Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it. And I'm not talking about the majority of fans and media, who seemed to believe Carolina was so good that all they had to do was show up yesterday and win. I'm talking about the Panthers themselves.
Every 6-7 years, it seems, we get a pair of teams in the Super Bowl where one is the prohibitive favorite, and they spend two weeks acting like it. Rams-Patriots. Patriots-Giants. And now Panthers-Broncos. Stories of the Panthers taking team pictures pointing to their ring finger or whatnot. Talk about how Carolina's offense was simply too good and too inventive to stop. Kooky talk. Great offenses get stopped in Super Bowl games all the time. It's happened to Tom Brady multiple times. It's happened to Peyton Manning's Broncos. And now it's happened to Cam Newton's Panthers.
Everybody watched the game, but not all of us sat there sipping Pepsi and taking notes throughout. Except for the part about the Pepsi, I did.
Twelve years in, it's possible the Puppy Bowl has outlived its appeal. I watched about half an hour of the thing with my kids and I've got to say it gets old kind of quickly. Even for them! Best part was at the end where they carry the dogs off the field and report how and who adopted each one of them while gentle, emotional music plays. I teared up a little at that. There are always a few amusing moments but I want to hear from anyone who could stick with the thing for more than 10-15 minutes.
Lady Gaga did a nice performance of the National Anthem. It's pretty clear that all you really have to do with the song is deliver a strong-voiced, powerful rendition from the heart that makes it sound to everyone like you care. Not difficult. She did, the fly-over is always cool, and the various cutaways to troops in Afghanistan were nice. Well done.
The parade of all the previous Super Bowl MVPs was a nice moment. A lot of star power in one place at one time. I even felt kind of bad for Tom Brady getting booed. Only kind of. It was nice to see all-time greats like Marcus Allen and Emmitt Smith out there. And mildly amusing to see lesser lights like Larry Brown and Malcolm Smith out there. I'm not sure I'd ever seen Joe Montana and Steve Young together since they were teammates.
I watched the coin flip wondering if it would be controversial or not. Would they actually flip the coin, or toss it in the air like a pancake? Would the call be clear and easy to understand? Would the coin be turned over after the call was made? Aaron Rodgers was there, you know, so he was probably taking notes.
Carolina's decision to defer was interesting. I guess the thought was to set a defensive tone, but I think setting a tone with the league's highest-scoring offense would have been a better move.
After Denver's opening field goal drive, highlighted by C.J. Anderson starting and getting almost all of the work as the slow-on-the-uptake Gary Kubiak finally came around, it was all the Denver defense for the rest of the quarter. As some of us predicted, the stellar Broncos pass rush was just too much. Cam Newton was a little jittery and missed a couple of throws -- pass rush does that. It was really quite similar to Broncos-Patriots. Carolina had two weeks to work on things but didn't have any answers.
Jonathan Stewart got hurt early on. He returned, but it's debatable whether he was fully healthy. Never got going.
Another guy who came up small was Jerricho Cotchery. Should have caught the pass that was ruled incomplete, then challenged and again ruled incomplete, with ease. Not surprising that Mike Carey was wrong in saying it would be reversed. The ball touched the ground while he was still trying to complete the act of the catch and wasn't in control. Saw some media types arguing this one. Granted it's tough to say what is and isn't a catch anymore. But the ball hit the ground and it wasn't surprising it wasn't overturned. Big play. Cotchery dropped a couple of other passes, as well.
The taunting penalty on Aqib Talib was a little odd. Two guys jawing at each other on the sidelines. Whatever.
First half moved very slowly with all the penalties, challenges and argument. After an hour and a half we were only 5 minutes into the second quarter. Not helped by there not being a lot of offense.
More than once I thought that Thomas Davis clearly wasn't himself. There's a reason why guys don't play with broken arms. Couple of times he should have wrapped up but instead used his shoulder. Not that Denver's offense did much, but Anderson finished with 90 yards and would have been quite a bit less, I think, if Davis were healthy.
Players were slipping on the field and changing their cleats on the sidelines. Did they not get a chance to check out the field before the game? Seems like that should have been on the checklist of things to do.
Very costly fumble by Mike Tolbert to kill a drive. Swear I called it. Maybe that's a Stewart carry if he weren't banged up. Tolbert not suited for a big role.
Bizarre near punt return touchdown by Denver. Should have been a fair catch, so much so that Carolina apparently thought he had called for a pair catch. This came right after the announcers noted there has never been one in a Super Bowl. Naturally.
Halftime show was pretty entertaining. I think we're all tired of Uptown Funk by now, but Bruno Mars and his backup dancers ramped up the energy anyway. Helped make up for the fact that Beyoncee performed a forgettable new song instead of one people have heard of.
Peyton Manning was basically as poor as expected. Threw an interception and could easily have thrown 3 or 4. Aggravating that people after the game kept asking him if he was going to retire. What games are you people watching? Of course he's going to retire. No NFL team could possibly have watched him play this season with any thought he could help them in 2016. C'mon.
Cam Newton was much poorer than expected. In every way. Forget the missed throws, the struggles with the pressure, and the postgame childishness at the podium. How about the basically game-ending fumble that he didn't dive on? That turnover was huge and Newton acted like he couldn't be bothered to mix it up. To me, that was his worst moment.
Not gonna dwell on the commercials, there are plenty of those columns out there. Doritos does a nice job of coming up with some funny bits. The Jeep one was well done. Football is Family and Drake ads were good, though most of us had probably seen them online or on NFL Network in the last couple of weeks. Obviously the one for the Heinz Family with hotdog dogs wearing hotdog buns running across the field was the best commercial of the night, no debating that.
So the Broncos, in an upset, are Champions. What can we take from this? I don't think it's merely that Defense wins Championships, because the Panthers had an excellent defense too.
What the Super Bowl shows us, though, and showed us 6 years ago with Giants-Patriots and 6 years before that with Patriots-Rams, is that great defenses can and do shut down great offenses. That levels the playing field between teams, and enables a limited offense (in Denver's case, poor) to get a win if their defense happens to make the biggest play. Denver got a fumble recovery touchdown. Now maybe, if that had just been a sack or a turnover, Denver wouldn't have scored enough to win. Certainly Carolina's interception could have been a Pick Six, or multiple other poor throws by Manning could have gone for defensive touchdowns. And then we'd all be talking about Carolina's Defense and Cam Newton today.
Congratulations to the Broncos. If nothing else, they reminded everyone that anything can happen in a football game. Past performance, statistics, and pictures of players dipping and pointing to their ring fingers can't change that.