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There's no way around it — Super Bowl 50 was awful
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Quarterback Peyton Manning losing a fumble in the Denver Broncos' Super Bowl 50 victory Sunday night.
The Super Bowl was terrible.
One team had more turnovers than third-down conversions, only gained 130 total yards after their opening drive, and had two drives that lasted longer than five plays the entire game.
The other team lost — by two touchdowns.
The main storyline following the Denver Broncos 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers was that Peyton Manning — one of the all-time greatest quarterbacks — got to exit the field last night, possibly for the final time, as a Papa John-kissing, Budweiser-buying Super Bowl champion. A great potential ending for one of the all-time greatest.
But his performance on the field? It left much to be desired — as can be said for much of Manning's season.
Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson, two far-from-legendary quarterbacks, outplayed the Hall-of-Fame bound Manning in their Super Bowl victories. In fact, Cam Newton, the Panthers' quarterback who lost two fumbles, threw an interception, and completed less than half of his passes, was deemed to have an on-par game with Manning.
Sure, this was a battle of the two best defenses in the NFL, and defense wins championships, right? And that's supposed to be fun and interesting to watch, right?
It isn't, really. Apologies to the "I appreciate great defense and you're not a real football fan if you don't" subset of sports fans. Great defense is fun to watch when it's your team that has the great defense. If you don't have a vested interest in either team, well, it's not very fun. And unless you were clad in orange-and-blue or an immediate family member of the Panthers' Kony Ealy, that game was atrocious.
Hence, why CBS rated the game as the second-worst Super Bowl of the past 20 years and the third-worst of the past 40.
This is actually how almost three-quarters of the game played out:
(Screenshot/ESPN)
(Screenshot/ESPN)
(Screenshot/ESPN)
During that stretch, 15 drives accounted for less than 10 yards, and the total yardage from those 15 drives was a paltry 16 yards. The game ended with eight consecutive three-play drives, including the one offensive touchdown for the Broncos, who couldn't score from within five yards until a penalty on Carolina's Josh Norman gave them a fresh set of downs from the goal line.
Back to Manning. Though the Panthers have a world-class defense, only four quarterbacks were rated worse against Carolina all season, including the playoffs. Ryan Mallett, then of the Houston Texans, and Luke McCown, filling in for injured New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, fared better against the Panthers defense then did Manning. Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons had a better passer rating against the Panthers when his team was shut out.
Newton, for his part, seemed to be lost after a pass to receiver Jerricho Cotchery that should've been ruled complete was deemed an incomplete pass. He fumbled two plays later, and Denver recovered the ball in the end zone for its first score. As the game was winding down, and the teams were separated by less than a touchdown, Newton barely made any effort to pick up another fumble he lost, which led to the Broncos other touchdown.
(CBS)
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton considering whether to pick up the football he just lost during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 50 in a one-possession game.
Many took to Twitter during and after the game to voice their displeasure with the Super Bowl's entertainment value.
This is a one-score game. Nine min left. And I'm pretty sure it's a Super Bowl. And somehow it's boring as hell.
— Gerry Callahan (@GerryCallahan) February 8, 2016
This year's Super Bowl MVP: Me, for watching this dumpster fire.
— stefan (@boring_as_heck) February 8, 2016
So far the Super Bowl is very boring - not nearly as exciting as politics - MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2016
This game will likely end up being forgotten by the vast majority of the millions who watched. The winning team averaged slightly more than 40 yards per quarter over the game's final three stanzas — roughly the same as Manning's age.
Not even a puppy-monkey-baby could make this event palatable.
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