The halftime show was not entertaining, now if they had midgets wrestling bear cubs that would be entertainment.
Peyton using his legacy cementing emotional 'last rodeo' winning moments to shill product before even leaving the field was pretty brutal, imo.
Spot on post. 1. The Panthers "spit the bit" just as they did when they lost to Atlanta late in the season. They couldn't handle the pressure plain and simple and choked. Sad. In both games, Cam was the only one on offense who was showed up and was trying. Even their very reliable kicker (whose name escapes me at the moment) choked and whiffed on a FG attempt. Every time they could have gained momentum and perhaps gotten on a roll, they would have an unforced error or commit some stupid penalty. 2. Miller and Ware were amazing. I was shocked at how poorly Peyton played, but his leadership, experience and intelligence can't be discounted. 3. Yes, the #1 thing I was worried about was Cam being too amped or having an off game. When he sailed that first pass, I thought, "Uh-oh, the Panthers are going to be in trouble if that continues." The only point with which I disagree is their "formidable OL." It isn't even remotely close to formidable. Cam had lots of time most of the year, but as much as anything, it was because either they didn't play any teams with that strong of a pass rush or the blocking and/or offensive game plan was better. I think Gettleman has done a very good job finding talent for the team both in FA and the draft, but I think he has been too complacent with his OL and counted too much on Cam's escapability. That OL definitely needs to be upgraded imo. The reason I think they didn't call more designed runs for Cam was because he was under siege and tooks a lot of big shots. As he was leaving the field at half time, the announcers commented on how tired looking he was already. They had a longer half time to rest, but depending upon what their half time routine actually entails, the Panthers may not have helped themselves by not changing their routine. 4. It was sad to see Peyton playing at such a low level. He needs to retire. 5. The Panthers' D definitely played well enough to win, but the Denver D was better. They had opportunities to make more plays and didn't. Norman's a great CB, but has a punk attitude, and I thought it was fitting that he dropped two interceptions. Hopefully, that will take some of the wind out of his sails and humble him. I don't remember the specific circumstances or what happened following those dropped interceptions, but if he makes those interceptions, the game could have had a very different outcome. 6. Yes, in spite of some posters claiming that the penalties were balanced, they weren't even close to being balanced. After a couple of the blown calls, the refs did call a few more penalties on the Broncos, but they were not momentum-killing type penalties and didn't come at crucial junctures. I immediately thought that they were trying to compensate the Panthers and perhaps assuage their guilt for blowing the earlier calls. Talib was definitely off sides in the missed FG.
no its a lot worse. its really stupid and lacking class. The disney world line is a fun little tradition dating back decades that lots of players have done. This is a legend taking probably his final moments on the field and he uses that time to push shitty pizza and shitty beer because he owns a piece. Really pathetic
It's funny how this jerkoff hasn't shown up lately after his team got it's ass kicked but now he's back talking shit. What a pathetic piece of shit. _
Re #6, good call about Talib on the missed FG, he definitely jumped. That's a huge play. The game has a very different feel down the stretch if it is 16-13 rather than 16-10.
I mean the whole Disney World trend was implemented to market a product. A multi-billion dollar industry pushing its product on the national stage. It became tradition because of the money involved. I don't really see how its different. Instead of Peyton pushing a product that has tradition he pushed his own. While one is beer and the other is family entertainment. I just think if Peyton wants to push it, so be it. It's his choice. Might have been a little cheesy but when has Peyton not been?
When asked to reflect on his career during the on field interview Manning said specifically "it's very special to cap it off with a Super Bowl championship." Yet people are still discussing whether he is retiring or not. He said it himself -- capping off your career means the career is over.
Watched it in the UK with some occasional fans and they called it a night about 2 minutes out from half-time. Couldn't blame them tbh as that was one of the worst games I watched all season (and I was mainly watching the Browns and Eagles after Jet football) and I only stuck it out to polish off the hotdogs and beer. Denvers Defense was awesome, Panthers Defense was also possibly as good but was hard to tell considering the dearth of threat on the other side. Knew it was going to be a low score game and was therefore hoping that the clinching moment was going to be someone making a play on either side of the ball to bust it open. Instead the crucial moments seemed to come from the officiating. I'll grant that they can't catch everything and they'll let the receivers and backs have a tussle like we want but how do they not catch Talib jumping and (ofc) the Cotchery catch that wasn't a catch. You have cameras with multiple, multiple angles. You have a coach chucking out a flag to let you have a reeeeeaaaaaal good look at it and despite it not touching the ground, retaining possesion and actually being a catch you call it incomplete because that was the ruling on the field?!?! Why not just do away with the replays and challenges and let the refs call the game if we're not going to bother to make sure the call is the right call. Anyway it was a waste of a night, Halftime show was crap (Think Beyonce is fast approaching the point of needing to swap sexy swagger for demure class), BBC coverage was awful and the only point I jumped outta my chair was the Talib facemask tackle and fling on whoever it was at whatever point in the game it was. Hopefully watching the Jets down in Houston next season against whoever pitches up from the NFC will make up for this festival of yawn.
Ware and Miller were amazing, I can't believe how good those guys were. The panthers need to address their WR position in the off season. I give credit to the Denver defense, however Cam was making an effort to stand in the pocket and let the play develope, the receivers could not get open most of the time, which resulted in his nightmare of a game. For all of his stupid antics, I'm glad he made an effort to stay in the pocket and not become a running QB, it's just not the recipe for winning games in the NFL.
Actually, I think they're pretty set at WR. Their #1 Benjamin was on IR the entire season. Funchess was a rookie. Cotchery will probably retire. Philly Brown is a pretty good #3 or #4 WR. They have Greg Olsen at TE. All of their RBs are good receivers out of the backfield. Of course it wouldn't hurt to add another threat for Cam, but I think much more importantly, they need to address their OL and secondary. Peanut Tillman was a starter until he was injured. He made some big plays during the season and is great for creating fumbles, but his lack of speed hurts them as well. In the SB I think both safeties and one of their CBs (Cortland Finnegan) were street FAs brought in at the end of the season. All things considered, they played remarkably well, but still, they need another quality CB to pair with Norman and at least one better safety. One of their safeties had quite a few picks and has great ball skills, but he was out injured. Stewart has a problem staying healthy. Fozzy Whitaker makes some plays, but isn't going to scare anyone. The rookie from Auburn didn't play much until the end of the season, but is fast and has some real potential. I don't think he even got in the game. I don't know if he was injured or why he didn't play much. Staying in the pocket is not Cam's game. That is not the recipe for winning games for the Panthers. I disagree with you in general, but that's another issue. Cam's staying in the pocket is why the Panthers had a bad start to the 2014 season. They made a decision to protect Cam from himself and had him stay in the pocket, and their offense was awful for their first 4-6 games. I think they lost every one or all but one of those games. They then made the decision to let Cam be Cam, their offense took off and they wound up winning their division. He won the MVP this season and the Panthers almost went undefeated in the regular season because Cam didn't stay in the pocket. IMO they would have been much better off letting him run more on Sunday. He was tired and was taking some big hits anyway, and that's probably why they didn't run him more or he didn't option into a run more. Cam stands in the pocket a long time, but is usually much more aware of pressure and moves. He stood like a statue in the SB. I've never seen him stand in the pocket for so long. It was way too long. He should have thrown the ball away or moved to buy some time. I think that was big part of the problems with their offense on Sunday.
The Zone read was not going to work during the game, the Broncos had that diagnosed from the beginning of the game. They also had a spy on him when he was in the pocket, taking away his ability to rush the ball, that being said, as you mentioned, he did not buy too much time for himself by moving around like Ben does in Pitt. Even with his limited ability to rush, he was making enough plays against a very stout defense, it just seemed that every time they started to get some momentum, there was a big mistake that eliminated any chance of the Panthers making a game of it.
