What the Broncos Super Bowl win means for the Jets

(Photo Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports)

Fifty Super Bowls are now in the books as the Denver Broncos pulled off the upset over the Carolina Panthers by a score of 24-10. Fifty years of Super Bowls is an awesome accomplishment for the NFL. And considering how popular the NFL is now, there will surely be well over fifty more.

But in the first fifty years, the New York Jets have only won the big game once. The fact that the Denver Broncos won this year’s Super Bowl, should give Jets fans everywhere hope.

The Broncos won Sunday’s game with just 194 total yards of offense, which is the fewest ever by a Super Bowl winning team. Peyton Manning completed just 13 passes, threw for 141 yards, no touchdown passes, and one interception. Obviously it was not the best game of his career, but no one really expected him to return to his old self for what could have been the final game of his career.

Denver did not win the Super Bowl with their offensive play. It was rather their lights out defense that won them the game. They produced seven points themselves with a forced fumble returned for a touchdown and on top of that, they held a quarterback in Cam Newton, who scored fifty total touchdowns between the regular season and playoffs, to just 265 yards, no touchdowns, and forced one interception and two fumbles. Newton was also sacked seven times.

Denver’s defense dominated the hottest quarterback in the NFL. And not only did they beat Cam Newton and the Panthers, but they also beat Tom Brady and the Patriots two weeks prior in the AFC Championship game.

Before the 2015 season started, I said that the Jets can come close to a Super Bowl, but they will not win one with Ryan Fitzpatrick under center because he is a game manager. If you look at the previous Super Bowl winners from the past 15 years, all of them have been really good quarterbacks. But Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos proved me wrong. They proved that you can win a Super Bowl in today’s game without an elite quarterback. You just need an elite defense and weapons around the quarterback to win.

Where does an elite defense, a decent quarterback, and several weapons around the quarterback sound familiar? Well, the New York Jets. Their defense was a top five defense this past season, Fitzpatrick was more than the game manager everyone expected him to be, and he has weapons around him.

I’m not saying the Jets are Super Bowl favorites for next year, but the Broncos winning the Super Bowl at least gives the Jets some glimmer of hope since a franchise quarterback is far out of sight right now. If next year’s team is as strong as it was this year, the Jets are absolutely playoff contenders. And who knows, maybe they can win a few games once they get there.

If there is one thing the NFL playoffs have taught us, it is that you just have to get in and you have a chance to win. It’s all about getting hot at the right time.