Championship Sunday sets up Broncos/Panthers Super Bowl

Every Monday morning, Section 215’s Akiem Bailum gives an in-depth and unfiltered look at all of the latest sports news in The Monday Morning Realist. You can follow Akiem on Twitter @AkiemBailum.

The Last Time?

Nostalgic.

This is a word with a connotation pertaining to memories of the “good ol’ days” when everything was simpler, things were not so complicated, and the football of yesterday was supposedly better than the football of today.

Peyton Manning. Tom Brady. How many times have they faced each other up to this point, including postseason?

Seventeen times to be exact. A full 17.

These have been the two best quarterbacks in the NFL for the past decade-plus. It will be tough for football fans to have to adjust to an NFL without either #12 or #18 in it, but it is an NFL that will be reality as father time will be hitting Manning and Brady sooner than most think.

But until father time hits, Realists, we had the chance to witness these two future Hall of Famers go at it once again with their respective teams having a shot at representing the AFC in the Super Bowl.

By the way, one of Roger Goodell’s biggest regrets as commissioner will most likely be that neither Brady nor Manning (more likely) switched to an NFC team during the course of their careers meaning that there would have been a chance at a Manning/Brady Super Bowl.

While much was made about the quarterbacks and rightfully so, an element of the game that was not mentioned much but deserved to be was the defense of the Denver Broncos. This was the top-rated defense in the NFL for this year and contributed unarguably more to the Broncos starting the season 7-0 than the QB did.

If this was a banner year for Manning in the regular season, why did he get injured and why was the name Brock Osweiler on everyone’s lips from Boulder to Colorado Springs?
Inquiring minds would like to know.

Nevertheless as this game played out, watching Manning’s first drive that resulted in a touchdown pass to Owen Daniels giving the Broncos a 7-0 lead, it looked like vintage Manning. It looked like early on that he was going to have one of those games reminiscent of what we are used to seeing him accomplish on a regular basis.

As for Brady, the Broncos defensive line had the Golden Boy for lunch and 12 had turf for lunch. The defense got to Brady on a grand total of 20 times throughout this game, something he is not used to encountering. He was sacked four times.

One of the keys to Brady’s success has not just been about having great receivers whether their names are Deion Branch or Rob Gronkowski. But it has been an offensive line relentless at making sure Brady is able to throw accurate passes to the Troy Browns and the Julian Edelmans of the world.

Brady did not even get the chance to throw for the most part—and as a result the Patriots’ season came to a close in the Mile High city.

Manning only threw for 176 yards but completed 17 of his 32 passes with two touchdowns. C.J. Anderson—72 yards on 16 carries and Emmanuel Sanders caught five passes for 62 yards.

Brady was 27 out of 56 and threw for 310 yards, one touchdown (to Gronk, who caught eight passes for 144 yards) and two picks. Brady was also their leading rusher with 13 yards on three carries—as expected for a team that almost never runs the ball.

At least Roger Goodell does not have to hand the Lombardi Trophy to the team the league went after for you-know-what this offseason. But he will be handing said trophy to someone in Santa Clara. It could be Manning and his Broncos or…

The First Time

There’s a first time for everything and we all remember our first times.

In the case of Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, a berth in the Super Bowl would be his first time playing in the big game. In the case of the Panthers franchise, it would be the second time they would have played in the Super Bowl.

I read some tweets online insinuating that the Broncos/Patriots game was nothing more than the “undercard” to Panthers/Cardinals. I somewhat agreed to it as I, like most pundits, felt that it was only a matter of time before we were talking about a Patriots/Panthers Super Bowl and a rematch of the 2004 Super Bowl in Houston.

You know, especially you male Realists out there. That was the one that gave us the “wardrobe malfunction.”

This past Sunday, it appeared as if for the Cardinals, EVERYTHING was in malfunction. The quarterback play of Carson Palmer, the coaching decisions of Bruce Arians, the offense, the defense, the special teams, everything.

Heck, for a moment it looked like even the Cardinals logo resembled the same logo from their Chicago and St. Louis days. You know when it was kinder and gentler and not so rough around the edges.

I mean just think about this, Realists. Larry Fitzgerald dropped a pass. Larry Fitzgerald dropped a pass with a shot at the Super Bowl on the line. If Larry Fitzgerald has butterfingers, then who on Arizona did not have butterfingers?

If anything, it may have been a saving grace that there was not snow on the field in Charlotte. Arizona is used to playing in warm climates plus they are an indoor team. Snow may have looked like a foreign object to the Cardinals on Sunday.

And Realists, something tells me a superstar is about to be born in Cam Newton, whether some of the “Get off my lawn”-ers in the media like it or not.

It is one thing to criticize someone for their football play. It is another thing to criticize someone who plays every game as if they’re doing something that they love. Cam Newton loves playing football and you can see it every single time he’s on the field.

So what if he does The Dab? So what if he’s got swag? So what if he’s maybe a bit brash? He backs it up and his team feeds off his energy.

As we talked about last week, between him and Russell Wilson, something tells me the NFL will be in very good hands even after the Brady’s, Mannings, Brees’s, and Roethlisbergers retire.

This may be the first time the Panthers will have advanced to the Super Bowl in the Cam Newton-Ron Rivera era. Realists, it probably will not be the last.

He threw for 335 yards with completing 19 of his 28 passes for two passing touchdowns (also two rushing touchdowns for four in total) and only one interception (Patrick Peterson).

Jonathan Stewart also had a huge day with 83 yards on 19 carries and both Corey Brown and Greg Olsen had 113-yard outings. Brown caught four passes with one touchdown and Olsen had six receptions.

Carson Palmer was 23 out of 40 with 235 yards, one touchdown and four picks. David Johnson was their leading rusher with 60 yards on 15 carries and their leading receiver with 68 yards on nine receptions.

See you in Santa Clara somewhere!