With a trip to Santa Clara and Super Bowl 50 at stake, one of the two games on NFL championship Sunday was as exciting as it gets, while the other one ended up as a lopsided blowout.
The Denver Broncos hosted the New England Patriots to get things kicked off, featuring the legendary Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady matchup so many fans were dying to see.
The two future Hall of Famers did their part to make things interesting, but defense ruled this day. In the end, the Broncos hung on by a thread in the waning moments of the game, winning 20-18.
The late game featured the Arizona Cardinals visiting the Carolina Panthers. Much like we saw the week before, Carolina jumped out to an early lead, except this time it didn’t suffer a lapse of concentration. Thanks to a dominant performance in all three phases of the game, the Panthers finished off the Cardinals, 49-15.
These were the biggest turning points from both championship games.
Peyton Manning throws darts on first drive against confused Patriots’ defense
Did we say darts? Okay, so maybe the darts did wobble a bit but they were effective, nonetheless.
After Denver’s defense forced a three-and-out on the first offensive possession by New England, Manning and his offense went to work, engineering an 11-play drive that went 83 yards and took five-and-a-half minutes off the clock.
Manning completed four passes on the drive for at least 11 yards, finishing it off with a perfect throw to a wide-open Owen Daniels for a 21-yard touchdown.
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As you can see, Daniels had nobody around him when he caught the ball. New England’s defense was completely confused on the play, leading to an easy score for the home team.
The Broncos took an early 7-0 lead, and the Patriots looked less than sharp on both sides of the ball in the early goings of this contest.
Bill Belichick with smart challenge on backwards pass
Down by seven points and with little momentum, Belichick needed to take a chance on a close call.
Manning attempted a swing pass to running back Ronnie Hillman, who couldn’t haul it in. Upon first glance, it appeared the ball may have been thrown slightly backwards, but it was awfully close (video of the play here).
Jonathan Freeney recovered the ball for the Patriots, but the refs ruled it a forward pass.
Then Belichick threw out the red challenge flag.
Head referee Ed Hochuli ruled in favor of New England upon review, giving the ball to the Patriots in scoring range at Denver’s 22-yard line. Two plays later, recently signed veteran running back Steven Jackson punched in the ball from the one-yard line to put the Patriots on the board for the first time in the game.
Unfortunately, kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed the extra point, meaning Denver still had a one-point lead, 7-6, with just under two minutes left in the first quarter. This miss would have humongous ramifications on the outcome of the game, but more on that later.
Von Miller suckers Tom Brady into bad interception
Brady and the Pats weren’t clicking offensively early in the game. Like, at all.
This was illustrated to perfection when Miller baited Brady into an interception early in the second quarter, inside the 20-yard line of New England.
Brady was under a bit of pressure when he attempted to hit Rob Gronkowski for a first down. Much to his dismay, Miller jumped right in front of the pass and easily picked it off (watch here).
This play led to another touchdown for tight end Daniels from Manning — a gorgeous 12-yard strike in the back right corner of the end zone that put the Broncos up 14-6 with most of the second quarter still remaining.
Denver’s defense comes up huge in fourth quarter
Up by eight points in the fourth quarter, Denver’s defense suddenly found itself on the ropes.
Brady had driven the Pats down into enemy territory on an impressive 10-play drive that chewed up 64 yards, and with about six minutes left on the clock they were well within field goal range at the Denver 16-yard line.
Then, rather than taking the chance for three points, Belichick opted instead to go for it on fourth-and-one.
Brady faked a run to Steven Jackson and hit swung it the other way to Julian Edelman, hoping to fool the defense.
It didn’t work.
Instead of heading into the final minutes with a chance to win with a touchdown, New England was right back where it started needing a touchdown and a two-point conversion just to tie the Broncos.
One possession later, after another impressive drive put the Patriots back into the red zone, Belichick made the same decision, this time needing those eight points with just over two minutes left in the game.
On fourth-and-six, Brady failed to connect with Gronkowski in the end zone, giving the ball back to the Broncos once again.
Of course, the game wasn’t quite over at this point. After a three-and-out by Denver’s offense, Brady and the Pats got one more shot to try and make some magic at the end of the game.
And they did, but it wasn’t quite enough to win the contest.
Brady hit Gronk twice on fourth downs on New England’s final offensive drive of the game — once on a fourth-and-10 from the 50-yard line and then again on fourth-and-goal. Down by two points after the touchdown, it looked like Brady might have just enough juice left to push the game into overtime, but Bradley Roby wasn’t having any of it.
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Thanks to some outstanding pressure up front and a tip by Aqib Talib, Roby intercepted Brady in the end zone, ending New England’s comeback bid for good.
It was a tremendous finish to what was an outstanding game, and it sent Peyton Manning to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in his legendary career.
Ted Ginn Jr. show early for Panthers
Already up 3-0 midway through the first quarter, the Panthers struck again.
Ginn almost returned a punt for a touchdown but slipped after gaining 32 yards. Then, after setting up his team on Arizona’s 49-yard line, the speedy wideout finished off the drive with a thrilling 22-yard run on a jet sweep to the left.
The amazing part? After rushing to the left sideline, Ginn ended up scoring on the right side at the goal line. An incredible cutback allowed him to transverse the entire field as he followed his blockers to the far right side (watch here).
Suddenly, just like that, Arizona was down 10-0 with four-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Corey Brown torches Cardinals’ secondary on 86-yard bomb from Cam Newton
Just a few minutes later, Carolina put another seven points on the board. And as dramatic as the first touchdown was, it paled in comparison to what happened next.
Backed up near the goal line, Newton and the Panthers made it 17-0 in a flash when the quarterback hit Corey “Philly” Brown on a gorgeous deep throw down the middle. After catching the ball in stride around the 40-yard line, Brown hit the jets, taking the ball 60 more yards to the house, skirting the left sideline before getting ahead of everyone for the score (watch here).
Before the first quarter was even concluded, the Cardinals were down by three scores.
Thankfully they still had three quarters left to scratch their way back into the game. And having watched the Seattle Seahawks nearly pull off a comeback attempt last weekend we all figured the game was far from over, but we were wrong.
Patrick Peterson muffs punt, leads to another early TD for Panthers
It looked like the Cardinals were gaining some valuable momentum following Brown’s huge touchdown for the Panthers. Rookie running back David Johnson had a huge role in getting Arizona on the board to make it 17-7, and then Arizona’s defense forced a punt on an impressive defensive stop.
Then, disaster.
Peterson, who is one of the NFL’s preeminent playmakers, ran up to make a play on a short punt and almost completely whiffed.
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In fact, it would have been much better for the Cardinals if he had missed on the play, because the Panthers jumped on the ball, recovering the fumble.
From there, Carolina marched right down the field on a five-play, 46-yard drive that ended with a Newton rushing score as he soared over Arizona’s defense at the goal line.
Suddenly, instead of potentially cutting it to a one-score game, Arizona was right back where it started before scoring, behind 17 points heading into the second half after the two sides traded interceptions to close out the second quarter.
Cam Newton puts the game away going airborne for Superman touchdown
Near the end of the third quarter, Newton stuck a dagger in the heart of the Cardinals and their fans.
He made a few huge plays to spark an eight-play, 79-yard drive, which ended with a touchdown to put the Panthers ahead 34-7.
First, Newton hit Ginn on a 39-yard strike down the left sideline. It was a gorgeous pass that sailed right over the hands of a defender and into the waiting arms of his receiver. A couple of plays later he connected with Devin Funchess, who burned Peterson for a gain of 16 yards.
Finally, at Arizona’s 23-yard line, Newton took the game over with two phenomenal runs that highlight just what a dominant dual-threat quarterback he is in this league.
On third-and-10 he converted the first down by rushing for 11 yards, stiff-arming a couple of defenders along the way. Then he capped off the drive with a 12-yard touchdown run and finished with a flourish — a Superman leap above defenders and into the end zone (watch here).
The Cardinals managed to score another touchdown, adding a two-point conversion to make it 34-15 with less than a minute gone by in the fourth quarter. However, thanks to a trio of fourth-quarter interceptions by the Panthers on Palmer, who had an utterly miserable game, that’s as close as this one got.
Newton led another touchdown-scoring drive, finishing it off with a five-yard touchdown to Funchess, and then Luke Kuechly scored on a pick-six, capping off one of the most dominant performances we’ve seen in a long time.