Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org.
By OWEN CHURCHWELL – Staff Writer
As Super Bowl 50 approaches, fans all over the country will witness a battle between two No. 1 seeded teams entering the playoffs: the National Football Conference’s Carolina Panthers and the American Football Conference’s Denver Broncos.
On Feb. 7, a long awaited matchup between the NFC’s top seeded Panthers and the AFC’s top seeded Broncos. As they will go head-to-head in Levi Stadium to determine who will be bringing home the Lombardi trophy.
Despite both being the top-ranked teams in their division, the two teams have won their games of completely different sides of the ball.
It has been no secret to any sports fan that the Panthers have not struggled to put up numbers on the board through their offensive unit. They rank first in the NFL in points at 31.2 points per game and second in the NFL in rush yards at 142.6 yards per game.
Despite the Panthers impressive offense, this Super Bowl will be determined on the defensive side: defense, where the Broncos have dominated.
Where the Broncos have struggled on the offensive side of the ball, ranking 19th in the NFL in total points per game, they have made up for by shutting down offenses left and right, with an impressive total of 296 points allowed in the regular season.
Not to mention, their defense has been able to stop Tom Brady and the Super Bowl 49 winning offense who average third in the NFL in points, not once, but twice. One of which was a last minute fourth quarter stop to put them into the playoffs. Where Brady and his offense failed to convert on a two point conversion that would have tied the game at 20. Just proving the strength of the defense and their ability to rise to the challenge.
Facing Cam Newton and the top-ranked Panther offense should be a tough challenge, but nothing the Broncos can’t handle, because as the game is on the line, the Denver defense will be on their prime.
As a dangerous dual threat quarterback, Newton will not only be limited on where he throws the ball, but he will also find his backup plan of tucking and running it himself limited.
With Carolina’s explosive offense and Denver’s dynamic defense I expect this game to be close till the end. However, this Super Bowl’s total offensive yardage will make no difference when the impenetrable Denver Defense will be limiting the Panthers’ to no more points than a kindergartener can count on his fingers.
That being said, as Super Bowl 50 approaches, the Broncos’ Peyton Manning will have a lot to celebrate for after winning his second Super Bowl ring. Whereas the Panthers, well, they can go ahead and prepare for next year.
