So “Drink a lot of Budweiser” replaces “Going to Disneyland” then?
-xtien
An ugly game at times, but I can’t think of a better example of the phrase “Defense wins championships”.
Von Miller is a ‘one man wrecking crew’. What he did to Brady in the AFC Championship and now Cam was just plain nasty.
Hooray for the old guy! I really thought Carolina was going to win, but I was hoping to see Peyton go out on top. The Panthers offense looked nervous from the very beginning, off their game from the start. Looked nothing like the squad that put up all those points on Seattle and Arizona. The Denver defense smelled blood and never backed down the pressure. If the Bronco offense had been even halfway decent, this would have been a blowout. As it was, the Panthers could easily have had the lead if not for all the turnovers.
As for Cam and the Panthers, they certainly had a bad game. They’ve still got a good solid window to get back to the big game in the next few years. They’ve got the experience now, we’ll see if they can make the adjustments.
Alstein
1704
I think Denver’s D just the way it’s designed counters the Panthers O perfectly.
This was pretty much a modern day Super Bowl V with all the sloppiness. I just hope the Panthers play angry next year.
Didn’t have a huge rooting interest, though my brother lives in Denver so I was sorta pulling for them.
Even though it may not have been the normal kind of exciting, I thought that every time Cam went back to pass there was the chance of a great defensive play happening. And it actually did happen often enough that I found the game fun to watch. Now Denver pretty much just tried to run out the clock the entire second half which wasn’t super great to watch, but the show the Broncos put on on the defensive side of the ball was tremendous.
marquac
1706
I wonder if Denver will be able to keep their defense intact this off-season?
They were basically able to put 7 guys in the box all night long, knowing their secondary was going to keep Carolina in check.
LockerK
1708
Not really a great game to watch especially with no rooting interest, but happy for Manning that he’ll (likely) go out on top. Embarrassing for the league and SF that the field was still in such poor shape.
olaf
1709
This was a great game. Defense wins championships and this was why Denver won. They got crushed two years ago by Seattle. When Seattle was the number one D. This time? Denver is the number one D and they fucking dominated Carolina. There was a stat tossed out during the game that was something like when the number 1 D makes the Super Bowl they have won 9 of 11. Make that 10 of 12.
I thought the first Carolina challenge was terrible officiating, that was clearly a catch. That series ended up being the Cam fumble recovered for a TD. Very tough break for Carolina. The next series I thought the personal foul against Talib for jawing was a make up call. The best team won though. Denver’s game plan was get a lead and then let the defense win the game. And they did that.
In addition to Denver and the under I had three prop bets tonight. There would be a safety. Lost that one. There would be a two point conversion. Won that one. And the most profitable, by far, the MVP would be Von Miller.
Very happy to see Manning win this. 2-2 in Super Bowls now and a winning post season record, finally. What he has done with his career is incredible. Four Super Bowl appearances with two different teams and FOUR different head coaches (never been done). Two wins with two different teams (never been done).
I think Manning will retire but I hope he doesn’t. I would like to see him take another ride with either Denver, or another team with a great D, like the Texans.
edit: I especially love this for Wade Phillips. As a die hard Houston Oilers fan during the Bum Phillips era, I love Wade Phillips. He may not be a great head coach but he is a fucking hell of a DC. He was the reason the Broncos made it here and he was the reason they won. He won assistant coach of the year last night, that award could not be more well deserved.
Manning is done. He has no velocity left in his arm. None. And he’ll only get a year older next year. He’s going to ride this one into the sunset.
If Manning wants to play another year, there are teams that will sign him. It’s up to him.
Alstein
1712
I think it’s the latter, combined with two weeks of prep. I don’t think many defenses can pull that gameplan, and Carolina’s holes on offense are things Denver is really strong at.
Denver earned this win with their defense- best defensive performance in a Super Bowl since the Ravens. Also Carolina’s D just too banged up to match Denver’s- Thieves Ave had a tornado hit it near the end of the season losing Tillman and Bene, but you can’t whine about injuries- NFL everyone gets hurt. At least McClain justified his roster spot and they know they’ve got something useful in him.
I just hope this game causes Cam and the Panthers to play angry next year.
Yep, that’s one of the big weaknesses of Carolina’s offensive scheme- if you got a good enough secondary to hold or good enough pass rush to get through Panthers max protect, you can derail their offense. Denver was only team that could do this year. Cam’s weakness is that he’s bad at the type of short passes you need to beat that- his tendency to overthrow at times makes it even riskier to try.
CraigM
1713
Miller was a deserving MVP. But I also feel there was a deserving LVP, Aquib Talib. Horrendous penalties, including a blatant facemask. Guy had issues last night. Only player I saw on the Denver D that I saw making mistakes last night.
Gedd
1714
As a Panthers fan, the game was a real letdown. I expected things to be hard with Denver’s defense, but I really hoped we’d at least play well through it, if not as well as we’ve done in the past. Our game was rife with stupid mistakes (not tackling Norwood(?) when he didn’t even do anything close to a fair catch call), overthrown passes, terrible penalties (seemed like we got one just about anytime we got the ball), and unnecessary turnovers.
And I know it probably sounds silly, but we didn’t even play like we’ve done all year. We get a touchdown, and rather than trying to find a kid in the endzone to hand it off, we keep it the ball? Cam gets a first down and doesn’t do his first down move? One of the big differences between this year and years prior for Cam is that he always looked like he was having fun. Smiling and goofing off, even when we were in tight situations. None of that yesterday. I know it’s hard to have fun when the rush is finally getting to you for the first time all year, but you’ve got to play your game.
Timex
1715
Carolina had not played against a defense like Denver. Newton was not prepared for that kind of beating.
The same thing happened against the Patriots with Tom Brady, where Denver beat him like a red-headed stepchild.
When you are under that kind of pressure, you don’t get to “play your game”.
CraigM
1716
Oh gosh, yeah. One of the worst plays I’ve ever seen in a Super Bowl, and I had to suffer through Sexy Rexy as a Bears fan.
I noticed all those things early too, Gedd. We were talking about it through much of the first half. They looked tight and even a little overcome by the moment.
Big shout out to my man Kony Ealy who only played like 20 snaps and managed 3 sacks, an interception, and a fumble recovery!
Gedd
1718
Just curious, but has Denver played an offense like Carolina’s? Throughout the year we’ve seen defenses spend at least most of the first half trying to adjust to our offense. Denver seemed to have us figured out from the first play.
When you are under that kind of pressure, you don’t get to “play your game”.
Bad turn of phrase on my part. What I’m trying to say is that when you stop doing the little morale things like I mentioned, you’re showing that you’re stressed. When the defense is getting to you, you’ve got to keep celebrating the successes like you’ve done all year. I really was boggled when Stewart walked off with the ball instead of giving it to some kid in the stands (or giving it to Cam to do so).
CraigM
1719
The closest is probably KC, which relies on a strong run game and TE play, with poor receivers. But Alex Smith is nowhere near as dynamic as Cam, so the comparison fails there.
I thought they looked tight from the opening snap, honestly. Cam was high on his first couple of throws, I lost track of Cotchery pass drops and Mike Tolbert fumbles. I thought Shula called a terrible game, too. They never rolled Cam out to either side, and the playcalling was so predictable.
