If Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, had picked the teams going to the Super Bowl this year, things would look a lot different. Cowboys vs. Patriots. Giants vs. Steelers. The prospect of having two big market, money-making teams clash in the biggest game of the year would have Goodell and the team owners salivating.
But that’s not how things shook out. 2015 was the year of the underdog for the NFL, and it is only appropriate that two of the biggest underdogs—the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos—have a chance to go all the way.
If anybody had picked those two teams at the beginning of the season to go to the SB, the only question I would’ve had in my mind would have been whether they were clinically insane or just didn’t follow football at all. The Panthers’ appearance is coming on the heels of a respectable yet underwhelming 2014 campaign where they finished the regular season with a losing 7-8-1 record, limped past the Cardinals—heavily handicapped by injuries—in the wild card playoff round, and then were fairly decisively beaten by the then-defending champion Seattle Seahawks. The Broncos’ stint wasn’t that much better. Though they managed to finish with a 12-4 record and earned a first-round bye, they proceeded to go one-and-done as Andrew Luck’s Colts sent a message to the NFL. It didn’t look like either team would be able to so much as dream of hoisting the Lombardi the next season.
In the beginning of 2015, nobody gave either team a chance. For the Panthers, Cam Newton had just had an injury-plagued season and did not appear to be living up to his potential. Second-year receiver Kelvin Benjamin, Cam’s primary target in 2014, tore his ACL before the season even began. On the Broncos side of the things, Manning had shown signs of decline down the stretch of the previous year, and there were serious questions about his ability to play. People speculated that the offense would not have as much explosiveness as it used to with a running game that had become almost as weak as Peyton’s arm.
But the greatest heroes shine in the face of adversity, and many players stepped up to fill the voids. Cam, improving on his pocket-passing ability, elevated his play to an MVP level. On the offensive side of the ball, Ted Ginn, Ryan Kalil, Trai Turner and Jonathan Stewart were just some of the players making contributions. The defense also played with a tenacity that had been lacking. A merciless nucleus centering around Luke Kuechly was formed as Josh Norman, Kawann Short and Kurt Coleman all began to play at an all-pro level. The team was no longer asking its superstars—Kuechly and Newton—to carry the team on their own, and that made a difference.
The Broncos got help from the area people had least expected—their defense. The Broncos’ offense had been historically good for the past couple of years, particularly in 2013, a year that shattered the record books (or shredded? You get the idea). But 2015 saw the team’s defense come together as a cohesive unit, much as the Panthers did, and terrorize the league. That unit would often single-handedly keep them in games through timely turnovers and defensive points scored. Perhaps the best example was a game in Week 2 where the defense forced a fumble on the Chiefs’ Jamaal Charles in the waning seconds of a tie game to turn it into a Broncos’ win. The old football adage “defense wins championships” may never have been more applicable to a team than it is to the 2015 Denver Broncos.
Thus, two quarterbacks who just months ago were being smeared and doubted by the media, now find themselves in one of the biggest, if not the biggest game of their lives. Peyton—“The Sheriff”—is, at 39, the oldest quarterback ever to start in a Super Bowl. He will play the part of the old man looking to beat the odds one last time to cap off his illustrious career. The 26-year-old Cam—“Superman”—will be the up-and-coming young buck, an ambitious player just entering the prime of his career, eager to prove his worth over a legend and usher in a new era of football. It is a tale of two generations, with the age difference of 13 years being the largest ever between starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl. Both players have everything to gain, and everything to lose.
The Sheriff and Superman will get together for their first and, in all probability, only shootout, only this one will take place at 6:30 and not high noon. Will the Sheriff build on his legacy one last time before riding off into the sunset, or will his bullets bounce like flies against Superman’s impenetrable skin? Cheesy references aside, this should be one for the ages.
Just for fun, my prediction: Broncos 19, Panthers 17
Vincent Behe is a Saucon Valley resident and Eagles fan. He is an undergraduate student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, where he is majoring in history.
