NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl
The NFL playoffs have been absolutely incredible this year. The players and teams have made the final few weeks and games to the NFL season a real joy to watch. As a sports fan the NFL sometimes fails to capture my attention during the regular season. However, during the playoffs, the NFL is absolutely fascinating and impossible not to become enthralled with. Most of the playoff games this far have been either down to the wire with exciting storylines, or just straight up solid football games.
Cam Newton and Peyton Manning both have led, or in the case of Peyton, limped, their way into the Super Bowl. The Panthers are by far the best looking team in the NFL, and certainly the favorite over the defensively minded Broncos. Peyton hasn’t done a terrible job though, although his team is highlighted by an incredibly talented defensive team. The stars being Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware, the Broncos defense is an absolute menace. They are the single reason the Broncos are in the Super Bowl and are the one reason the Broncos have a slight shot in the dark in the Super Bowl against Cam’s unstoppable offense.
But before I get into the Super Bowl matchups and who I like in that game, I want to discuss a bit on the playoffs up to this point. To begin with the Wildcard matchups I want to highlight the two best games. We were left with a beautiful couple of games in the Bengals — Steelers game, and the Seahawks — Vikings game. The Bengals — Steelers game wasn’t exactly what I call beautiful in the sense of the visual and emotional beauty. It was just an odd game that displayed some of the aspects of the NFL that are hated, and loved. The Vikings collapse was a fascinating game purely due to both narrative and playmaking. The narrative was interesting because Vikings fans were left saddened by falling short once again after a missed chip shot of a field goal. The playmaking was fantastic because of the Russell Wilson play, which you can see on YouTube below. Unfortunately, the NFL sucks and requires their YouTube videos to be played on YouTube and not on other websites. Thanks Roger.
That play opened up a game in which Seattle was scoreless and down by two possessions in the fourth quarter. It was a magical Russell Wilson play that led to a missed Vikings field goal and a Seattle victory. One of those weird games that somehow was won by one great play, and one bad play. It was the classic NFL playoff game that left you feeling like you had witnessed a moment of greatness in Russel Wilson, and a moment of sucky, for lack of a better term, fortune for the Vikings.
The divisional round of the playoffs brought us a few games that made you feel as if knew who was the better team, and one game that defied everything we’ve seen in an NFL game. The Steelers-Broncos game was one of those games that the Broncos continually have pulled out of their butts this year. Granted, the defense is fantastic. It just felt like the Steelers were better, it’s too bad they didn’t have Brown as a deep threat. But the Broncos won, and moved on. The Patriots beat the Chiefs in a pretty predictable game. Felt like the Patriots were better most of the time. The Seahawks were definitely not the better team against the Panthers. The Panthers demolished the Seahawks in the first half, and then stopped playing to allow the Seahawks back into the game. It never felt like the Seahawks should have been able to hang with the Panthers if the Panthers had closed the game down.
The game of the week, and of the playoffs thus far, was the Packers and the Cardinals. Two hail marys in one drive is pretty tough to believe, so here is the video to back it up. Unfortunately, the NFL sucks and requires their YouTube videos to be played on YouTube. Anyways, it’s pretty insane. Of course, we all know the Cards got the ball first in overtime and went on to win the game. But the highlight of the game was the Packers ridiculous final drive to tie the game.
Oh Tom and Peyton. How we’ll miss you. The Patriots and Broncos game was really enjoyable for multiple reasons. It wasn’t a good game for Pats fans, and those who enjoy seeing Tom Brady succeed, myself being one of them. He’s from Michigan so I’ve just always supported him whenever the Lions haven’t been relevant, which is most of the time. The Pats were just straight up outclassed when they had the ball by the Broncos. It’s rare to see a defense straight up dominate a good offensive team like the Patriots. The crazy thing about this game was that even with the how much the Broncos dominated the Pats, the Patriots still had a shot to win the game. Some would argue had they made a few different coaching decisions that they would have won, I would be one of those people.
It was an odd game, it’s rare that a team who played so badly still should have won the game. If the Patriots had kicked the field goal instead of going for it on fourth down, they would have stopped the Broncos, who were awful on offense without being pressured by the Patriots. Then they would have gotten the ball back and scored, just as they did. Except this time they wouldn’t have had to go for two in order to tie the game. But that’s not what happened, they made their decisions, and the Broncos reacted and won the game with incredible defense combined with Peyton Manning making two good throws. It was a great game, and likely the last between Peyton and Brady. If it was the last, it was a fantastic game to end the rivalry.
The NFC championship game on the other hand, was not so interesting. The Panthers proved once again they are the best of the best in the NFC, and likely the NFL, with a dominating performance. Cam was great, as he has been all year. A really fun player to watch and it’ll be great to see him in the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl 50
I’m looking forward to this game because it’s the Super Bowl. That’s about it. As a football game, I’m not sure it’ll be that entertaining. Short of the Broncos defense being able to hold the Panthers around 20 points, it won’t be a close game because the Broncos can’t score. The Panthers averaged 31 points per game in the regular season, and the Broncos averaged 22. In the playoffs that has only been reflected and backed up in each of their games. The Panthers have been a dominant offense, and the Broncos have been lackluster. You could argue that the Broncos stopped the Patriot’s offense and they might be able to slow the Panthers down. I you think that, you’re right, it could happen. It’s just not likely. Cam is so good right now, and I don’t see him leading the Panthers to anything but a win. But just because the Broncos keep winning games they have no business winning, I’ll shave 7 points off of my prediction to account for the random luck they’ll likely have. My second prediction is that I gain 5 pounds due to massive amounts of meats and cheeses I’ll be consuming during the game.
Panthers 28 — Broncos 23
Enjoy the game everyone.
