Denver advances to Super Bowl

But Von Miller and the Broncos defense were the key to the win.

Peyton Manning and Tom Brady met at midfield and embraced, said a few nice things to each other, shook hands, and walked away ending their compelling rivalry after 15 years and 17 games with one last dramatic finish.

Brady was good on only nine of 20 attempts for 87 yards and two interceptions in the first 30 minutes. He didn’t rack up big numbers, but he was efficient and smart.

Quarterback Tom Brady was under siege the entire afternoon. And that is a heck of compliment for both. The Broncos’ pass rush took it from there.

The Broncos defense made it once again, and the franchise is now headed to its eighth Super Bowl.

It was just Manning’s second TD pass at home this season. He has not thrown any interceptions. “(The Broncos) have got a great team”.

“My role has been different and my contributions are different”, Manning said. “And my contributions are different”. “But I’m fortunate and grateful that I have the opportunity to contribute still, in some way”.

Meanwhile, Brady was trying to carry his team. He was right, and the Patriots were awarded possession at the Denver 22-yard line on a fumble recovery.

“We had 10 windows open and there was a flurry of activity at those betting windows”, Kornegay said.

Nobody could have thought it would come back to bite the Patriots the way it did, though. Gronkowski then scored on fourth-and-goal from the 4 to make it a 20-18 game with 12 seconds remaining.

Newton finished with 335 yards passing and 47 rushing and it earned him a first trip to the Super Bowl and the Panthers’ first since 2004. On the play in question, Peyton Manning threw a swing pass to Ronnie Hillman that was ruled incomplete, with linebacker Jonathan Freeny picking up the bouncing football. DeHaven is battling prostate cancer and his inspiring story promises to be a Super Bowl-week highlight. Most of the money bet on the championship game does not start coming in until the Friday before the game. They won the Super Bowl a season ago with an interception at the goal line in the final seconds against Seattle. “He just gets the job done”.

But you know what?

The pass rushers praised Denver’s secondary for giving them the time to knock Brady around.

Brady has a 11-6 record in their head-to-head clashes.

Finally, the worst play of the game for Stork came in the form of a personal foul penalty in the first quarter.

Any comparison is hard, too, because they did not play their careers in a vacuum.

Brady-Manning XVII came down to an incompletion on fourth down, ending the chance for the Pats to repeat as Super Bowl champions. “I have never seen a performance like that from one player”. Manning has played for five. “We can’t ask for nothing more than that”.

It shockingly was Brady, not Manning, who had some awful numbers on Sunday. The match-up was pegged, appropriately, as Brady vs. Manning XVII.

Denver Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib (21) attempts to block a 46-yard field goal by New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski (3) during the first half of the NFL football AFC Championship game between the Denver Broncos…

Vaccaro said the line could settle in quickly at 4 points and stay there through Super Bowl weekend.

Now he is heading back to the Super Bowl, and he appreciates the accomplishment, whether we do or not. It was just a fluky missed kicked by one of the game’s greats.

“Today”, Kubiak said, “along with the defense, he was big time”.

Actually, they used to say that.

“I wanted to do it for Peyton”, Miller said.

It wasn’t in the forecast for tight end Owen Daniels to score before Rob Gronkowski in the AFC championship game. Why do we forget?