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DENVER (AP) — No one should be surprised that the Super Bowl favorites are already out of the playoffs. With their 38-35 loss in double-overtime to the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night, the Denver Broncos became the ninth No. 1 seed in the last eight years to go down in the divisional round. On Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons nearly became the 10th before escaping Seattle’s upset bid in a 30-28 thriller and becoming just the seventh top seed since 2005 to advance to the conference championship. “I wouldn’t say I’m shocked,” said Peyton Manning, who also lost as a No. 1 seed with Indianapolis in 2005. “That’s not the right word. I’m disappointed.” Seeds just don’t matter anymore. “That’s playoff football, it’s do-or-die,” Denver linebacker Keith Brooking said. “There are no makeups, there’s no ‘my bad’ on that play. You have a bad day, you go home and you deal with it. You’re staring an offseason right in the face with nothing to do, except to think about it.” The Broncos hadn’t lost since Oct. 7, winning each of their last 11 regular season games by an average of two touchdowns. “I feel like we’re the best team,” receiver Brandon Stokley lamented. “But, in the NFL, it doesn’t matter. It’s one game and it’s whoever plays better. And they played better.” The Broncos certainly aren’t alone in their heartache. Among the top seeds to have fallen flat in the first playoff game are a 15-1 team, three 14-2 teams and five 13-3 teams — all at home, coming off a bye and facing an opponent that had to travel following a win on wild-card weekend. The favorites who faltered were led by some of the greatest quarterbacks of our generation, too. Manning and his brother, Eli, have both won Super Bowls and both have been bounced right out of the playoffs. Same with Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady. Others who made early exits are Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers, Tony Romo and Kerry Collins. To paraphrase the late Vince Lombardi, “What the heck’s going on out here?” “I have no clue,” Broncos safety Mike Adams said. Speaking of Lombardi, no top seed has hoisted the Super Bowl trophy that bears his name since the New Orleans Saints did it in 2009 — the last year the No. 1 seeds in both conferences won in the divisional round. And not since the ’03 Patriots has the team with the best regular-season record won it all. Maybe the solution is to expand the playoffs, which could pit No. 1 seeds against lesser teams in their playoff openers. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell hasn’t taken a stance on the issue. “I think it needs to be evaluated carefully,” he said. “… It’s got to be special to make the playoffs. It’s also got to retain its uniqueness and the importance of all those regular-season games. So, it has to be done very carefully — if we do it.” The possibility of another 7-9 team making the playoffs like the Seahawks did in 2010 isn’t necessarily a deterrent to adding teams to the playoff pool, Goodell said. “I think it’s because of the competitive nature of our league that wild card teams have gone on to win the Super Bowl,” Goodell said. “And teams that haven’t had great records, if you’re hot and you get hot in the second half of the season, you can win the Super Bowl. And I think that’s what’s changed a lot, and that’s why I think it’s worthy of evaluation.” Perhaps the quest to secure a first-round bye shouldn’t serve as such an imperative for teams anymore because all that R&R so often translates into rust and ruin. Manning lost his first playoff appearance with the Broncos (13-4), who wasted the home-field advantage they secured throughout the playoffs by failing to pressure Joe Flacco and negating a record-setting performance by kick returner Trindon Holliday. It wasn’t like the Broncos had rested their regulars down the stretch, either. They didn’t secure the No. 1 seed until Week 17, so they never took their foot off the gas, something they were sure would help them keep rolling through January. “I felt like we went about our business the right way and we had good weeks of practice, were ready to play and the game came down to about 12 plays and they made them and we didn’t,” Stokley said. The Falcons also played their starters to the end but lost their regular-season finale to Tampa Bay, then got all they could handle from the Seahawks before advancing to the NFL title game, where they’ll host San Francisco. That wild win over Seattle included a TD run, a field goal and a desperation heave into the end zone over the final 31 seconds — the exact amount of time that remained when Broncos coach John Fox decided to have Manning take a knee and settle for overtime on a frostbitten night in Denver after Jacoby Jones’ stunning 70-yard TD catch over safety Rahim Moore had tied the game at 35. “You know what? I agreed with it,” Stokley said, “just with the conditions, where we were on the field. The wind was kind of blowing in our face a little bit and they were getting after Peyton and in that situation, I agreed with it and I had no problems with that at all.” Aside from the Saints three years ago, the five other No. 1 seeds since ’05 that managed to win their playoff opener all won their conference championship only go on to lose the Super Bowl. Champ Bailey, a 12-time Pro Bowler still searching for his first Super Bowl ring, knew this was his best chance, calling this his “best team that didn’t do anything. It’s frustrating, but that’s the reality of it. We got to the playoffs but you have to win in the playoffs for it to mean something. So, it’s just another year when we came up short.” Anymore, the odds are simply stacked against the odds-on Super Bowl favorites. Yet, they still have a better shot than regular-season champs in other sports. Since the first Super Bowl, the team with the best regular-season record has won 21 of 46 championships, or 46 percent, which is more than in the NHL (42 percent), NBA (41 percent) and MLB (28 percent), according to STATS. “There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll be back and we’ll be bigger, stronger, faster, we’ll be hardened and ready to go,” Broncos star linebacker Von Miller said. But how far? Of the eight previous No. 1 seeds to falter in their first playoff game, only one — the Patriots in 2011 — recovered from that heartache to reach the Super Bowl the next season, where they lost to the New York Giants. By ARNIE STAPLETON, AP Pro Football Writer (© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Broncos Are 9th Top Seed To Stumble Since 2005

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) – The intended target for Peyton Manning ‘s last pass of the season didn’t sleep much after the game that brought Denver’s run to the Super Bowl to an unexpected halt. “I kept playing it back in my head,” Brandon Stokley said Sunday, as he discussed the loss in a rapidly clearing locker room. “It’s like a bad dream that keeps playing over and over.” But yes, that really happened. The 38-35 loss to the Baltimore Ravens goes down as one of the most crushing defeats in Broncos history, as much for when it came – two games short of the Super Bowl – as the surreal way it came about. Though Manning’s interception in overtime and Rahim Moore ‘s broken coverage stand out as lowlights from the loss, this was a game filled with mistakes, questionable decisions by both coach and quarterback and more missed opportunities than the Broncos compiled in 11 games before that, all wins. It brought a sudden close to a season that, at times, seemed almost destined to end at the Super Bowl in New Orleans. Instead, the Broncos became the ninth top-seeded team to lose in the divisional round over the past eight years. As the players packed their belongings in plastic trash bags, signed a few jerseys for each other and said goodbye, both young and old had grasped two simple facts of life in the NFL: Teams change from year to year; and one good season does not guarantee another. “You’ll never have the same nucleus, the same group of guys that we have,” second-year linebacker Von Miller said. “I wasn’t ready to let it go yet. Especially the way it ended.” Moore, who blew the coverage that allowed Jacoby Jones to score the tying touchdown with 31 seconds left in regulation, scooted in and out of the locker room quickly and didn’t do interviews. Manning, whose three turnovers led to 17 points, including the game-winning field goal in the second overtime, didn’t make himself available either. On Saturday after the loss, he acknowledged the throw across his body, back to the middle of the field to Stokley, was a bad decision punctuated by bad execution. “We really have put a lot of hard work into this season and made a lot of strides and accomplished a lot,” Manning said in the postgame interview. “So, it definitely stings, ending on a loss like we had tonight.” Manning fell to 9-11 for his career in playoff games, matching Brett Favre for most postseason losses in NFL history. He had a near-career year, throwing for 4,659 yards and 37 touchdowns, both second best in his 14 healthy seasons. Until the playoff game, he looked as steady and consistent as he has since he entered the league in 1998. His steadily improving health figures to get better, as well. But he’s 36, and at that age, there are no guarantees. The offense he returns to next year will have most of its pieces still in place. Left tackle Ryan Clady is a free agent, but will likely be Denver’s franchise player if he doesn’t agree to terms. Knowshon Moreno would likely be the front-runner at running back. Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas will be back. Stokley is a 36-year-old free agent who had a 544-yard season and wants to play more. On defense, the Broncos have Miller and Elvis Dumervil , who combined for 29 1/2 sacks over the season and combined for the only sack on Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco on Saturday. The defensive backfield was a mess Saturday, and though Moore was virtually in tears after the game, nobody felt this loss as deeply as 34-year-old Champ Bailey , the 14-year veteran who has still never been to the Super Bowl. Torrey Smith beat him twice for touchdowns, the first by outrunning him through the post, the second by adjusting to a ball thrown behind him along the right sideline. “It’s tough because I know I’m better than what I showed on that tape yesterday,” Bailey said. “There are a couple plays I’d like to have back. But if you haven’t been beat on the corner, you haven’t played.” Bailey is one of two Broncos who were around in 2005, when they had home-field advantage in the AFC title game and lost 34-17 to Pittsburgh. It took Denver six years to return to the playoffs. This team, Bailey said, was better than that team. “The best team that didn’t do anything,” he called the 2012 Broncos. “It’s frustrating. But that’s the reality of it. We got to the playoffs, but you have to win in the playoffs for it to mean something. So, it’s just another year where we came up short.” NOTES : RB Willis McGahee said he got cleared Sunday and would have been available to play next week in the AFC title game. … Moreno, who left the game in the third quarter Saturday, was walking without assistance and said his knee injury was not serious. … CB Tracy Porter , who sat out 10 games and the playoffs because of illness or injury, is almost certain to be playing elsewhere next season. He signed a one-year, $4 million contract in the offseason. … In Sunday’s NFC playoff game, Atlanta moved the ball 41 yards in 12 seconds to set up the game-winning field goal with 8 seconds left. On Saturday, coach John Fox chose to run out the clock with 31 seconds left and the game tied at the end of regulation. By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer (© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Broncos Still Making Sense Of Loss

Everyone covering passes for the Denver Broncos: You can blame safety Rahim Moore all you want for losing coverage on the 70-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco to Jacoby Jones with 31 seconds left in regulation of the Baltimore Ravens’ 38-35 overtime win over the Denver Broncos. But it was hardly all Moore’s fault, even on that one play. Safeties Jim Leonhard and Mike Adams made confusing decisions, and cornerback Tony Carter got flat-out clowned down the sideline by Jones’ pure speed. Add in Champ Bailey made to look like anything but a future Hall-of-Famer when covering Ravens speedster Torrey Smith, and Denver has a secondary that will raise serious offseason questions in general. Maybe it was just a bad day — after all, Bailey gave up just one touchdown in the regular season before giving up two to Smith — but that’s the main reason the Broncos, the AFC’s number-one-seed, is out of the playoffs. Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll: Carroll said this week that he had gone beyond the “hormonal” decisions that sometimes affected his success in previous landing spots, but the Seahawks’ head man did not have his best day in Seattle’s 30-28 nail-biting loss to the Atlanta Falcons. In addition to a number of head-scratching play calls in the red zone from his staff (seriously — that’s when you want Marshawn Lynch in there), Carroll may well have iced himself out of a championship game when he called time out just before Matt Bryant’s first attempt at a 49-yard field goal with 13 seconds left in the game. Bryant missed that one to the right, but nailed his second chance to send the Seahawks home for the season. Carroll is a good coach, and he’s done an amazing job with a young Seahawks team, but he’ll spend a lot of time wondering just what he was thinking at certain points of this game. The Green Bay Packers defense in general:

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Divisional playoff LVPs: Broncos secondary finished last (Shutdown Corner)

DENVER (AP) — No one should be surprised that the Super Bowl favorites are already out of the playoffs.

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Broncos are 9th top seed to stumble since ‘05 (The Associated Press)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady is so good at this playoff thing he seems to be playing for a championship every year.

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NFL Playoffs: Pats beat Texans, Ravens next