Broncos Pass Rush Defeats Panthers 24-10 in Super Bowl 50

Von Miller’s strip sacks led to Denver’s only TDs in Super Bowl 50, and Miller was named Super Bowl MVP (DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP).

I wrote my Super Bowl 50 Gameplan after watching tape from the last time the Carolina Panthers played the Denver Broncos – November 2012.  This was my takeaway going into Super Bowl 50:

Spoiler Alert: What I think about when I think about #SB50 … pic.twitter.com/rtI86mLlmR

— Law Murray (@LawMurrayTheNU) February 7, 2016

Yeah. Super Bowl 50 didn’t go into overtime. We didn’t have a single lead change – or even a TD pass by either QB! Buoyed by seven sacks and four takeaways by the defense, the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers 24-10 in what was Carolina MVP QB Cam Newton’s worst game of the season.

The Super Bowl 50 MVP wasn’t my Gameplan prediction Denver OLB DeMarcus Ware, despite the fact that he had two sacks and a team-high four of the 13 QB hits on Newton. It instead went to Ware’s bookend, OLB Von Miller, who had 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. The first strip sack came in the first quarter, and DE Malik Jackson fell on the loose football for the first TD of the game. That mismatch with Carolina RT Mike Remmers turned out to be a huge factor. In the fourth quarter, with the Panthers down 16-10, Miller came from the strong side again to wrest the ball free from Newton. Denver SS T.J. Ward fell onto that fumble, and the Broncos converted their only red zone TD of the game when RB C.J. Anderson (game-high 100 total yards) scored from two yards out.

Denver QB Peyton Manning won his second Super Bowl, and his last pass of the game was a successful two-point conversion to WR Bennie Fowler. Manning began the game completing 7-of-9 passes for 61 yards, with the first drive leading to a FG. Manning was dreadful from there, completing only 6-of-14 passes in the final three quarters for 80 yards, no TDs, an INT, a lost fumble, and four sacks. Overall, Manning was sacked five times, had two turnovers, and he had a passer rating of 56.6 – the third worst passer rating by a Super Bowl winner.

And none of it mattered, because for the first time all year, the Panthers never had a lead at any point of the game. I said that Newton was going to be hit early and often, and that’s what happened. The Broncos tied a record for sacks in a Super Bowl, and Newton finished the game with a season-low passer rating of 55.4, completing only 18-of-41 passes for 265 yards, no TDs, and an INT to Ward. Newton had 46 rushing yards in the first half, but he had -1 rushing yard in the 2nd half. Newton became the sixth straight QB to win the league MVP award but lose in the Super Bowl in the same season. The last MVP QB to win the Super Bowl in the same season? Kurt Warner, in the 1999 season – and he needed a Super Bowl record 414 yards and a tackle on the one-yard line for the Rams to defeat the Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV!

I never want to hear “Team X doesn’t have a QB” again when it comes to #SuperBowl chances

— Law Murray (@LawMurrayTheNU) February 8, 2016

Back to Peyton. He was a major liability all year, and by the end of Super Bowl 50, Manning had 11 TDs and 20 turnovers for the season (including playoffs). The Broncos finished with 194 total yards – the first time a Super Bowl winner had fewer than 200 yards! The Broncos converted 1-of-14 on 3rd down – 7 percent! Forget the qualifier of winning the game – 100 teams have played in the Super Bowl now. 99 of them had a better 3rd down conversion rate than the Broncos did in Super Bowl 50.

And yet, Manning gets to drink a Budweiser, kiss Papa John, and (possibly) mercifully retire a champion. At least he knows where his bread was buttered this year.

I’ve been saying for awhile that we get too caught up in QBs. In 2014, I worked on a project at USC that concluded that, “it isn’t necessarily most important to have a great quarterback as it is to be able to defend one.”

… the most important element of a Super Bowl winning team is the ability to get to the passer and take the ball away. In an era where the best passers rule supreme, it is more important to be able to stop the great passer than it is to possess the great passer.”

Miller and Ware led a defense that, besides being the best in the league in yards allowed, also led the league in sacks, yards per rush, and pass yards per game. Opposing passer rating is a measurement that I put more stock in than pass yards allowed per game, and while the Panthers led the league in that category this season (73.5), the Broncos weren’t far behind at 4th (78.8).

As long as you guys realize that Peyton Manning was basically Trent Dilfer today, we’re good!#SB50

— Law Murray (@LawMurrayTheNU) February 8, 2016

The 2000 Ravens defense vs. the 2015 Broncos defense.

We break it down: https://t.co/Ijnb5f8Xtj pic.twitter.com/MVBefVxFxG

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) February 8, 2016

No team has ever won a Super Bowl finishing lower than 15th in both sacks and opposing passer rating. Even with Brock Osweiler relieving Peyton Manning for seven starts this season, the Broncos as a team finished 31st in passer rating this year. Manning by himself was dead last in that category. Manning’s 2015 passer rating of 67.9 was 22.3 points below the 2015 league average of 90.2 – the worst differential for a Super Bowl winning QB of all time! And Manning’s team won the Super Bowl with Manning having more turnovers than TDs in the postseason.

The Broncos ate MVP Newton alive, but Newton wasn’t the only victim. Carolina FB Mike Tolbert had his first two fumbles in his four seasons with the Panthers, losing one. Carolina RB Jonathan Stewart left the game twice with foot issues, and while he scored Carolina’s only TD, he averaged a season-low 2.4 yards per carry in the Super Bowl. Carolina K Graham Gano missed a 44-yard FG, while Denver WR Jordan Norwood had a Super Bowl record 61-yard punt return to set up a FG. Denver scored 18 of their 24 points off of the defense’s takeaways or via special teams!

All the while, Carolina’s defense played very well. Carolina DE Kony Ealy tied a Super Bowl record with three sacks, while forcing a fumble and being the only player to hang onto one of Manning’s INTs. No Super Bowl had more sacks between both teams than Super Bowl 50 (12 sacks combined). Carolina CB Josh Norman probably could have had two INTs, but he had a role in holding Denver WR DeMaryius Thomas to eight receiving yards on one catch (six targets). Carolina ILB Luke Kuechly had a sack and ten tackles, while OLB Thomas Davis added seven tackles. Overall, the Panthers had eight tackles for loss.

In the end, this was simply a beatdown. You all should have seen it coming (especially after the Gameplan was released…); in the only other matchup featuring the top scoring offense against the best overall defense, the Broncos were the ones taking the beating against the 2013 Seattle Seahawks.

This time around, CB Chris Harris, DE Derek Wolfe, and Von Miller were healthy and able to play. Former Broncos QB and current GM John Elway added former Broncos QB Gary Kubiak as head coach ¹ , and Kubiak added defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. And the defense gave the league’s best offensive player fits. This may have been an anomaly for the Panthers, but the Broncos beat up the Steelers (#4 scoring offense) and Patriots (#3 scoring offense) in the postseason too. And the Broncos did it in spite of their washed up QB.

It’ll be interesting to see who the Broncos host on that Week 1 Thursday night next season. One thing is for sure: Panthers at Broncos is already on the 2016 schedule.

A little Dab with do you but too much Dab will undo you!

— Wade Phillips (@sonofbum) February 8, 2016

Jus Dab!!! ?

A photo posted by Von Miller (@millerlite40) on Feb 7, 2016 at 10:55pm PST