Ten years ago today, the snap heard ‘round the world happened

Super Bowl XLVIII began with the Broncos and their offense for the ages poised to culminate their season with the franchise’s third world championship.

But it took just one snap for those dreams to begin dissolving into the cool New Jersey night.

One snap. Twelve seconds into Super Bowl XLVIII. With the Seattle Seahawks fans roaring, Peyton Manning approached the offensive line — and as he did, Manny Ramirez fired the shotgun snap past his head. The ball bounced into the end zone, where Broncos running back Knowshon Moreno fell on it for the safety and a 2-0 lead.

It only got worse from there as the favored Broncos absorbed a 43-8 thrashing.

Disaster. Ramirez has had a great year, and that was by far his worst snap. Gracious. Seattle has the fastest score in Super Bowl history.

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) February 2, 2014

“We were using the snap count on the play and due to the noise no one could hear me,” Manning said after the game. “I was walking up to the line of scrimmage to sort of make a change and get us on the same page and then the ball was snapped.”

SUPER BOWL XLVIII WAS LOST IN PRACTICE

The miscommunication laid bare the disastrous decision made by then-coach John Fox in the days leading up to Super Bowl XLVIII. He turned down the sound on the speakers that blasted noise during practice. Usually before road games, the team cranked up the noise during the week to prepare for the din of game day.

But Fox chose otherwise when his team practiced that week at the New York Jets’ facility in Florham Park, N.J.

“It’s not an away game,” Fox said via a pool report provided to media that week. “The ones I’ve been to haven’t been too loud. So we just kind of practice with what we think we’re going to get.”

They thought wrong.

Despite the cross-country distance between the Pacific Northwest and MetLife Stadium, Seahawks fans arrived in hordes. And they assured that Russell Wilson and the Seattle offense never ran a play from scrimmage without a lead on the scoreboard.

The Seahawks scored touchdown in all three phases. Other teams have lost by greater margins in the Super Bowl. But never was a team so comprehensively beaten across all three phases as the Broncos.

He'd played one game all year. But Percy Harvin was ready to GO in the Super Bowl.🏃‍♂️💨 @Seahawks pic.twitter.com/JARirbFXmB

— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) January 31, 2019

THE AFTERMATH

Two years later, the Super Bowl experience went far better for the Broncos. That happened because of the changes that followed the defeat to Seattle.

Having seen the Seahawks’ boundless defensive speed, John Elway set out to craft a dominant defense of his own. Several weeks after Super Bowl XLVIII, the Broncos signed edge rusher DeMarcus Ware, safety T.J. Ward and cornerback Aqib Talib in free agency. They joined a defense that already had Chris Harris Jr., Von Miller, Derek Wolfe and Malik Jackson, among others.

A year later, Elway moved on from Fox, who took the head-coaching job with the Chicago Bears. He hired his former quarterbacking understudy, Gary Kubiak. He eventually brought in his former defensive coordinator in Houston, Wade Phillips. Their steady leadership and tactical tweaks made possible a Broncos championship season that happened even as Manning’s body betrayed him in what turned out to be his final season as a pro.

Meanwhile, Wilson went on to eight more Seahawks seasons. The returns diminished in the following two years before the Seahawks leveled off as a 9-to-12-win team that advanced no further than the divisional round from 2015 onward. But eventually, Wilson wore out his welcome and the Seahawks traded him … to Denver.

You know the rest of the story.

And it all traces back to one bad snap.

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