NFL Playoffs 2015 season - the other teams

[HPF Bob]

Congratulations to Gary Kubiak, Wade Phillips and Owen Daniels for reaching Super Bowl 50. What a defensive slugfest.

My goodness, the CBS crew is sucking the Patriots like you can't believe. Boomer Esiason must have had money on the game. New England played well and you can question about 70 different calls or no-calls but the bottom line is Wade's defense beat the snot out of Brady and kept him off-balance almost the entire game.

[WMH]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

Congratulations to Gary Kubiak, Wade Phillips and Owen Daniels for reaching Super Bowl 50. What a defensive slugfest.

My goodness, the CBS crew is sucking the Patriots like you can't believe. Boomer Esiason must have had money on the game. New England played well and you can question about 70 different calls or no-calls but the bottom line is Wade's defense beat the snot out of Brady and kept him off-balance almost the entire game.

Saw a tweet/Stat that Brady was hit 20 times during that game. Most in an NFL game this season. Belicheat did nothing to counter the pressure. Nutz.

[barrett]

When you play defense like that there isn't a game you can't win.

[Arky]

Early line is Carolina by 3.5 to 4.5 over Denver in "the big game".

Cam Newton is pretty dang hot right now and against the Denver defense, it should make for an intriguing matchup.....

Be prepared for the onslaught of those Peyton Manning Nationwide Ins. commercials over the next few weeks...

[barrett]

Cam is just so good in short yardage. He has to be accounted for and it makes them near unstoppable in the red zone. Combine that with a vertical passing game, and you have a guy who makes enough TDs that it more than makes up for completion percentage. They have done a great job of building an offense and team around Cam Newton's unique talents.

[HPF Bob]

Agreed. The Panthers are not a fluke but they will lack Denver's experience. This is a classic old-school-vs-new-millenia matchup.

The temptation for most fans is to see Manning get his second ring and ride off to pasture so we don't have to watch another Brett Favre act but I'm not sure Manning is going away that easily. To be honest, he's been little more than ordinary since he came back and Denver's best move would be to tell him he's welcome back next year as a QB coach but not under center.

(BTW, one report is that if he retires he'll move into the Tennessee front office with Bill Polian).

This is Newton's MVP year but he'll have many more chances to win a title and if the Panthers come in too cocky or unfocused, he's not going to know what hit him until it's too late.

[barrett]

The Patriots no longer threaten you at all down field. They threw half a dozen balls deep in the 4th quarter and most were to the 3rd string RB, and he didn't come close to catching any of them. They score by converting 3rd downs. That means they need 4-6 conversions before giving up a sack to a risk taking Denver defense.

Carolina on the other hand scores on big plays. If they don't get any they don't score. But Wade's defenses play aggressive and give up big plays. Carolina also converts tons of turnovers. Plus, with no more games this year, Carolina can plan to run Cam 25 times.

I have picked against Carolina all year, but somewhere in there 50 points yesterday I became a believer.