Super Bowl: Cam goes dim postgame

“Both teams played on the same field”.

The Panthers raced out to four-score leads in each of their first two playoff games, allowing them to focus on their strengths – defense and the power ground game. Denver tied a Super Bowl record with seven sacks and frustrated the player nicknamed Superman. Their average yards to go was 9.5.

Carolina still managed to finish No. 1 in the league in scoring this season, putting up 500 points in the regular season and 80 more in the postseason.

“This is one of those things that is going to hurt”, Rivera said of his 26-year-old quarterback, the man Carolina selected first overall in the 2011 draft, one slot ahead of Miller.

And he wasn’t afraid to give credit where credit was due.

He forced two fumbles to set up Denver’s two touchdowns and the Broncos defense frustrated Cam Newton all game to carry Peyton Manning to his second Super Bowl title with a 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Manning shuffled to a podium in the bowels of Levi’s Stadium about 30 minutes after Denver finished off a 24-10 victory.

“I was truly honored to be a part of that game, to be playing the 50th Super Bowl”, Manning said Monday on “CBS This Morning”. “This has been a very emotional week and emotional night”.

Miller took time to reflect on this happy ending, which came after some struggles early in his career.

“Whenever you’re doing something for your buddies, it means a little bit more”, Miller said. So, that’s why we had Von roaming around and doing what he does best.

“It wasn’t just for Peyton”. That’s what got us here. DeMarcus has been though just about everything you can imagine and still was the same: high character, great idol every single day. Me and my teammates and all my guys.

Manning’s passer rating was a meager 56.6 and Newton’s was worse at 55.4.

“They just played better than us”, Newton said in his only expansive answer of the post-game. When he returned, the Broncos stuck with Osweiler, until Peyton was re-inserted to the lineup during a Week 16 win over the San Diego Chargers. I am so proud of my buddies.

From there, C.J. Anderson scored his team’s first offensive touchdown with a two-yard run and Manning completed a two-point conversion to Bennie Fowler to leave Carolina and Newton too much to do late on.

Manning is technically under contract with the Broncos for one more season, though everything they’ve done over the past year – fire John Fox, hire Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips, revamp the offense – has spoken to a desire to build a victor that will last beyond Manning’s tenure in Denver. “To do that to the guy that’s changing the game, unbelievable”.

The NFL ushered out past Super Bowl MVPs as far back as Joe Namath for its golden anniversary, so maybe that feeling of nostalgia was just in the air.

After the Super Bowl win, Broncos linebacker Danny Trevathan was asked where he thought his defense ranked in history.

Some say Coldplay let Bruno Mars and Beyonce upstage them at their own Super Bowl show.

The Broncos neutralized tight end Greg Olsen and the Panthers lost Philly Brown to a concussion in the second half rendering their offense useless. They were behind 13-7 to Denver.

“This game was much like this season has been, testing our toughness, our resiliency, our unselfishness”, he said.

The trio performed together, followed by a montage of previous Super Bowl halftime performances and a message of hope.