It will be strength against strength when Carolina and Denver meet in Super Bowl 50. It should be a fascinating matchup between the Panthers’ top-ranked scoring offense and the Broncos’ No. 1 defense in passing and total yards with the Lombardi Trophy at stake.
NFL Odds at BookMaker.eu
Carolina Panthers -4
Denver Broncos +4
Over/Under 45
You can expect a lot of the early money to be on the Panthers with the line opening at -4. Not only did Carolina run rampant over the rest of the NFL en route to a 15-1 regular season record, but they looked dominant in the postseason against the Cardinals and Seahawks, two teams that were mentioned as Super Bowl favorites at various points throughout the season.
Keep in mind that the outright favorite has only won two of the last eight Super Bowls straight up and has covered in just one of those games. The total opened at 45, which is less than the Panthers scored in their NFC Championship Game win over Arizona.
You could say age and experience are overrated with Carolina and presumed MVP Cam Newton installed as an early favorite over Denver and 39-year-old, five-time MVP Peyton Manning.
Ron Rivera’s squad has a quarterback in Newton who is likely the league’s MVP, a strong running game behind Jonathan Stewart, and a defense with All-Pro players at every level – Kawann Short, Luke Kuechly and Josh Norman.
The Broncos, meanwhile, counter with the league’s best defense that will always keep them in games. They’ll need to do it again with Manning and the offense anything but consistent this season.
The Panthers might dance their way into the hearts of fans, but the dominant subplot in the NFL’s golden celebration is sure to be Manning’s quest to become the 12th quarterback to win multiple times on Super Sunday. A second ring would comfortably validate his place among the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. But the knock on Manning in the debate has been his relative lack of jewelry. One more win would change the discussion and likely send Manning into retirement as a winner.
The NFL is about matchups and this game should be full of compelling ones. No team scored more points in 2015 than the Panthers. No team allowed fewer yards – overall or through the air – than the Broncos, who were also murder on opposing ground games.
And both teams made it to Santa Clara doing what they do best. The Panthers rolled through two of the NFC’s best defenses racking up 80 points in their two wins. The Broncos, meanwhile, made life difficult for Tom Brady in the AFC Championship game by getting him well acquainted to the Mile High turf.
Manning may be the game’s grand chess matter, yet Panthers’ middle linebacker Kuechly will be a worthy adversary on defense. Denver’s DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller will present quite a threat off the edge to the ever-mobile Newton.
The team that wins the turnover battle usually wins the final game of the season. No team had more takeaways in the regular season than the Panthers. They added nine more in the postseason and victimized the Cardinals seven times in the NFC Championship.
That has to be a point of concern for the Broncos, who saw Manning get picked off on 5.1 percent of his passes in the regular season, easily the league’s worst figure. The team with fewer turnovers is 36-4 in the Super Bowl.
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