Dominant defense carries Broncos to Super Bowl 50 victory

Von Miller forced fumbles that set up both of Denver's touchdowns, and helped carry Peyton Manning to his second Super Bowl title with a 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

|
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Denver Broncos’ Von Miller (58) and Peyton Manning (18) celebrate after the NFL Super Bowl 50 football game Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. The Broncos beat the Panthers 24-10.

With his prolific passing and complete control of the game at the line of scrimmage, quarterback Peyton Manning helped usher in the NFL's wide-open era of high-scoring offenses and pass-happy game plans.

Manning's possible farewell game in Super Bowl 50 was a throwback to the 1970s when his father Archie was running away from dominant defenses such as the Steel Curtain and Doomsday.

Von Miller forced fumbles that set up both of Denver's touchdowns, led a defense that harassed MVP Cam Newton and helped carry Manning to his second Super Bowl title with a 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

"Whenever you're doing something for your buddies, it means a little bit more," Miller said. "As human beings, we're selfish but when you're doing something for somebody else, that's when the magic happens."

For so many years, Manning's career was defined by his gaudy regular season numbers that weren't enough come playoff time. A lack of help from teammates or the inability to thrive against stellar defenses from teams such as New England and Seattle left Manning with just one Super Bowl title in his first 13 playoff trips.

So perhaps it was fitting that after carrying teammates for most of his career, he was carried over the finish line in this game by Miller and the coordinator Wade Phillips' "Orange Rush" defense.

"I certainly knew that (with) this defense, this team would have a chance," Manning said. "Our defense has just been, from the get-go, they've been nothing but awesome. Being hurt and struggling early in the season wasn't a lot of fun so I was grateful to get back healthy and to try and play my part these last couple of weeks."

But now after throwing for more yards, more touchdowns and winning more starts than any other quarterback in NFL history, Manning could be ready to hang it up. Manning wouldn't say after the game whether this was his final one.

"I got some good advice from Tony Dungy," Manning said of the first of four coaches with whom he's been to the Super Bowl. "He said, 'Don't make an emotional decision.' This has been an emotional week, an emotional night. I'm going to take some time to reflect."

Miller set the tone early when he blew past right tackle Mike Remmers and ripped the ball out of Newton's grasp. Malik Jackson recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown to put Denver up 10-0.

Then in the fourth quarter with the Broncos protecting a 16-10 lead, Miller struck again. Once again, he got around Remmers and knocked the ball out of Newton's hands. T.J. Ward recovered at the 4 and C.J. Anderson sealed it with a TD run.

"In my opinion, we're the greatest defense to ever play the game," linebacker Brandon Marshall said. "Ever. It's a bold statement but top to bottom, we have the greatest talent — from rushers to safeties to linebackers. Better than anybody's ever done it."

After knocking off former Super Bowl champions Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady to make it here and then holding Newton and the NFL's highest-scoring offense to its lowest point total of the season, the Broncos stated their case to stand next to Pittsburgh's Steel Curtain defenses of the 1970s, the dominant 1985 Chicago Bears, the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the 2013 Seattle Seahawks on the list of top defenses.

Denver recorded 14 sacks, forced seven turnovers and allowed just four touchdowns in the three playoff wins.

"This is the rawest defense ever. Ever," Denver tight end Owen Daniels said. "To do that to the guy that's changing the game, unbelievable. Our defense, you have to put them up there with the best ever."

The Panthers defense was just about as stingy, but couldn't come up with the game-changing turnovers that Denver provided. Carolina held Denver to 194 yards — the fewest ever for a Super Bowl winner — and didn't allow a first down on eight of 14 drives.

But it wasn't enough.

"It's so gut-wrenching and hard to swallow that," All Pro cornerback Josh Norman said. "There were chances and opportunities there and we just didn't capitalize on them."

Newton, who threw for 38 touchdowns and ran for 12 in his first 18 games, produced no touchdowns for the first time all season. Denver tied a Super Bowl record with seven sacks and frustrated the player nicknamed Superman.

It didn't help that Newton's receivers dropped passes and the running game never got going against Denver's stout front.

"They made more plays than us and that's what it comes down to," Newton said during a brief three-minute interview. "We had our opportunities and it was nothing special that they did. We dropped balls. We turned the ball over. We gave up sacks. We threw errant passes. That's it."

___

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Dominant defense carries Broncos to Super Bowl 50 victory
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/0208/Dominant-defense-carries-Broncos-to-Super-Bowl-50-victory
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe