XPost: alt.sports.football.nfl, alt.sports.football.pro, alt.sports.football.pro.ariz-cardinals
XPost: triangle.general

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The superstar known as Superman had a
choice to make, and on paper, it seemed like a super simple one:
With the football on the ground and the Carolina Panthers'
season hanging in the balance, Cam Newton -- the NFL's newly
crowned MVP and most physically imposing quarterback -- surely
needed to dive headlong into the impending pile of bodies at his
18-yard-line to try to prevent the Denver Broncos from seizing
control of Super Bowl 50.

Except Superman, after absorbing several hours' worth of
punitive pummeling from the league's best defense, wasn't
feeling super into it: Newton hesitated, turned his body, and
retreated from a potential collision as he awkwardly hit the
ground. The ensuing convergence of other bodies sent the ball
careening backward, where Broncos safety T.J. Ward scooped up
the fumble and advanced it to within 4 yards of the end zone.

And as Newton sat there on his knees watching the Broncos
celebrate their fourth and final takeaway -- in this case, the
dagger that would set up the final eight points of their 24-10
victory -- it seemed very apparent to the defenders who had
harassed him all day that he'd essentially made a less-than-
valiant business decision.

"If he would have touched that ball, I was gonna hit him right
in his face, and I wasn't the only one," Ward said about 90
minutes after the Broncos had completed their triumph in front
of 71,088 fans at Levi's Stadium and hundreds of millions of
television viewers worldwide. "We were hungry for that one. We
saw that ball and it was like hyenas on an antelope.

"And I don't know -- maybe he needed to stay healthy for next
year."

Ouch.

By the time the Panthers' next drive had ended, with the NFL's
newly crowned Coach of the Year Ron Rivera -- aka Riverboat Ron -
- electing to punt on fourth-and-24 from his own 6, it was clear
that this year belonged to the underdogs who proved to be top
dogs.

Meanwhile, the NFC champion Panthers, with their 17-1 record
coming in and an unabashed proclivity for conspicuous
celebration, learned quite forcefully that the motto "Keep
Pounding" can be cruelly flipped upon its head.

"They thought they were going to come in and run the football
and throw it all over the place -- what?" cornerback Chris
Harris asked incredulously as he celebrated on the confetti-
drenched field after the game. "They hadn't watched us live. And
it's a shock to the system.

"Cam was scared to throw it. He looked blind. He couldn't figure
out where to throw. That's what pressure does, man."

Just as the Broncos had done in their 20-18 triumph over the New
England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, when a defensive
front led by bookend Pro Bowl pass rushers Von Miller and
DeMarcus Ware got in future Hall of Famer Tom Brady's grill over
and over and over again, Newton and the league's No. 1-ranked
offense were completely neutralized.

The stifling of Superman began on the Panthers' seventh play
from scrimmage, when Newton, on third-and-10 from his own 15,
took a shotgun snap and got absolutely engulfed by the Broncos'
front. The first to reach the retreating quarterback was Miller,
who abused right tackle Mike Remmers, delivered a high hit on
Newton and ripped the ball from his throwing hand.

That sent Ware and defensive end Malik Jackson lunging into the
end zone, with Jackson gathering it for the touchdown that gave
Denver a 10-0 lead with 6:27 left in the first quarter.

"I was just being me," Miller said. "Our defense is amazing, and
I just love being part of it."

It was the beginning of what would be a Super Bowl MVP
performance for Miller (six tackles, 2.5 sacks, one pass
defensed, two forced fumbles), who'll surely add another
ornament to his marvelous man cave, and for his teammates:
Newton, who hadn't suffered more than six hits in a game this
season, got tagged 13 times by the Broncos; he completed just 18
of 41 passes for 265 yards, with no touchdowns and an
interception, absorbing six sacks in the process.

During his stellar 2015 season, Newton chafed when criticized by
opposing players or outsiders for his prolonged and gaudy
displays of exuberance -- including the now ubiquitous "dabbing"
-- essentially telling them, If you don't like me dancing in the
end zone, then don't let me in.

The Broncos -- owners of the NFL's top-ranked defense, and one
that now must be measured historically against other great units
from the Super Bowl era -- were the ultimate dance-party
thrashers.

"No dancing," Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib said. "He had danced
enough. No way he was gonna tear us up. We're too smart for him.

"They really have a simple offense. They come out in a bunch of
different formations that they shift around, and they run one or
two plays out of them. If you can figure out the formations,
what they do is really simple. We knew he wasn't gonna come out
and tear us up. We knew all their looks."

And the Broncos needed to, because their own future Hall of Fame
quarterback looked every bit of his 39 years against a powerful
Panthers defense. In a statistically soft performance
reminiscent of that of his boss -- Denver general manager John
Elway, in the Broncos' Super Bowl XXXII upset of the Green Bay
Packers -- Manning (13 for 23, 141 yards, no touchdowns, one
interception) did just enough to burnish his already luminous
legacy.

Never mind that the Broncos' 194 total yards were the fewest by
a Super Bowl winner; if Manning decides to retire after a second
championship, as Elway did following the Broncos' Super Bowl
XXXIII thrashing of the Atlanta Falcons, he'll do so with a slew
of significant NFL records, including 200 career combined
regular-season and playoff victories as a starting quarterback,
Sunday's triumphant having broken a tie with newly elected Hall
of Famer Brett Favre.

Two years earlier, Manning's second career Super Bowl defeat had
been set in motion by his first play from scrimmage: After
lining up to take a shotgun snap, Manning was barking out
signals when center Manny Ramirez, confused by the crowd noise,
snapped the ball past the unsuspecting quarterback's head and
out of the end zone for a safety, propelling the Seattle
Seahawks to a 43-8 victory.

About an hour before the game, as he stood on the Broncos'
sideline, Elway -- who has since reshaped the Broncos into a
tougher, defense-dominated ensemble -- referred to that Super
Bowl XLVIII fiasco, joking, "If we can get to the second play,
we've got a chance."

This time, on first-and-10 from his own 20, Manning took a
traditional snap from under center, dropped back and completed
an 18-yard pass to Owen Daniels, launching a 10-play, 64-yard
drive that ended with the first of Brandon McManus' three field
goals.

The Broncos' defense, naturally, responded with a three-and-out,
as Talib tackled tight end Greg Olsen a yard short of a first
down. And when Miller's strip and Jackson's recovery produced
points on Carolina's next drive, a very clear tone had been set.

Still, after closing to within 16-10 on Graham Gano's 39-yard
field goal with 10:24 left in the game, the Panthers had
consecutive drives on which they could have gone ahead with a
touchdown. The first ended with a punt; the second, with the
business decision that may go down as Newton's no mas moment.

On third-and-9 from his own 25, Newton took a shotgun snap, felt
pressure and tried to hurry a throw downfield. He didn't hurry
enough: Miller, having beaten Remmers again, dislodged the ball
as the quarterback was beginning his delivery. As Newton stopped
and backed off, the diving Ware had the best chance of
recovering the fumble, but instead it ricocheted backward and
into the open, where Ward scrambled to make the lethal scoop.

"He tapped out," Talib said of Newton. "Yeah, he didn't want it."

After C.J. Anderson (23 carries, 90 yards) bulled past the
Panthers' star middle linebacker, Luke Kuechly, and into the end
zone, Manning threw what may prove to be the final pass of his
career, a two-point conversion to receiver Bennie Fowler to put
the Broncos up by 14. The math did not work in Carolina's favor,
but after a pair of incompletions sandwiched around a 14-yard
Ware sack put the Panthers in a fourth-and-24 hole, Rivera
essentially surrendered all statistical probability of winning
by sending out the punt team.

Even Talib was somewhat aghast. "I was telling them to go for
it, but Coach Mike [Shula, the Panthers' offensive coordinator]
wasn't listening to me," Talib recalled. "I said, 'Y'all ain't
gonna go for it? Really?' That was their last shot."

While the Panthers left Northern California nursing their mental
and emotional wounds, some of the Broncos' defenders took some
parting verbal shots, while others attempted to give the unit
its historical due.

"Our D is just tremendous," Anderson said. "I don't know where
they rank compared to Tampa Bay in 2002, the 2000 Ravens or the
'85 Bears, but they're a damn good defense."

Said receiver Demaryius Thomas: "Cam's gotta be freaked out. He
hadn't seen anything like that all season."

"We're that good," Harris said. "We're that dominant. People
were saying this team would roll over us. I don't know what film
they watched. We said we were one of the best teams in a long
time, and we backed it up. Defense wins championships."

Let the record show that on Super Sunday in Santa Clara, the
Denver defense turned Superman into a dude whose prime motive
was self-preservation. The Broncos didn't let Newton dance, and
they strutted off as champions, perhaps handing a better-than-a-
gold-watch parting gift to an all-time great.

"We've got to tell everybody we're the best," Ward said as he
soaked up the falling confetti shortly before taking the victory
podium with his teammates. "They couldn't do anything on the
defense. They couldn't touch us."

Yet the Broncos kept pounding Newton, over and over and over
again, until Superman submitted.

Comments:

Crysostomos Haloftis
.....still laughing lol......ya'all have a good one lol....
Like · Reply · 10 mins

Crysostomos Haloftis
Oh and to the Panthers fans who bashed on my predicitons.....I
am now officially laughing my butt off because you all were
wrong and lost.
Like · Reply · 11 mins

Crysostomos Haloftis
I've already said it before the game and I will say it now
again. Cam is wet behind the ears and cannot go in this game
against an 18 year vet who's already been there and done it
before. Cam is good yes. Cam is aweosome yes. Cam is not Peyton
Manning no. The game could have been a lot more worse for Cam if
it hadn't been for his own athletisism. Without Cam the Panthers
are not much of a team.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000634573/article/broncos- pound-panthers-offense-say-cam-newton-tapped-out
 

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