Monday, February 08, 2016

SB 50 aftermath

Huh. I guess defense really does win championships.

The Denver Broncos, who entered the postseason as the top ranked defense in terms of yards allowed, won Super Bowl 50 over the Carolina Panthers 24-10. The performance of the Broncos' D was that much more impressive when you consider they held in check a Panthers squad which had scored 80 points in two postseason games and was the NFL's top scoring team in the regular season.


Just a few other observations/thoughts:


- If Vikings' coach Mike Zimmer was watching, he had to feel pretty encouraged. After all, the Broncos won that game with stellar defensive play while putting forth (to be generous) pedestrian offensive production. That was much of the Vikes' 2015 season in a nutshell.


- Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning likely played his last game. If so, his Hall of Fame career ends the same way his boss John Elway wrapped up his playing days: a Super Bowl champion. There's debate whether Manning should be considered the greatest QB of all time now that he has multiple Super Bowl wins. While I greatly admire and respect the myriad pass records Manning holds, I am not of the opinion that he is the top QB of all time (I maintain that's a battle between Joe Montana and Tom Brady). Let's face it: with that Broncos' defense, Cooper Manning could have been quarterback of that team and still won it all.


- After three blowout losses in the Super Bowl as Broncos QB, Elway finally broke through with a win in SB 32 against the Green Bay Packers. Upon finally getting that elusive Super Bowl victory, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen exclaimed "This one's for John!" and handed the trophy to Elway. So when Elway (now the Broncos' VP of Football Operations and GM) received the SB 50 trophy Sunday evening, he returned the favor by saying "This one's for Pat!" It was an especially poignant moment since Bowlen was not present. The Broncos owner stepped away from his day-to-day duties 18 months ago due to being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. 


- Hey Eli, how do you feel about no longer owning the most Super Bowl rings in the Manning family? 







-Panthers QB Cam Newton has been receiving a lot of heat for his rather curt post game presser where he eventually stormed off in frustration. Sorry, but I can't get too worked up about it. Obviously the expectations were high for the league MVP and his team to win. But the Panthers didn't get it done, so obviously Newton was still pretty downtrodden less than an hour after the game. Could he have handled it better? Of course. But I don't think it's worth the invective that was directed towards him on social media.


- Overall, the renown Super Bowl commercials were pretty lackluster. However, there was one ad in particular which prompted the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) to put out one of the more bizarre tweets of the evening.

The commercial in question:






The loony reaction:



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