SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Two years ago, John Elway was sick to his stomach.
He had just watched his Broncos dismantled by the Seahawks 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in a game that was not even as close as the final score indicated.
Elway, the Broncos executive vice president, had seen enough. If his team was going to win a Super Bowl it was going to have to do it a different way — a defensive way.
So Elway swiftly changed the makeup of his team. He added defensive studs, linebacker DeMarcus Ware, cornerback Aquib Talib and safety T.J. Ware. Those three cost $110 million in contracts. He drafted defensive linemen Derek Wolfe and Malik Jackson in 2012.
All five of those players made significant contributions Sunday night in a 24-10 Broncos victory over the Panthers in Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium.
So did 68-year-old defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, who Elway hired last offseason despite the fact he was out of football in 2014.
“Coach Wade did a great job of putting us in position to win,’’ Jackson said.
“Coach Phillips did an amazing job,’’ linebacker Von Miller said. “He always likes to say that mistakes are on him, but the Super Bowl is on him, too.’’
It was as ironic as it was impressive that Elway, one of the best offensive players of his generation, had the wherewithal not to be seduced by the Broncos’ prolific offensive numbers.
He was smart enough to know gaudy offensive numbers do not win titles. Defense does.
How good was the Denver defense? The Broncos won the game with 11 first downs on offense, three of which came on the opening drive.
Their defense, ranked No. 1 in the NFL this season, wasted little time asserting itself against the Panthers.
In one of the best defensive plays in Super Bowl history, Miller smoked Panthers right tackle Mike Remmers with a power move and blew up quarterback Cam Newton, ripping the ball from his arms. Jackson recovered it in the end zone for a 10-0 Broncos lead just 8:23 into the game.
Miller, who was voted the game’s MVP, later would clinch the game with yet another sack and forced fumble on Newton with 4:04 remaining and Denver leading by only six points. This one led to another Denver TD and a two-point conversion to make it 24-10.
There were other defensive plays that sealed this game for Denver, but none as crazy-good as that one.
Broncos cornerback Bradley Roby, the endgame hero in Denver’s AFC divisional playoff win over Pittsburgh, broke up third-down pass after third-down pass. Broncos safety Darian Stewart separated Carolina fullback Mike Tolbert from the ball with a jarring tackle — the second turnover forced by the Denver defense.
The first half ended — fittingly — with Ware sacking Newton for a 10-yard loss, preventing him from pushing the Panthers into field goal range. The Panthers were out of timeouts and the half ended with Denver leading 13-7.
Ward thwarted a potential Carolina scoring drive in the third quarter when he picked off Newton in the red zone to preserve a 16-7 Denver lead. He later recovered the second Miller strip-sack.
Two years ago, in 13 of the Broncos 18 games before that Super Bowl loss, they scored at least 30 points. No team in the history of the league scored more over the course of a single season (606). No quarterback had ever thrown for as many yards (5,477) or touchdowns (55) as Peyton Manning did.
Elway traded all of those sexy numbers away for more substance. Defensive substance. And defense won the Super Bowl — just like it did against the Broncos two years ago in the swamps of Jersey.
