“Ranking the reasons for Denver’s Super Bowl 50 upset”
Upset?
Nah! When the Super Bowl was going to be Carolina vs. Denver I told my wife, “Denver is going to win!”
She asked, “How do you know?”
I said, “Defense!” She laughed and said that she thought that Carolina was going to sweep the floor with Denver and attributed the win to Carolina’s QB and their solid defense. I told her, “Newton is going to fold like a cheap, pocket knife”. She laughed again.
After the game she asked me how I knew.
I said, “Offense is just to excite the crowd. Defense wins ball games!” She just shook her head. ;-)
Yes, of course, Denver’s defense is superb. But we didn’t get to see the matchup we should have seen. A great running offense against a great running defense.
I attribute what happened to it being the first time the Carolina coach and offense coordinator had been to the Super Bowl. What coaches new to the Super Bowl tend to do is think they’ve got to be more than who they really are, especially if they are a weak passing team. How many times we’ve seen strong running teams in the Super Bowl abandon their strength because of nervous coaches who think they have to score quickly by passing when they don’t have a good passing team.
I have yet to hear anyone talk about the fact that Carolina was one of the lousiest passing teams in the NFL this year but the 2nd best running team. The Carolina coaches got caught up in the Super Bowl hype and forgot who they were.