Broncos, Panthers face off for NFL title
Defense comes up big as Denver, Manning capture AFC crown
Super Bowl 50: Feb. 7, 6:30 p.m.
TV: CBS (WKMG-6)
Where: Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif. Super Bowl 50 is set. Top-seeded Denver held off New England 20-18 for the AFC title, while No. 1 seed Carolina rolled to the NFC championship with a 49-15 win over Arizona.
DENVER — Peyton Manning has a routine that some people might consider old-fashioned.
Every time a great NFL player retires, the Denver Broncos quarterback sends a handwritten note thanking him for his contribution to the game.
As for Manning, who turns 40 in March, he’s not done penning his own football script.
He threw two touchdown passes Sunday to help the Broncos to a 20-18 victory over New England that secured a spot in Super Bowl 50, surpassing Denver great John Elway as the NFL’s oldest starting quarterback to get that far.
“There’s no question this was a sweet day, a sweet victory,” Manning said.
In a game that was showcased as the 17th showdown between future Hall of Famers Manning and Tom Brady, it was Denver’s defense that made the difference.
Despite Brady’s directing a dramatic comeback down the stretch — throwing a four-yard touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski on fourth down with 12 seconds left, and
putting the Patriots in position to tie — Denver’s defense made a pivotal play that sent the orange-clad crowd into the emotional stratosphere.
Needing a two-point conversion — and harassed by a relentless pass rush — Brady took the shotgun snap, rolled a few steps to his right, then tried to throw across his body to Gronkowski again. Denver’s Aqib Talib got a hand on the ball, however, and teammate Bradley Roby picked it off.
“It was just tough for us to ever get into a rhythm and finally to score some points here at the end,” said Brady, who threw a whopping 56 passes but completed only 27, for 310 yards. “And then for it to come down to a two-point conversion is a tough way, obviously, to end the season.”
The Broncos recovered the ensuing onside kick by New England, Manning took one knee to bleed the final seconds off the clock, and Denver was heading to the eighth Super Bowl in its history and the second in three years. Two years ago, Seattle posted a 43-8 victory over Manning and Co. on the game’s biggest stage.
Denver improved to 8-2 in AFC title games, and 4-0 in home games against the Patriots in the postseason. The Broncos are exceptional in close games, too, going 11-3 this season in contests decided by a touchdown or less.
Sunday’s game was a tour de force for Broncos linebacker Von Miller, whose 2
1⁄2 sacks set a club record for a postseason game. In the week leading up to the game, a reporter reminded Miller that, on average, Brady got the ball out in about two seconds.
“Sometimes, I only need like one,” Miller said at the time.
He wasn’t kidding. At times, the New England linemen barely slowed him, let alone neutralized him.
“Being an Aggie, I’m really proud of him,” Denver Coach Gary Kubiak said of Miller, the No. 2 overall pick out of Texas A&M in 2011. “He’s a special young man. I’ve known him since he was a kid. How far he’s come, the man he’s become, the player he’s become . . . today, along with the defense, he was big time.”
While the Broncos have had one turnover in 10 quarters — a backward pass Sunday that they mistakenly treated like an incompletion — giveaways were New England’s undoing Sunday. Brady was picked off twice, not counting the conversion pass, and had a cellar-dwelling passer rating of 18.1 after the first two quarters.
Still, for Brady to keep the Patriots in the game, often with a defender twisting him to the ground as he threw, was remarkable.
Neither team could get its running game going, either. In fact, through three quarters, the two longest runs in the game were by the plodding Manning (12 yards) and Brady (11). The Broncos stuck with the run, and C.J. Anderson broke loose for a 30-yard gain in the fourth.
“We knew it was going to be a challenge running the ball,” Manning said. “But we felt like we had to stay committed to it just to create some balance and not become one-dimensional when we’re throwing every time.”