Super Bowl Reaction

Vonn Miller was a monster! He was everywhere at once, in on every play it seemed like. He was without a doubt the MVP of this game.

Thought the Panthers got hosed on the replay call. Dude, the ball never touched the ground...how can it be a incomplete pass? What was incomplete about it? From all the various camera angles, it is clear that the ball never touched the ground...if it never touched the ground, how can you say the receiver didn't catch the ball? I didn't understand it at the time and I still don't now. It never touched the ground. (Of course, every Panther fan will forever remember that two plays later, Cam was sacked, stripped and the Bronco D scored the first TD of the game)

I thought the Panthers should've run Cam more often, surprised that they didn't. Not so much for the yardage, but just to mix up the game plan, put the Bronco defense in a different mind set. He's actually not a natural born runner, he's got the size and the talent but running is not his first instinct. But a designed run or two surely would've eked out a few more 1st downs and opened things up down field. I thought the relative conservativeness with Cam was a real missed opportunity. Especially since he really wasn't passing well at all. He looked better at the beginning of the 3rd quarter but otherwise he sailed a lot of passes ll night long, I guess the Bronco secondary was throwing off his normal looks.

I didn't mind Cam not going for that fumble. It looked to me like he didn't have the right angle on it and jumping in wouldn't have given him a good shot to get the ball. I was surprised he didn't jump in but even at the time it didn't look like necessarily the right play. But even right away I knew that play was gonna be one of the talking points of the Cam backlash.

Peyton Manning was pretty terrible, dog. But the Bronco D and special teams made all the difference. And Peyton was wise enough to let his teammates win the game. So...I dunno...good game for Peyton, huh? (12 straight 3-and-outs. 12! In a Super Bowl!)

As it got closer to game time I had talked myself out of a Panther blowout but I still thought the Panthers (re: Cam) would be good enough to pull it out. I kinda thought the way the Broncos won would be the way the Panthers won: score early, maintain a decent lead all the way through, survive the comeback attempt. I thought the Broncos would cover (+5.5) and I thought the game would be under (50), so I did pretty well.

Early early early prediction for next year: Bengals over Cowboys.

Since everyone did this to the Warriors last year, I thought I'd go ahead and put it to the Broncos: aren't they lucky that they didn't have to face the Bengals (genuinely solid AFC team this year, better than the Steelers), the Chiefs (division foe that already beat them once and should've beaten them twice) and the Seahawks (with a pass rush that almost certainly would've battered Manning as bad as the Broncos battered Cam)? Just sayin'. Bengals, Chiefs and Seahawks would've been a tougher road than what the Broncos got.