Peyton Manning and Cam Newton lead
their teams in California on Sunday. Photograph: Getty Images
Les Carpenter
What’s a Super Bowl-priced ticket
without Super Bowl-priced food? As fans poured into Levi’s Stadium they were
welcomed with bright red and white signs advertising Ice Cream! Nachos! Beer!
Then they discovered just how much those ice creams, nachos and beers cost.
“So this is a 16 ounce cup,” a
cashier at one food stand said as she held up a plastic cup that for $15 she
would fill with Goose Island IPA. She grabbed a slightly bigger 20-ounce
plastic cup and said it would hold Bud Light and cost only $13. Then she made a
balancing motion with her hands.
A smaller IPA for $15? Or a larger
Bud Light for $13. She laughed. Those in the line, reaching for their wallets,
did not seem amused.
“I was going to take a picture of
this as soon as I get back to my seat,” said a man in a Panthers Cam
Newton jersey clutching his $10 cup of chocolate ice cream that
looked suspiciously like the $3 cup of chocolate ice cream you can get from the
ice cream truck at the park.
Compared to the $15 pulled pork
nachos in a french fry-sized box, that $10 ice cream might be a steal.
“Everything is expensive here, man,”
said a man wearing an orange Broncos jersey and orange-rimmed sunglasses. Then
he took a swig from a $13 aluminum can of Bud Light and shook his head.
Maybe he will eventually go for a
bottle of water. That was only $7.
Luke Kuechly and Charles Tillman act
as unofficial team photographers on game day. Photograph: Marcio Jose
Sanchez/AP
Defense wins championships according
to our cliche-ometer. Is Carolina’s good enough to win the Super
Bowl. Here’s Paolo Bandini on that little matter:
Peyton Manning surprised a few
people against New England. After the worst season of his career, in which he
threw nearly twice as many interceptions (17) as touchdowns (nine), he was
supposed to be a spent force. Even those of us who backed the Broncos to win
still argued that they would need to lean heavily on the running game.
Denver exploited such perceptions by
having Manning throw early and often. With New England stacking up against the
run, he completed four passes for 60 yards (gaining a further 14 on a pass
interference penalty) and a score on the Broncos’ opening possession. He added
a second touchdown before half-time and finished the game with a passer rating
of 90.1.
But just because things worked out
on this occasion does not mean that all previous concerns were misplaced. A
closer look at Manning’s performance would show that he finished up with only
178 yards through the air, and almost a fifth of those on an underthrown pass
that would have been intercepted by Malcolm Butler if Emmanuel Sanders had not
made a spectacular play.
There is no escaping the fact that
Manning, even fully healthy, does not generate the same velocity on his passes
as he once did. Against the most opportunistic secondary in the league – Carolina’s self-styled Thieves Avenue – that is a
major concern.
The Panthers led the NFL
with 24 interceptions in the regular season, and have followed that up with a
further six in two playoff games. Errant throws are liable to be gobbled up by
the likes of Kurt Coleman, Josh Norman and, indeed, linebacker Luke Kuechly.
Some weak links do exist in Carolina’s defensive backfield, but I have a hard
time believing that this version of Manning will be able to exploit them where
Carson Palmer and Arizona’s deep receiving corps could not.
All of which suggests that the
Broncos really will need to run the ball consistently to succeed. The one-two
punch of CJ Anderson and Ronnie Hillman has been productive for most of the
year, and Gary Kubiak is adept at identifying and exploiting opponents’
defensive tendencies. But the Panthers gave up a paltry 88.4 rushing yards per
game in the regular season and have dropped that figure further, to 69.0, so
far in the playoffs.
Kuechly might be the most talented
linebacker in the league, and has Kawann Short and Star Lotulelei handling
blockers ahead of him. The Broncos have an effective group of interior linemen,
but even if Carolina were missing Thomas Davis, whose return from a broken arm
remains uncertain, I could not give Denver a clear edge. And given my concerns
over Manning, I think they probably needed it.
We’re 100 minutes from kickoff here
at Levi’s Stadium, the sparkling $1.3bn home of the 49ers located 45 miles
southeast of San Francisco. It’s 70F with a light breeze and hardly a cloud in
the sky: a positively gorgeous day for the football. The stands are mostly
empty as fans mill the concourses sipping $13 beers and $25 glasses
of Chalone Estate Pinot Noir and noshing down foodstuffs, with others still
outside for the NFL’s official tailgate where Seal just finished performing.
Cam Newton warms up before Super
Bowl 50. Photograph: Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports
Everything here is expensive and
branded within an inch of its life, natch. A few Broncos and Panthers players
in long-sleeved T-shirts and shorts have taken the field for some stretching
and light warm-ups. On the Jumbotron a montage of Super Bowl highlights plays
to This Is The Moment from the Frank Wildhorn and
Steve Cuden musical Jekyll & Hyde. A bit on the nose but OK. After two
interminable weeks since last taking the field, both sides are no doubt itching
to get on with it.
While Cam and Peyton are both
brilliant in their own ways (unfortunately, Manning’s ways mainly being in the
past), it’s worth remembering these two aren’t exactly overnight sensations:
You may, of course, be interested in
who is going to win tonCAROLINAight’s game. Here’s Paolo Bandini on what look
to be the most important match-up on Sunday, the Panthers offense v the Broncos
defense:
The Broncos’ defense has suffocated
some pretty good quarterbacks this season, from Tom Brady to Aaron Rodgers, but
all have been pocket passers. We have little evidence for how they might fare
against the dual threat posed by Cam
Newton.
On paper, at least, they are
well-equipped for the challenge. As noted before the Cardinals game, Newton has
been extremely productive against the blitz, but Denver are able to generate
pass rush without sending extra men.
Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware are one
of the most disruptive edge rushing tandems in the league, but what makes this
Denver defense so challenging to play against is that it is almost as effective
in bringing pressure up the middle with Malik Jackson and Derek Wolfe.
Not even Newton can improvise
solutions if he is under pressure from all sides and if there is a weakness in
his game it is that he still could be quicker with his decisions in the pocket.
ProFootballFocus note that he held onto the ball for an average of 2.83 seconds
this season, making him “slower than all but four other NFL passers”.
It will be interesting to see how
Denver defend Carolina’s various receiving options, and in particular tight end
Greg Olsen, but whatever approach they take becomes more likely to succeed if
they can keep Newton on the back foot. It is no coincidence that the one game the
Panthers lost this season, against Atalanta, was also the one in which their
quarterback was pressured most often.
Getting men into the backfield will
have the added benefit of disrupting the Panthers’ running game. Denver gave up
the fewest yards per carry (3.3) of any team in the league, and their habit of
getting to runners either at or behind the line of scrimmage has played a big
part. I believe the Broncos can slow Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert, and
while Newton is a trickier proposition they do have the personnel to make his
life tough.
And should you want the Super
Bowl match-ups explained to you, where better to go to than Taiwan?
Good afternoon/evening/morning*
And we’re off for a mouthwatering
afternoon/evening/morning*’s worth of entertainment. Your dramatis personae via
the medium of Twitter:
This will be the last time Peyton
moves faster than Cam today.
DJ will be here shortly in the
meantime, here are Paolo Bandini’s pre-game thoughts:
Does defense really win
championships, or do the Broncos just lose them? Denver will equal an NFL
record on Sunday by competing in its eighth Super
Bowl, but its five defeats on this stage are already the most by any
team. Every one of those losses has been lopsided, with opponents’ margins of
victory ranging from 17 points to 45.
The most recent humiliation is still
fresh in the memory. The Broncos were billed at Super Bowl XLVIII as an
unstoppable offensive juggernaut, after Peyton
Manning steered them to an unfathomable 37.9 points per game during
the regular season. But the Seahawks’ top-ranked defense allowed them just a
single touchdown in a game that finished 43-8.
Two years and one head coaching
change later, Denver’s role has been reversed. Now it is the Broncos who boast
the league’s best defense, a unit that just mauled Tom Brady in the AFC
Championship game. Their opponents, the Panthers, are the offensive powerhouse
whose 31.9 points per game were best in the NFL.
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