SAN FRANCISCO — John Elway had a plan.

March 12, 2014, Pro Bowl linebacker DeMarcus Ware sat in first class on a flight from Dallas to Denver to visit the Broncos’ general manager. Conversation was promised. A deal was not.

Sitting a few rows behind Ware on that flight was Pro Bowl cornerback Aqib Talib, who had agreed to contract terms with the Broncos the night before. The two knew nothing of the other’s plans before their fortuitous meeting 30,000 feet in the air. But it didn’t take long for the dots to be connected.

“When I looked back there in that back seat and I see Talib, I’m like, you know what? They’re trying to get the job done,” Ware said.

Five weeks after the Broncos gave up 43 points in a lopsided Super Bowl loss to the Seahawks, Elway opened up the Broncos’ checkbook for a defensive shopping overhaul. In the span of 48 hours, he doled out $110 million to sign Talib, Ware and safety T.J. Ward.

The moves spurred an identity shift in Denver. The record- setting offense was going to take a back seat to Elway’s carefully crafted defense. The hope, Ware said, was to resemble the Orange Crush, but the plan called for a Vince Lombardi Trophy.

WATCH: Super Bowl 50 pregame show: Broncos vs. Panthers

Now, the Broncos are one win from their third NFL championship, in large part because of their No. 1-ranked defense.

“Defense wins championships,” Ware said, repeating a mantra often heard before the big game.

A victory in Super Bowl 50 against Carolina could do more than add a shiny trophy to the Broncos’ collection, however. It could validate this defense’s spot among the finest in NFL history.

“Play with fanatical effort”

All the expensive defensive additions two years ago did not lead to immediate postseason success. The Broncos bowed out meekly in a home loss to Indianapolis in the divisional round a year ago, and soon after the coaching staff was gone.

Elway then signed perhaps his most valuable offseason addition since Peyton Manning. Wade Phillips, a 68-year-old Plan B for a team that scoffs at such a thing, agreed to come on board when the Broncos failed to get their first choice, Vance Joseph.

Phillips immediately went about implementing his 3-4 defense, exploiting the power and speed of his edge rushers, and encouraging his linemen to attack the passer.

The mission was, and remains, simple: “To play with a fanatical effort and relentless pursuit to the ball,” as Denver all-pro outside linebacker Von Miller describes it.

In one season Phillips has made a defense that ranked third in yards allowed (305.2 per game), tied for 16th in scoring (22.1 points per game) and tied for ninth in sacks (41) into one that led the league in yards allowed (283.1), passing yards (199.6) and sacks (52), and ranked near the top in multiple other key statistical categories.

Phillips took a group that lacked the tenacity and passion Elway demanded into one that sacked Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater seven times, held reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay to only 50 net yards passing, sent Colts star Andrew Luck to a hospital with a lacerated kidney and beat Patriots star Tom Brady twice, hitting him 20 times during the AFC championship game.

And he took a defense that many players said felt stifling with its assignments under coordinator Jack Del Rio into one that has left opponents confused and, at many times looking helpless.

“Good thing they’re confused,” Phillips said. “That’s good. I’m pretty confusing usually. We play a matchup zone and people think it’s man-to-man. Then we play man-to-man and we play some basic zone. We say, ‘Hey, you’re playing this zone, but when a guy comes over there, you match with him. You pass it off, just like in basketball. When another guy comes there, you go there.’ We play a lot of match zone, but people think we’re playing man-to-man. Hopefully that confuses them. It probably confused you already.”

Confusion is part of the grand plan, one that extends to the front seven. Phillips, having spent three seasons as Buddy Ryan’s defensive coordinator in Philadelphia (1986-88), has installed parts of Ryan’s famed “46” defense that the 1985 Chicago Bears rode to a Super Bowl title.

“I was able to incorporate the things that I thought were really good into a 3-4 because it’s a 4-3 defense, the Bear defense,” Phillips said. “We still utilize a lot of that now. Buddy was a true genius as far as defensive football was concerned.”

The 1985 Bears went 15-1 and allowed an average of 4.4 yards per play and 12.4 points per game in the regular season. But it was in the postseason, with an average 3.3 points allowed per game and a 46-10 victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XX, that gained them the distinction as arguably the NFL’s finest defense ever.

Denver’s regular-season, per-play statistics are on par with those teams widely considered among the best in the past 30 years, including the 2000 Ravens, 2002 Buccaneers, 2008 Steelers and 2013 Seahawks. Denver allowed 4.4 yards per play, a league low, and 18.5 points per game, the fourth-fewest in the NFL. And its 12-4 record mirrored those of the 2000 Ravens, ’02 Bucs and ’08 Steelers.

But while those teams were lauded for their regular-season work, they sealed their legacy with Super Bowl victories. The Orange Crush of 1977, the team whose play set the bar for Ware and the defense at the start of the season, led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl in franchise history. But they lost to the Cowboys and their “Doomsday II” defense 27-10.

Tables turned in two years

Tom Jackson, a former Orange Crush linebacker who played in two Super Bowls with the Broncos, came prepared, as he typically does.

“I’ve got all these stats stuck in my mind,” he said. “The top eight highest-scoring teams in the history of football didn’t win the Super Bowl. And that’s insane, and that’s crazy when you think about that, because what that means is we are all caught up in the visual of watching what offenses do.

“We love it. We love to see teams score. The rules have been tilted toward scoring, and yet, if you have a really, really outstanding defense, it will bode you well when you get to the ultimate games.”

That’s why, perhaps, only five defensive players have been named Super Bowl MVP in the past three decades. The Bears had one, defensive end Richard Dent. The 2000 Ravens had linebacker Ray Lewis. The 2002 Bucs had safety Dexter Jackson, and the 2013 Seahawks had linebacker Malcolm Smith.

Going back further, the 1977 Cowboys, who defeated the Orange Crush in Super Bowl XII, saw two defensive linemen honored: Harvey Martin and Randy White.

Jackson doesn’t care for the Orange Crush comparison. He never has, but it’s out of admiration of the current Broncos.

“I respect this group so much because it’s harder,” Jackson said. “It got harder when they changed the rules. It got harder as they adjusted the game so that it would be easier to score, easier to throw, easier to get open. It’s harder to get guys down on the ground; you have to think about every hit that you make. It’s way more difficult to play defense now than it was for us when we played. What they’re accomplishing is very, very special.”

Special, possibly legendary, but also necessary — a reminder Elway received two years ago when the 2013 Broncos made it to the Super Bowl with a record-setting offense, but quickly was shown the door by the league’s No. 1 defense.

The 2015 Broncos have made it to Super Bowl 50 with the No. 1 defense and soon will face the top-scoring offense.

The tables have been turned, as planned. But Elway’s vision called for more.

“That’s why we haven’t gotten the recognition we deserve,” Talib said. “We haven’t won the (championship) yet. There have been a lot of good defenses that didn’t win a ‘ship that you just forget about. But like the ones — Legion of Boom, ’85 Bears, the Steel Curtain, 2002 Bucs, the Ravens — the guys who win the championships, you remember them. We don’t even expect the recognition until we win the Super Bowl.”

Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or @NickiJhabvala