Fittingly, the franchise responsible for some of football's ugliest championship losses climaxed Super Bowl 50 with a tutorial on winning ugly -- and made Peyton Manning fans everywhere happy.
The Denver Broncos, deftly impersonating the 1985 Chicago Bears, changed their identity from an offensive powerhouse to a defensive juggernaut. Denver's run, and especially pass, destroyers systematically reduced the Carolina Panthers' offense to rubble, treating Cam Newton like he was Craig Morton in the Broncos' first Super Bowl disaster (27-10 to Dallas in 1978).
With a little help from two persons, one a coach and the other a defensive end, that the present-day Cowboys thought expendable, and an MVP performance by the player selected No. 2 overall behind Newton in the 2011 NFL draft, Denver is Super Bowl champion for a third time. This time, the "D" in Denver stands for defense.
For a Broncos fan, whose long suffering in championship games is enormous, nothing may ease the pain of Super Bowl routs by San Francisco (55-10), Washington (42-10) and, just two years ago, Seattle (43-8). Look closely at Super Bowl highlights of Roger Staubach, Phil Simms, Doug Williams, Joe Montana and Russell Wilson for players in orange uniforms trailing the play and hanging their heads in defeat.
Beating Carolina in Super Bowl 50 doesn't remove the sting of the Williams-led, 35-point second quarter against the Broncos in 1988 or the near-perfect passing of Simms in '87 or Montana in '89. Bronco Nation never expected to endure more such agony when Peyton Manning rode into town like Gary Cooper in "High Noon" for a gunfighter's last stand. But there were the Broncos of old in 2014, down 2-0 to Seattle when the center snap sailed past Manning's head on the team's first offensive play.
After seeing Denver tread water with Jake Plummer, Jay Cutler, Kyle Orton and the like, John Elway the team executive took a chance on a quarterback as legendary with the Indianapolis Colts as he with the Broncos. Pro football is filled with stories of aging quarterbacks winning championships or coming close, whether it be Norm Van Brocklin with the Eagles in 1960, the almost forgotten Jim Plunkett twice with the Raiders or the balding Y.A. Tittle with the New York football Giants.
Manning's last days in the NFL will be related fondly as long as pro football is played. America virtually watched Archie and Olivia's second of three sons grow up on television, denied the Heisman Trophy at Tennessee in the same season (1997) that Elway got the Broncos over the hump in the Super Bowl and then taking his lumps early in the pros before finally winning a championship (2006) for a team coached by incoming Hall of Famer Tony Dungy.
Cam Newton, the camera-preening quarterback of the losing side in Super Bowl 50, could take some pointers from Denver's No. 18 in how to conduct oneself on a national stage. In what seems like a continuous photo op, Newton has been the anti-Manning, winning the Heisman Trophy (2010) for a national-championship team at Auburn and getting to the Super Bowl in five seasons whereas it took nine years for Manning and the Colts. Newton, to borrow from "Death of a Salesman," may be liked, but is not well liked.
The feeling for Manning is so strong across the land that Newton and the Panthers could not possibly have won Super Bowl 50 had it been a popularity contest. The game itself was little more competitive, Denver perhaps saying to itself that if it can beat the world champion Patriots, the blue-chip stock of the NFL, then what greater menace could a team of Super Bowl upstarts pose?
Gary Kubiak, fired by the Houston Texans and getting a second chance in Denver with a future Hall of Fame quarterback, joined a short list of coaches winning the Super Bowl in their first season with a club. This was a Karl Wallenda act all the way for Denver offensively, Manning's skills obviously eroding and finally forcing Kubiak to replace him with Brock Osweiler in a midseason loss at home to Kansas City. Denver quarterbacks were reduced to caretakers at times, although Manning showed some of the old snap with two touchdown passes to tight end Owen Daniels in the AFC championship game against New England.
No, this was a Denver team molded around its defense, one that subdued opposing quarterbacks all season. Bronco game scores indicate as much: 19-13 over Joe Flacco and the Ravens, 24-12 over Matthew Stafford and the Lions, 23-20 over Teddy Bridgewater and the Vikings early. Then came two Sunday nights for Bronco Nation to cherish, 26-10 over Aaron Rodgers and the Packers and 30-24 in overtime over Tom Brady and the Patriots.
Overnight, Wade Phillips became the Norv Turner of NFL defenses, a failed head coach (one of many who could not co-exist with Jerry Jones in Dallas) become a genius coordinator. Phillips sent Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware (thought too old by the Cowboys) and the rest of the Broncos against stationary targets in the AFC playoffs, Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers and Brady again, and didn't modify the game plan much in the Super Bowl against the mobile, strong-armed and presumptive league MVP Newton.
Manning came out passing and the Broncos took a quick 3-0 lead, which became 10-0 after Miller forced a fumble from Newton that Denver recovered in the Carolina end zone. Brandon McManus then kicked two more field goals while the Denver defense sacked Newton six times and forced another fumble, this one converted into a touchdown with 3:08 left and Manning throwing for two points in perhaps the quarterback's last great moment in a sport he has dominated.
If Carolina is the quick study that it appears, the Panthers should learn, like so many other Super Bowl losers, exactly what is necessary to close the deal in this spectacle of sport, as the late John Facenda described the not-yet-named Super Bowl after the Packers played the Chiefs in the first one in 1967.
To watch Manning field questions first from Tracy Wolfson and then from Jim Nantz, the quarterback's children tugging at his uniform on the victory platform, and Peyton confiding to millions at home that he would enjoy a few cold ones before the night was through, made one appreciate the outcome all the more.
If Denver's No. 18 indeed is facing the final curtain, let the record show that he went out with class and as a winner. If only Johnny Manziel could figure it out.
Sports on 02/09/2016