The Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 over the Carolina Panthers 24-10 on Sunday. Denver used the best defense in the NFL to shutdown the Cam Newton led Panthers offense. Newton was sacked 6 times threw an interception and was hit 13 other times on top of the sacks. It was the first time all season that the Carolina offense was shutdown like it was in the Super Bowl. The Broncos defense actually had 7 sacks on the night, but one of them was on Ted Ginn Jr. on a trick play that the Panthers where trying to run. Newton ended the game 18 of 41 for 265 yards. Newton also ended the game as the Panthers leading rusher. Newton had 45 yards on 6 rushing attempts. The Carolina offense also fumbled the football 4 times losing 3 of them. Carolina’s receivers where producing, but they just couldn’t string any plays together because of the pressure Newton was under all game. Corey (Philly) Brown, Greg Olson and Ginn all had 4 receptions in the game. Brown went for 80 yards and looked like he was in position to be the key to Carolina’s offense, but had to leave the game with concussion symptoms. Carolina’s defense played a good game as well and actually kept them in it. Peyton Manning was 13 for 23 for just a 141 yards with 1 interception. Manning was also sacked 5 times. Even Denver’s running game couldn’t really get going. C.J. Anderson did carry the football 23 times for 90 yards and 1 touchdown; he only averaged 3.9 yards per carry. To be fair Anderson’s rushing touchdown was a gift from the Broncos defense and if T.J. Ward would’ve been able to stand up he would’ve scored that touchdown. Emmanuel Sanders was Manning’s main target as he had 6 receptions for 83 yards. Anderson did add 4 catches as well, but went for just 10 yards on those catches. With the game playing out the way it did you knew that someone from the Broncos defense would be the MVP The award went to Von Miller who had tackles, 2 1/2 sacks and a forced fumble. Miller set the tone for the game as he just took the football away from Newton down on the goal line and Malik Jackson recovered it in the end zone for the 1st score of the game. Miller was far and away the best player on the Broncos and deserved the award. I believe that if the Panthers would’ve found a way t comeback and win the game Kony Early would’ve been the MVP. Early had 3 sacks and 1 interception for the Panthers defense. Of course I was happy to see Miller get the MVP as he was my pick in the Saturday blog.
Our Super Bowl predictions where decent this season. Mr. Fantasy and I had Denver winning and I mentioned that I some how got the MVP right. Sadly Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu had Carolina winning. No one got the final score right, but Mr. Fantasy did have Denver’s point total correct. Overall for our playoff predictions Mr. Fantasy and I went 8-4, but since he got Denver’s point total right he would win the tiebreaker. Dan the Man went 7-5 for the playoffs and Schaumburg Stu finished at 6-6 overall.
With the game being a defensive battle there where a lot of people complaining that they didn’t like it. I’m sure everyone and even the NFL expected more of an offensive battle, but both defenses controlled the action. Neither team had an answer for the others pass rush and turnovers made the difference in the game. I don’t have the energy to go through the post game stuff that went on wit Cam Newton, but what I want to know is did you enjoy the game?
The Ottawa Senators made a deal yesterday with the Toronto Maple Leafs to try to get themselves into the playoffs. It was a 9-player deal between the 2 teams with the center piece being Dion Phaneuf going from Toronto to Ottawa. Along with Phanuef the Senators received forward Matt Frattin, forward Casey Bailey, forward Ryan Rupert and defense prospect Cody Donaghey from the Maple Leafs. In return the Maple Leafs got defenseman Jared Cowen, forwards Colin Greening, Milan Michalek and Tobias Lindberg, and Ottawa’s second-round pick in the 2017 NHL draft. What may have been the biggest key to the deal for the Maple Leafs is that Ottawa was willing to pick up the remainder of Phanuef’s contract which has 5 years still on it and is a salary cap hit of $7 million. As it appears Toronto will rebuild with the extra salary cap room will the Maple Leafs go after free agent to be Steven Stamkos now of the Tampa Bay Lighting. Phaneuf spent the first four-plus years of his career in Calgary before being traded to Toronto in January 2010. The three-time All-Star has 45 goals, 151 assists and is a minus-30 in his career. This may be the first of a few deals the Maple Leafs are involved in if they’re going to try and clear some salary cap room.
The Senators are currently 25-23-6 on the season for 56 points. That puts them 5 points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and 6 points behind the Boston Bruins for a Eastern Conference wild card spot. Ottawa has won it’s last 2 games putting up 11 goals total in those games. The Senators will play 3 games in 4 days starting tonight against the Detroit Red Wings in Detroit. They head home for Thursday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche and then Ottawa has a day off before going back on the road to play the Columbus Blue Jackets. That’s a tough set of games; so we’ll have to see if the Senators can make up some ground in the wild card race over these next 4 days.
Is anyone else confused by the Sacramento Kings. At the start of the season there was talk that they where going to fire head coach George Karl. That move seemed to stem from Karl’s suggestion of trading Sacramento’s best player DeMarcus Cousins. The team got off to a good start and the firing talk went away. Well as soon as the team hit a bad stretch the talk of removing Karl as coach came right back. There where quite a few reports that Karl would be removed over the All-Star break which is this weekend. Then there was a report yesterday that Karl met with the Kings owner and he would remain coach for the rest of the season. I guess at this point in time; why would Karl want to coach this team? Sacramento is 21-31 and is 5 games out of the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Here you go; say the Kings rebound and get themselves into that #8 seed and make the playoffs. How do you think they would do against the Golden State Warriors in the 1st round of the playoffs?
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