Panthers beat themselves

[Egnever]

Mistakes penalties and some bad sportsmanship. Denver D played a good game but if not for the panthers mistakes I don't think Denver would have won this.

Grats to Denver just the same. A nice retirement gift to manning if nothing else.

[Melurkyoulongtime]

1. Dammit

I KNEW I should've put some $$$ on the Broncos!

[OldHippieChick]

2. They may have been a little over-confident

and not prepared for what a real Defense would bring. Put them back on their butts IHMO. It always comes down to who wants it more and we wanted it more.

[earthside]

3. Denver defense won the game.

Von Miller was spectacular.

[onecaliberal]

4. Oh please. The Denver defense kicked their ass.

[fishwax]

5. Nah, Denver defense beat the Panthers. Crushed 'em.

[Egnever]

12. I disagree the panthers defense was actually much more effective

The panthers had more rushing yards by far than the broncos

The panthers also had way more penalties. Over 100 yards in penalties several of them at key moments.

The panthers had 2 more turn overs 4 vs 2 but they were in key spots

I guess you could argue those two turn overs were spanking the panthers but in every other metric the panthers outperformed them.

Not a fan of either team so I don't really care that's just how I see it.

Was an entertaining game matter what

[fishwax]

19. No doubt the Panthers defense also played well

But they were going up against a, frankly, very middling offense. (And I say that as a Broncos fan.) Denver's offense was able to piece together a couple of key drives for field goals, but overall they played a very conservative game because, with the opening possession FG and then the defensive TD they didn't need the offense to make big plays to win the game.

Denver's defense was going up against the best offense in the league, and they shut them down. And getting those two extra turnovers made a pretty huge defense, since Denver's defense scored a TD on one of them and another gave the offense the ball inside the five. The Panthers had more penalties in the second half, but I think that was largely a function of the defense getting in their heads in a big way. (The false starts started coming in the second half, a sign of an offensive line that knew they were getting beat.)

The Panthers only had about 30 more rushing yards than the Broncos, and Cam was their leading rusher. They had far more passing yards, but also had to throw it almost twice as much.

I agree with you that it was an entertaining game. I love watching defensive football, and these defenses both played very well tonight.

[sadoldgirl]

6. Oh gheeze, the fire crackers are going off

for the Bronco win. I better make sure that
my pets stay inside for a while.

[BeyondGeography]

7. They looked a little fragile out there

Starting with the QB. Better luck next time. Just don't assume there will be a next time.

[TeddyR]

8. The strip sack/TD

Changed the entire game, even though it was just one score. Carolina wins that game if they aren't playing two scores behind. And Gano's missed FG in the 2d half basically ended the game - huge momentum swing. Told my wife before he kicked that he'd miss - that kind of day for the Panthers.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Bad time for a brain-dead penalty on that missed FG drive

OL pushes a guy down from behind so they march 15 yards back after getting a first down at the 20. Not a Panther fan but I was rooting for them because my daughter's NC boyfriend takes this stuff really seriously. He's certainly a mess right now.

Oh, and Cotchery did catch that ball way back when...

[TeddyR]

10. Yep

Full credit to Denver's coaches - they managed the game very well.

[petronius]

18. Yeah, I don't know how they didn't overturn and call that a catch (and the

replay officials seemed to decide pretty quickly). If I was more CT-minded, I'd be tempted to suspect that the replay booth mixed up the call, and thought they were confirming a called reception...

[BeyondGeography]

22. Cotchery had the bobbles all night

including on that play. But that was an early buzzkill for a team that needed all the positive reinforcement it could get as it turned out. Rare that you see a challenge review botched that badly.

[fishwax]

21. Yeah, that makes it an entirely different game

I won't go so far as to say that Carolina wins, since there still isn't much evidence they'd be able to actually do much scoring, but being up two scores for most of the third quarter and the start of the fourth certainly allowed them to play it very safe with the offense.

[HughBeaumont]

11. I think it was a little of both Denver D and Carolina foot-shooting.

Carolina just blew it spectacularly. Too many mistakes and penalties.

I've never seen such an offensively challenged team win a Super Bowl. 194 total yards offense, 1/11 on third downs and a 55.6 QB rating.

[Egnever]

13. Exactly my take

Big mistakes on the panther side and some key turn overs.

The Denver offense was nearly non existent.

[Snobblevitch]

14. Denver outplayed Carolina, period.

[Egnever]

16. Not sure how anyone can say that

Have you looked at the game stats?

The only thing Denver outperformed Carolina in was turn overs and that was 4-2

It made the difference to be sure but that was the only thing they did better.

[Snobblevitch]

23. Turnovers and penalties are part of the game.

The only stat that matters is the score.

Carolina did not get the ball into the end zone or through uprights as much as did Denver.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

15. Cam couldn't read the defense. He didn't know whether

to keep it or run, and made a late decision that resulted in a bobble and Stewart pretty much just trying to secure it. Their offense is based around that read.

[tarheelsunc]

17. Cam never had TIME to read a defense. Terrible job by the O-line. eom

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

20. I'm saying he was confused in the running game

he didn't know whether to keep it on the option or hand it off. He was always wrong.

[Yupster]

24. Yeah - the memory I have of the game is

Cam twisting away from a charging lineman only to find another one right in his face.

I don't think he had a lot of evaluating time.

[ladjf]

25. You must have overlooked the Denver defense. nt