Show il By Andy Crow Sports Editor The biggest football game of the year takes place in one week and there are opinions flying around everywhere about what will be the outcome Broncos or Packers Well this sports writer has his own opinion and here it is To make a prediction there are five factors to consider 1 Sympathy factor 2 John Elway factor 3 Domination factor 4 Denver Broncos factor 5 And the Green Bay Packers factor r Sympathy by Factor OK Im I'm going to give my tear tearjerker tearjerker i jerker side of the story now The not shooting for its super bowl win in a row the shooting shooting shooting shoot shoot- ing for its super bowl loss thrashing in a row Of course its it's amazing that the Broncos have taken takenE f E place in four of those Super Bowls Bowl's Bowlst t in that 15 year span counting this years The last time an team won the Super Bowl was the 1983 Super Bowl when the greatest football team of all time the Oakland Raiders beat the Washington Redskins 38 The Raiders coincidentally haven't made it back to the Super Bowl and the hasn't won the Super Bowl since then So the sympathy has to go towards the representative Broncos and Broncos John Elway who has quarterbacked the same three Bronco losing teams who participated in the Super Bowl this past decade or so John Elway Factor As I stated in the last paragraph Elway was the in the three losses loss loss- es and at age 36 Elways Elway's licking his chops at winning his first Super Bowl The Broncos and Elway haven't had this golden of an opportunity opportunity opportunity since they fell to the New York Giants 39 20 in the 1986 super Bowl I think Elway sees that this group of Broncos is the best hes he's had and hopes they dont don't pass up this opportunity opportunity opportunity not only for themselves but for himself also Elways Elway's days are numbered as an NFL quarterback so Im I'm pulling for the grand daddy of them all Domination Factor Now lets go to the other side of the ball to take a look at the domination domination domination domina domina- tion of the National Football Conferences Conference's representatives in the Super Bowl over the last 14 years Really only four games have been close in that 14 year span and that's counting last years year's game which Green Bay won by 14 The last Super Bowl the Broncos played in was against San Francisco when they were killed by the 55 Where the domination is seen most is on both sides of the lines On offense the teams team's defensive line has done nothing to penetrate the offensive line The offensive line has been like a brick wall for the defense evidence of the high scoring blowouts over the 14 year domina- domina domination domination tion by the Denver Broncos Factor The Broncos have averaged 1897 yards rushing per game in the playoffs playoffs playoffs play play- offs this year With Terrell Davis the Broncos have the best running back in the NFL sorry Barry Sanders running for them Which is why this is the Broncos' Broncos best chance yet to win the Super Bowl Elway is as asgood asgood asgood good as ever and has some great weapons in WR Rod Smith Ed McCaffery and Shannon Sharpe the best TE in the business and weve we've already talked about Terrell Davis the defense is a little suspect led by aging stars Steve Atwater Bill and Neil Smith Green Bay Packers Factor The defending Super Bowl champs haven't looked like they want to defend their title too badly this year Throughout the year the Packers have seemed to get better and better as the weeks have gone What's sweet to Green Bay fans' fans ears is that the Packers look to have hit their stride on both the offensive and defensive sides The defense is allowing only yards a game and RB Dorsey Levens is running over defenses Levens' Levens running has kept teams off balance defensively Brett Favre is always a threat throwing or running with the ball At pounds Favre is a load for defenses to pull down and should be as tough a quarterback as the Broncos defense has seen I see the Packers wearing down the smaller Broncos with Levens' Levens |