SANTA CLARA, CALIF. -
Von Miller and the rest of Denver's dastardly defenders are doin' all the dabbin' now. Not Cam Newton.
And they can keep on dabbing until September, after the Broncos upset the Carolina Panthers 24-10 Sunday night in Super Bowl 50.
Denver's league-best defence didn't exactly shut down Newton and the NFL's highest-scoring offence at Levi's Stadium.
But Carolina reached the end zone only once, after having ranked first with 59 regular-season touchdowns, and adding a whopping 10 more in two playoff wins.
Know anyone who had Carolina scoring just one touchdown? Of course you don't.
That asphalt-chewer of a defence actually scored Denver's only touchdown until 3:08 remained, when running back C.J. Anderson rammed over from two yards out to clinch victory.
It's Denver's third Super Bowl championship, and the second for quarterback Peyton Manning -- who, it is widely believed, played in the 313th and final game of his illustrious 18-year career.
Although he wouldn't go there afterward.
"I think I'll enjoy tonight and take it one day at a time," the 39-year-old said. "The night's just beginning."
Asked flat-out if this was his last game, Manning said: "I don't know the answer to that."
But back to the stars of Denver's show.
The Panthers' offensive line isn't great, but oh my -- 13 quarterback hits and a Super Bowl-record seven sacks by Denver? Just wow.
Miller, named the game's MVP, had 2.5 of the sacks. It will probably be a long time before any of us see a game in which one defender, on two stunning plays, so impacts the result.
"In the regular season he stepped it up, but in the playoffs he was a one-man wrecking crew," Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said. "He was special."
And how.
The impossibly fast, spectacular pass-rushing outside linebacker directly produced both Denver touchdowns.
Late in the first quarter, with Carolina down 3-0 and facing 3rd-and-10 from its 15-yard line, Newton dropped to throw. He didn't sense Miller screaming around Carolina right tackle Mike Remmers.
Miller slammed high into Newton barely a second-and-a-half after the shotgun snap -- intent on dislodging the ball from the league MVP. Miller ripped at it, stripped it, bobbled it, then watched it bounce into the end zone to see teammate Malik Jackson, a defensive end, fall on it for the first fumble-recovery touchdown in a Super Bowl in 22 years.
"It seems surreal," Jackson said. "That was the ultimate gift. I just wish I had the sack too."
With 4:04 left in the game, Miller set up the clinching touchdown by strip-sacking Newton again. The Broncos took over at the Carolina four-yard line to set up Anderson's score.
"We've just been the same group of guys that we've been all year long," Miller said. "We haven't really paid attention to the underdog talk, this talk or that talk. We know what type of team we are."
So does teammate Chris Harris Jr., one of two cornerbacks who mostly blanketed Carolina's receivers.
"We proved that we're one of the greatest-ever defences," he said. "We beat (New England's Tom) Brady twice, Big Ben (Roethlisberger of Pittsburgh) too. We faced them all, man."
Manning completed what might prove to be the final pass of his records-shattering career on the two-point conversion after Anderson's late TD, hitting slot receiver Bennie Fowler on a hesitation slant to the right.
Manning hardly was the hero, as 71,088 watched at the San Francisco 49ers' newish stadium -- and probably some 180 million North Americans tuned in on TV.
Manning looked shaky some of the time. But for the most part he was smart enough, and fortunate enough that two bad turnovers -- a first-half interception and a second-half fumble -- didn't doom his team.
A more positive take is that with crisp passes Mr. Commercials extended three drives, each of which wound up in a field goal. Nine points in a game so dominated by defences proved crucial.
In other words, it was enough.
"We would have liked to have forced a couple more turnovers," Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly said. "They were good with the ball. They didn't put it on the ground in the run game."
In contrast, the Panthers fumbled twice, and were forced by Denver into making a myriad of other mistakes -- two fumbles, numerous costly dropped passes and killer penalties.
Panthers players appeared devastated in their locker room afterward. The shuffling of entering reporters was about all you could hear.
All-pro cornerback Josh Norman just stared at the floor, immobile, for at least five minutes. He began his news conference a half-hour later unable to speak a word for more than 30 seconds, he was so devastated.
A few minutes earlier, a surly, sulking Newton barely answered questions at his post-game podium.
"We'll be back," he said.
But can Newton at least take solace in what Miller told him afterward, that the Broncos got obliterated by Seattle in the Super Bowl two years ago -- yet look at them now?
"Nope," Newton said.
After Lady Gaga's stunning rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, Denver got the ball first after Carolina won the toss and deferred.
Manning promptly drove the Broncos 64 yards in 10 plays for a 34-yard field goal from Brandon McManus.
It was the only time Manning or the Broncos offence looked remotely good in the opening half.
Carolina went three-and-out on its first possession, largely because Newton overthrew a wide-open Philly Brown on a deep out, underneath soft Broncos pass coverage.
The Panthers forced a three-and-out from the Broncos on their second possession.
Then three Carolina plays in succession met increasing damage.
On first down, receiver Jerricho Cotchery bobbled and appeared to trap a too-hard seamer from Newton off pistol play-action. Nice call, horrible execution on Cotchery's part.
Panthers head coach Ron Rivera challenged the incompletion, unsuccessfully.
On second down, running back Jonathan Stewart -- who had battled leg injuries late in the season -- unwisely twisted to try to pull out of a leg tackle. He hurt a leg, left the game for a bit, returned for a bit, then missed the remainder.
Big loss for Carolina, as Stewart led the team in rushing and is one of the most unsung runners in the league.
Newton soon jump-started the Panthers offence, first with his feet on a pair of slicing scrambles, then with a few nifty pass completions. Stewart, who'd returned on this drive, capped the nine-play, 73-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown leap over the pile.
Denver 10, Carolina 7 with 11:25 left in the first half.
Momentum was fast swinging the Panthers' way, but their normally mistake-averse play began evading them with greater frequency.
The Panthers defence began to fluster Manning on virtually every drop-back. After he threw for 47 yards and three first downs on Denver's opening drive, the 38-year-old completed only two passes for 14 yards on Denver's next four possessions.
After the Panthers got the ball at midfield, they got too fancy. A long lateral pass from Newton to receiver Ted Ginn Jr. was intended to set up a long forward pass back left to Newton, but Denver defensive end Jackson -- the touchdown scorer -- covered Newton. Ginn wisely didn't throw it, and ran out of bounds for a three-yard loss.
Broncos returner Jordan Norwood then grabbed Brad Nortman's short, high, pop-up punt -- and several Panthers tacklers thought Nortman had called fair catch, or outran it, or just played it clumsily.
Norwood burst free, toward and down the right sideline and he nearly took it the whole way. But he was tackled from behind at the Carolina 14 by touchdown-preventer Mario Addison.
Denver's now anaemic offence moved the ball one yard in the wrong direction, and had to settle for a 33-yard McManus field goal: Denver 13, Carolina 7 with 6:58 left until Coldplay.
The remainder of the opening half featured offensive turnovers, mistakes and all-around ugliness unworthy of Super Bowl participants.
Panthers fullback Mike Tolbert fumbled at the Denver 40 after bursting into open field on a first-option keeper.
Five Denver plays later, at the Carolina 24-yard line, Manning rolled left and threw a terribly unwise pass -- right to Panthers linebacker Kony Ealy, who returned it to the Carolina 39.
After the teams exchanged three-and-out punts, someone finally made a play. Newton, on 3rd-and-12 from his own 17, hung in the pocket long past prudence but still had a clean pocket in which to find tall rookie receiver Devin Funchess, coming back from a deep middle route, for a gain of 24 yards.
But after the Panthers advanced to the Denver 45, Broncos linebacker DeMarcus Ware planted Newton to end the half, with his team ahead 13-7.
It didn't take Carolina long to fire up its sputtering offence after a lousy, mistake-baked first half.
On the second snap, Newton calmly dropped back and found speedy receiver Ginn breaking free on a deep crosser. Ginn caught it in stride but stumbled as he made a break upfield and, very strangely, glided wilfully out of bounds for a gain of 45.
After another first down the Denver defence stiffened, and Graham Gano attempted a 44-yard field goal that doinked off the top of the right upright, no good.
Manning quickly made the Panthers pay. He threw his first first-down completion since the opening drive on Denver's first offensive play of the second half, hitting Emmanuel Sanders on a quick post pattern for 25 yards.
Two plays later he hit Sanders again to the right, this time on a curl, and Sanders burst inside for a 22-yard gain.
But two Manning incompletions in the red zone forced a McManus 30-yard field goal, which gave Denver a two-score lead again, 16-7, with 8:18 remaining in the third.
Again, Newton quickly passed Carolina into Denver territory. And again the short, long drive ended without points. This time, on 2nd-and-10 from the Denver 28, Newton fired a super-hard throw into the hands of Ginn on a crosser.
Ginn didn't get his hands up fast enough, and by the time he did he deflected the ball into the air, and into the arms behind him of Denver safety T.J. Ward, who then promptly was stripped of the ball inside the Denver 10 by Tolbert. Fortunate for Ward and Denver, Broncos linebacker Danny Trevathan fell on it.
Carolina forced a three-and-out.
The ever-more rattled Panthers quickly moved backward, thanks to a penalty and a third-down sack of Newton.
Gano made a 39-yard field goal with 10:21 to play, narrowing Denver's lead to 16-10. That just set up Miller's second game-changing strip-sack.
"I watched TV one time," Harris, the cornerback, said. "I think it said 96 (percent) of the country had Carolina winning.
"People just swept our defence under the rug and now it just feels so great to be one of the greatest of all time."
In the years ahead, at every 2015 Broncos team reunion, the drinks ought to be on Peyton Manning. And an extra round for defenders.
"We didn't want the happy, fun-spirited, dabbin', dancing Cam," Ward said. "No, we want the sulking, upset, talking-to-my-linemen, my-running-backs, 'I don't know what's going on' Cam.
"And that's what we got."
john.kryk@sunmedia.ca
@JohnKryk
blogs.canoe.ca/krykslants/
