell Davis helped, but going away from Reeves was the key step there coaching-wise).

 

[rob_shadows]

The problem in 1989 was that Cartman's mom wore all the players out before the game at a barn party, I saw a documentary on it back in the mid 90s 😋

[thebestever6]

I think Elway is one of the most underrated QBs ever his Superbowl wins he was managing a Ferrari imo. I think getting to the Superbowls with those offenses and teams was more impressive.

[blizofoz45]

QBs have always gotten alot of attention but pro football was much more of a team sport back then.  Ronnie Lott.  Look him up.  Defenses did things to players that would get you arrested in real life. 

Football players wear helmets because in the 1920s they were literally killing each other on the field.  It was that rough.

I'm not complaining about the current NFL.  It's still fun to watch when it's not being ruined by really bad politics. It's just easy to forget how balanced the ruleset was back then to allow defenses to overcome even the best QBs.

[TecmoSuperJoe]

3 hours ago, Broncofan said:

Outside of the SF-CIN game, the NFC just destroyed the AFC from 2002-9.    Elway just carried very meh teams.   Even worse, Dan Reeves pretty much handcuffed the O and only let Elway loose in the 4Q to win games.   Shanahan undid a lot of his amazing work with his WAS tenure, but he really transformed the O (and yes, getting Terrell Davis helped, but going away from Reeves was the key step there coaching-wise).

Ironically, the one winnable SB game was the WAS one.   Elway had a 10-0 lead before their D melted down in the 2Q, and it was 28-10 at halftime.    What ppl forget is that Doug Williams fumbled on the drive before the comeback started, but there was no replay.    That would have been a 13-0 o 17-0 game at that point.  Now, it's not like 1 play would have turned around the whole outcome - but it highlighted that DEN was at least competitive there.   With SF, it wasn't even close, the 49ers were just that much better.   The NYG game, they were competitive on paper - but frankly, the G-men killed DEN in the 2H after wearing them out in the trenches in the 1H.   

It was a pretty depressing time to be an AFC team fan - every year, the AFC teams would hope for "every given Sunday" mantra to kick in - but for CIN's game, it was mostly a blowout and confirmed the dominance of the NFC at that stage.    Can't really say we looked at any of those losses and said, "man, what might have been".   It was more a Q of whether or not Dan Reeves' style wasted the best years of Elway's career with no titles.  

I'd have to go back and watch the 1987 Super Bowl, but I'm surprised the Broncos got thrashed in that one. The Redskins team that year didn't seem overly impressive even with the road win against Chicago. Denver should have at least competed in that game.