Congratulations to P. Bok and B. Davis for their reasonably close Super Bowl predictions:
- Brandon D.: 28 – 17 Denver
- PBok: 21 – 17 Denver
Of course, SU was also in the ballpark at 23 – 21 Denver and having Denver score on defense. I was hoping that Carolina might go ahead in the 3rd quarter at 14 – 13 and then see if Gary Kubiak would go to Osweiler. SU is happy for Peyton Manning but he is running on fumes. How he was not ready to announce his retirement at the end of the game is beyond me. Just watching the past Super Bowl MVPs limp onto the field one after another should have been enough for him to recognize that he does not want to risk a neck injury in his final season.
SU stumbled across Cam Newton’s press conference after the game. He had his hoodie over his head and was basically mumbling one word answers to the usual questions. He finally just got up and walked out as if questions like, “What were you thinking at the end of the game?” were just too tough to handle. SU says that if you are a leader, you lead in good times and bad. It’s easy to be the man and yuck it up in the days before the game, or when you are winning, run up and down the sidelines firing up the crowd. When adversity hits, that’s when we learn about character. And we learned about his last night.
No doubt he will do better next time and he is of course a great talent. SU will now wait for William Rhoden of the New York Times to write a column on how the media are too tough on Cam and there was nothing wrong with his post-game stupor. He will say that Cam is just a fierce competitor and cares so much about winning. I must say that when he did actually put a series of words together, he made it clear that it wasn’t all on him. SU was not surprised.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
As a Pats’ fan, I have to tip my cap to the Denver defense. Very impressive. And it makes me feel a little better about essentially playing them even in both games in Denver this year.
Really, the only thing missing from Newton’s season were humbling moments. There were many yesterday and I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back even better for it.
Manning did not look good but if he chooses to continue to play, there are many teams that will give him a shot.
Over the past two weeks the story has been that Denver’s defense was fast but small and would not be able to beat up on Carolina. I’m not sure exactly how small they are and why this size disadvantage didn’t hurt them all season but it certainly didn’t seem to bother them last night.
Much is being made of the defenses but to me the game was mostly ugly. 7 fumbles! Missed field goal. Several dumb penalties. Maybe some blown calls. You just didn’t see a lot of greatness. The way the teams played in the first half, they were both lucky to not head to the locker room down by two TDs.