The stage for Super Bowl 50 is set in Santa Clara. The Panthers and the Broncos will face off in a battle for the Lombardi trophy in a week. When I saw the score of both conference championship games, I immediately thought of Super Bowl 48.
For those of you who need a reminder that is when the number one scoring offense of all time of the Denver Broncos faced off against the first-ranked defense of the Seattle Seahawks. The game concluded with a very lopsided score of 43-8, as some may have not expected the Seahawks winning.
The Broncos won the AFC championship this year in pretty impressive fashion, though their performance may not have been reflected on the scoreboard, as they won 20-18 against the New England Patriots. The scoreboard however doesn’t tell the entire dominance that Denver had in that game and the dominance they showed all season.
Like the 2013 Seahawks, the Broncos defense is their life source. Every aspect of that team feeds off of it. The entire game, the defensive line of the Broncos was not only confusing Tom Brady but they were getting to him. Tom Brady finished the game throwing 27 completions out of his whopping 56 passes, to go along with his one passing touchdown and his two interceptions. This type of close game can really help a team heading into the Super Bowl.
The Carolina Panthers on the other hand had a different course to go on. They completely dominated the Arizona Cardinals. They won every phase of the game and, frankly, they made Carson Palmer look like a little pop warner player going against NFL players. They forced him to throw four interceptions while also forcing two fumbles, eventually winning the game 49-15.
This sounds like the exact same scenario as we saw two years ago; the Seahawks with their great defense winning just barely over the San Francisco 49ers 23-17. The Denver Broncos, who had arguably the greatest offense ever assembled and ranked first in scoring, won their conference championship by a larger margin with a 26-16 victory that year.
If you recall the Broncos and the Seahawks both had great defenses that year. That goes the same for the game on Feb. 7 because both the Panthers and Broncos have great defenses.
I believe that the Denver Broncos are a mirror image of the 2013 Seahawks. Combine Chris Harris, TJ Ward, Aqib Talib, and Bradly Roby with their extreme depth at the defensive line positions and you might be looking at a similar result to Super Bowl 48 this year.
The Panthers, although not the same style as the 2013 Broncos, are just as explosive and can put up points in a hurry.
Obviously Cam is extremely mobile compared to Peyton, however I think Denver’s defense is up to the challenge of stopping both Cam’s legs and his arm.
Cam Newton, behind a good offensive line, has thrown a sub-par 59.8 percent for completions. The year Peyton was torched in the Super Bowl, his completion percentage behind an average offensive line was 68.3 percent.
If history repeats itself, as it sometimes does, Peyton Manning will be taking the Super Bowl 50 trophy to Denver.
I am going to go with Denver winning this game 27-16, yes it’s not a blow out like the comparable match up I made, but Denver will dominate all four quarters.
