PANTHERS APPLY PRESSURE
Carolina Panthers safety Kurt Coleman hadn’t even finished undressing when he heard the question after Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.
But Coleman has prepared for Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning enough times in recent years to know what goes into trying to stop an offense steered by the NFL legend he’ll face in Super Bowl 50.
“Peyton’s going to try and run the ball, play-action, get you over,” Coleman told USA TODAY Sports. “From what I’ve seen, that’s what he’s able to do, and that’s why he’s so effective, because his runs look just like his passes, and you just never know. If you try to play the pass, he’s going to hit you with the run.
“He’s very effective with a lot of his looks, and he’s studying. He’s a great studier. But the one thing I know has been effective is when you can get pressure in his face and you get him to move off his spot, make him scramble, good things happen.”
The Panthers defense has excelled in that area the past two weeks, pressuring Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson into two early interceptions in the divisional round and reducing the Arizona Cardinals’ Carson Palmer to a six-turnover puddle in Sunday’s 49-15 flogging.
Now, the season comes down to a matchup with a Broncos team that leans heavily on the defense and run game at a time when Manning — a turnover machine before sitting out six games (seven starts) late in the season to let a foot injury heal — leans more than ever on his brain to make up for physical skills that have diminished at 39.
“They run the football, which if you try to limit that, at least you get them into one-dimensional football,” says veteran cornerback Cortland Finnegan, another player on the short list of Panthers with much playing experience against Manning. “But still, that’s The Sheriff. He knows coverages. He knows where to beat you. He can make checks at the line. It’s going to be interesting, man.”
Manning completed just 17 of 32 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns in the Broncos’ 20-18 AFC title triumph against the New England Patriots. Denver barely sustained a drive after marching 83 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown on its opening series.
That’s better than the Cardinals did against the Panthers, whose game plan was to jam Arizona’s receivers at the line, throw off the timing, let nothing over their heads and force Palmer to check it down. Carolina primarily rushed four, which was enough to cause trouble.
“We never let them get comfortable in the pocket,” says Coleman, who caught two of Palmer’s four interceptions, one of them at the Carolina 1-yard line.
Palmer also lost two fumbles on sacks. The Cardinals’ longest play went for 23 yards, and that was a run by rookie David Johnson. Palmer’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Fells came in what amounted to garbage time, with the Panthers up 27 early in the fourth quarter.
This, against a Cardinals team that led the NFL during the regular season in total yards and net yards per pass play against a Panthers secondary missing two of its top three cornerbacks.
“Who gives a (expletive)?” says Finnegan, who came out of retirement to join the team Nov. 30. “It’s like you get doubted, and you’re the underdog. They’re men. They put on pants the same way we do. You take that personal.”
Even never-bashful Finnegan called it “an honor and a privilege” to have a Super Bowl showdown with Manning, “because he’s a future Hall of Famer, he’s one of the greatest to ever play that position. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
As Coleman — he prepared for Manning once when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013, and twice while with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2014 — pointed out, the Panthers defense has had the benefit of playing with early leads, including 17-0 in the first quarter Sunday.
The Broncos aren’t a team built to come from behind, and they’ve played their game the past two weeks. They never trailed Sunday, and their largest deficit in a 23-16 win the previous week against the Pittsburgh Steelers was four points.
“You just tip the scale into your favor when you get a quick score early in the game where they start pressing themselves and (trying to) figure out, ‘How do we score quick?’ ” Coleman says. “That’s what’s been effective for us.”
“It’s going to be interesting, man,” says Panthers cornerback Cortland Finnegan, right, about facing the Broncos’ Peyton Manning. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.” Finnegan, a well-traveled veteran, is one of the few Panthers who have played against Manning.