2012 Broncos 45 - 2011 Saints 29

Peyton Manning + Drew Brees = over 1000 yards of offense. Both QB's were stellar, but the Broncos prevailed due to two factors; 1) They got a couple of critical defensive plays. In this game they got sacks from Von Miller and Derek Wolfe to stop drives, and turned a Rahim Moore interception into a two score lead. The Saints D essentially made no clutch plays. 2) the Saints pass defense is truly awful. Not just comparatively awful, for a tournament of great teams, but awful in absolute terms. It would be amongst the worst in a tournament of all time dud teams. It was fish in a barrel time for Manning, and easy sledding for the Broncos RB's as the Saints run D ain't all that either and they were selling out to try and stop Manning.

2011 New Orleans 29, 2012 Denver 45
	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	OT	Total
2011 New Orleans	0	13	10	6	0	29
2012 Denver	14	7	14	10	0	45

Scoring Plays
Qtr	Clock	Poss	Scoring Description(Extra Point)	Score
1	8:48	2012 Denver	J.Hester 5 yd. run (M.Prater kick)	7-0 DNA
1	0:36	2012 Denver	R.Hillman 15 yd. pass from P.Manning (M.Prater kick)	14-0 DNA
2	11:27	2011 New Orleans	J.Kasay 38 yd. field goal	14-3 DNA
2	7:46	2011 New Orleans	M.Colston 35 yd. pass from D.Brees (J.Kasay kick)	14-10 DNA
2	3:54	2012 Denver	J.Hester 15 yd. run (M.Prater kick)	21-10 DNA
2	0:37	2011 New Orleans	J.Kasay 37 yd. field goal	21-13 DNA
3	10:53	2012 Denver	J.Tamme 42 yd. pass from P.Manning (M.Prater kick)	28-13 DNA
3	4:17	2011 New Orleans	J.Kasay 31 yd. field goal	28-16 DNA
3	2:08	2012 Denver	R.Hillman 1 yd. run (M.Prater kick)	35-16 DNA
3	0:53	2011 New Orleans	D.Henderson 21 yd. pass from D.Brees (J.Kasay kick)	35-23 DNA
4	11:26	2012 Denver	E.Decker 8 yd. pass from P.Manning (M.Prater kick)	42-23 DNA
4	6:26	2011 New Orleans	R.Meachem 13 yd. pass from D.Brees (Pass failed)	42-29 DNA
4	1:37	2012 Denver	M.Prater 35 yd. field goal	45-29 DNA

Team Statistics
	2011 New Orleans	2012 Denver
First Downs by Rush-Pass-Pen-Total	5-21-0-26	9-19-3-31
Third Down Efficiency	7-13-54%	5-9-56%
Fourth Down Efficiency	1-1-100%	0-0-0%
Red Zone Efficiency (pts-poss-pct)	13-21-62%	38-42-90%
Total Offense-Plays-Avg Yards Per Play	481-70-6.9	538-72-7.5
Total Net Yards Rushing	83	148
Total Rushes	24	37
Average Per Rush	3.5	4.0
Passes Completed/Attempted	31/44 (70.5%)	27/35 (77.1%)
Net Yards Passing	398	390
Avg Yards Per Pass	9.4	11.1
Sacked/Yards Lost	2/16	0/0
Punts/Average	2/57.0	3/54.3
Punts Received/Return Yardage	0/0	1/1
Kickoffs/Returns	2/43	1/11
Interceptions/Returns	0/0	2/10
Penalties/Yards	9/85	5/36
Total Fumbles/Fumbles Lost	0/0	3/0
Time of Possession	29 mins 25 secs	30 mins 35 secs
Average Drive Start	NON 20	DNA 24

Passing Stats
	Att	Comp	Yds	Comp %	Yds/Att	TD	TD %	INT	INT %	Long	Sack	Rating
2011 New Orleans
Drew Brees	44	31	414	70.5	9.4	3	6.8	2	4.5	41	2/16	103.8
2012 Denver
Peyton Manning	35	27	390	77.1	11.1	3	8.6	0	0	72	0/0	141.4

Rushing Stats
	No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD	2 Pt Conv	Fumbles/Lost
2011 New Orleans
Pierre Thomas	10	42	4.2	15	0	0	0/0
Mark Ingram	6	16	2.7	6	0	0	0/0
Darren Sproles	4	10	2.5	7	0	0	0/0
Chris Ivory	3	14	4.7	7	0	0	0/0
Drew Brees	1	1	1.0	1	0	0	0/0
2012 Denver
Knowshon Moreno	14	48	3.4	12	0	0	1/0
Willis McGahee	11	64	5.8	19	0	0	0/0
Ronnie Hillman	7	16	2.3	6	1	0	0/0
Jacob Hester	3	22	7.3	15	2	0	1/0
Peyton Manning	2	-2	-1.0	-1	0	0	0/0

Receiving Stats
	No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD	2 Pt Conv
2011 New Orleans
Marques Colston	8	105	13.1	35	1	0
Robert Meachem	5	90	18.0	38	1	0
Darren Sproles	4	46	11.5	15	0	0
Devery Henderson	4	47	11.8	21	1	0
Lance Moore	3	69	23.0	41	0	0
Jimmy Graham	3	26	8.7	11	0	0
Pierre Thomas	2	11	5.5	6	0	0
Jed Collins	2	20	10.0	17	0	0
2012 Denver
Brandon Stokley	6	64	10.7	15	0	0
Demaryius Thomas	6	116	19.3	72	0	0
Eric Decker	5	86	17.2	39	1	0
Jacob Tamme	4	63	15.8	42	1	0
Ronnie Hillman	2	22	11.0	15	1	0
Joel Dreessen	2	16	8.0	9	0	0
Willis McGahee	1	8	8.0	8	0	0
Knowshon Moreno	1	15	15.0	15	0	0

Field Goals
	1-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	Totals	% Made
2011 New Orleans
John Kasay	0/0	0/0	3/3	0/0	0/0	3/3	100
2012 Denver
Matt Prater	0/0	0/0	1/1	0/0	0/0	1/1	100

Punting
	No	Avg	Net	Tb	Inside 20	Long	Blocked
2011 New Orleans
Thomas Morstead	2	57.0	46.5	1	1	59	0
2012 Denver
Britton Colquitt	3	54.3	54.3	0	2	60	0

Kickoff Returns
	No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
2011 New Orleans
Darren Sproles	2	43	21.5	25	0
2012 Denver
Omar Bolden	1	11	11.0	11	0

Punt Returns
	Ret	FC	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
2011 New Orleans
Darren Sproles	0	2	0		0	0
2012 Denver
Jim Leonhard	1	0	1	1.0	1	0

Individual Defense
	Tackles	Sacks	Fum Rec
2011 New Orleans
Jonathan Vilma	11	0	0
Malcolm Jenkins	9	0	0
Jabari Greer	7	0	0
Scott Shanle	7	0	0
Jo-Lonn Dunbar	5	0	0
Sedrick Ellis	3	0	0
Tracy Porter	3	0	0
Will Smith	2	0	0
Patrick Robinson	2	0	0
Junior Galette	2	0	0
Roman Harper	2	0	0
Aubrayo Franklin	2	0	0
Tom Johnson	1	0	0
2012 Denver
Christopher Harris	8	0	0
Wesley Woodyard	7	0	0
Jim Leonhard	7	0	0
Rahim Moore	6	0	0
Keith Brooking	6	0	0
Mike Adams	5	0	0
Derek Wolfe	4	1	0
Champ Bailey	3	0	0
Kevin Vickerson	2	0	0
Von Miller	2	1	0
Justin Bannan	2	0	0
David Bruton	1	0	0
Tony Carter	1	0	0
Knowshon Moreno	0	0	1
Eric Decker	0	0	1
Omar Bolden	0	0	1

Interceptions
	No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
2011 New Orleans
2012 Denver
Rahim Moore	1	10	10.0	10	0
Mike Adams	1	0	0.0	0	0

Game Story

The offenses overwhelmed the defenses as Denver defeated New Orleans by the score of 45 to 29. Willis McGahee carried the ball 11 times for 64 yards. Denver won the matchups on third down, converting on 5 of 9 opportunities. They controlled the ground game, out-rushing New Orleans 148 to 83 yards. The fans were brought to their feet by a pass to Demaryius Thomas that went for 72 yards with 3:15 left in the 3rd quarter. Denver got out to an early lead outscoring New Orleans 14 to 0 in the first quarter. They led at halftime 21 to 13. Denver led after three quarters 35 to 23. Drew Brees threw 44 times for 414 yards and 3 touchdowns for New Orleans, but it wasn't enough.

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