Super Bowl 2016: Broncos defense smothers Panthers in 24-10 win

In the NFL rulebook, an illegal bat is defined as any time a “player bats or punches a loose ball in the field of play toward his opponent’s goal line.”

While Miller’s illegal bat was more of a scoop than a punch or hit of the ball, he told King that he wasn’t trying to recover the ball, but just get it away from Newton so a teammate could recover it.

Talib said following the game that the face-masking penalty on wide receiver Corey Brown was intentional. Brown was headed toward the sideline near the Denver 3-yard line when Talib grabbed his face mask and violently threw him to the ground. Talib said that knowing the penalty would only cost his team half the distance to the goal from that spot on the field justified the penalty, which kept Brown from scoring.

It was Talib’s second personal foul on Brown in that half. Talib said Brown was taunting Denver players on their sideline, and he responded by shoving Brown. Talib didn’t seem concerned about the possibility of a fine, but the NFL viewed it differently.

While Newton’s team was also quick to support him, one notable former NFL player came out to defend Newton’s actions: Archie Manning, father of the winning Super Bowl quarterback, Peyton Manning.

“It’s a hard time, winning the Super Bowl or losing the Super Bowl,” Archie Manning said, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Have you played with the Super Bowl gigapixel panorama? It’s so much fun. I hadn’t sat down yet when this photo was taken, so you can’t find ME, but you can zoom around and look at various fans, or you can peek in the suites to find NFL owners, commissioner Roger Goodell, celebrities ... and ...

GOLDBLUM!

More like “The Blind Slide” ... amirite? Seriously though, Levi’s Stadium was a complete embarrassment and nobody should be surprised stuff like this happened.

Here’s a video that shows it even better.

Later in the half Talib was flagged again for a personal foul after violently grabbing and pulling Brown’s facemask in order to prevent a touchdown.

“My teammates knew what it was,” Talib said of the play. “He was on the 3-yard line. (With) a personal foul, he was on the 1 1/2-yard line, so it is what it is.”

But he went with a Fig Newton joke.

What transpired after was a spectacular parody of Newton’s interview, only now it was Conan apologizing for the bad joke wearing practically the same hoodie. Conan didn’t say much either and stormed out of his TBS press conference without saying whether TBS would be trading him.

Even though the Carolina Panthers lost Super Bowl 50, nothing is going to take away their fans support. The team got the best visual representation of this as the team travelled back home. What awaited them was a barrage of ecstatic fans still cheering on Cam Newton and the Panthers, including this adorable little girl who wanted to make Cam Newton feel better about the loss by giving him her soccer trophy.

Even though the Panthers’ season didn’t have the fairytale ending that many anticipated, the fans are still humbled by the fact that was arguably the team’s best year ever. And things can only get better with Kelvin Benjamin on his way back from injury next year.

Cam Newton has drawn more than his share of criticism following the Panthers’ loss in the Super Bowl. A lot of the critics have pointed to this play late in the game when Newton didn’t appear to give maximum effort diving for a fumble.

Maybe no one was harsher than Newton for that play than one of his fellow NFL players. Seattle defensive lineman Frank Clark did not hold back his thoughts on Newton’s effort.

Reporters asking Kevin Durant about his Super Bowl experience got an extra treat Monday:

A few minutes into the interview, Durant caught on, and Westbrook scampered off.

“They force you to play at a very small, narrow margin for error, but again, a lot of what we had was just breakdowns in our own scheme, breakdowns in our own plays,” Panthers tight end Greg Olsen said after the game. “So, hats off to them. We knew coming in that it was going to be a challenge with the guys that can get after the quarterback and the guy they have in the backend. We knew if it became a pass-happy game, that it’d be tough, but we obviously would have liked to have given it a little bit better shot.”

Was it a perfect throw from Newton? No, but it absolutely was one that a wide receiver starting in the Super Bowl should be able to haul in.

They say that defense wins championships.

In the end, Super Bowl 50 played out just like Super Bowl 48 did, with defense winning the day, but this time the Broncos were the owners of that elite group.

(All photos by Getty Images)

(h/t @sportsphotos)

Obviously, Manning is one of the highest-paid players in the league and has had plenty of lucrative endorsement deals throughout his career. He is pretty tight with Papa John, after all.

Money probably isn’t one of his main concerns and he will treasure the Super Bowl ring and the satisfaction of delivering a Lombardi Trophy to the Broncos and their fans a lot more than he will a $4 million bonus. After redoing his deal, Manning had a base salary of $15 million this past season, the same he had with Denver over the past two years. He made $18 million with them back in 2012, his first year with the team.

Super Bowl 50 ratings peaked at 51.0/73 during the 10-10:15 p.m. ET range, indicating that 51 percent of television-equipped households were tuned in and 73 percent of all television-equipped households with a television currently in use were watching.

The top television markets for Super Bowl 50 were Nashville (57.7), Albuquerque (56.9), Norfolk (56.8), Greensboro (56.7) and Greenville (56.6), according to Ourand. Charlotte wasn’t far behind with a 55.9 overnight rating and Denver came in at 53.9.

Cornerback Aqib Talib went in on Newton’s alter-ego:

The Denver defense clearly rattled Newton and the Panthers offense, sacking the Carolina QB seven times and forcing numerous turnovers. Chris Harris Jr. thinks it was a testament to the lack of talent the Panthers have faced this year, which could have been a product of not knowing what division Carolina plays in.

Cam Newton is an emotional player who wears his heart on his sleeve. That means he’ll dance on the sideline and be happy when things are going well, and when they aren’t, well, this will happen. This didn’t happen at the end of the game, despite the NFL tweet -- it was, in fact, after Josh Norman was called for holding which effectively killed any chance at a comeback.

Many will critique Newton’s postgame attitude following the Super Bowl. Some of this criticism is deserved, but it can’t be denied that he plays with a level of emotion few players do.

Miller’s first big play came in the first quarter, bursting past Panthers RT Mike Remmers and literally ripping the ball out of Newton’s arms.

Miller’s second big play came in the fourth quarter, with just three minutes left. Miller again beat Remmers and got to Newton while he was throwing, forcing another fumble.

Cam Newton draws criticism from all angles unlike few other athletes. People seem to enjoy watching him fail. So it was only natural the critics would be out in full force after the Panthers lost Super Bowl 50. At the same time, Bill Romanowski is well-known for being a terrible human. So, obviously those two paths crossed on Sunday night and this was the result.

People complaining about Newton’s attitude is simply low hanging fruit. His attitude is bad. He has too much fun. He dances too much. Rinse and repeat. Romanowski made sure to add a tinge of racism to the tweet as well.

The Denver Broncos are Super Bowl champions for the first time in 17 years. While that is hardly the longest drought in the NFL, it’s still a long time, and there have been a lot of close calls and frustrating missed chances during that span. Right now, that’s all forgotten and Broncos fans celebrated the third championship in team history in style.

No single venue could contain all of the excitement, so instead Broncos fans just flooded the streets. Denver police closed down several streets for multiple hours to allow the fans to safely celebrate. Oh, and celebrate they did.

Von Miller decimated the Panthers offense during Super Bowl 50 on his way to being named the game’s MVP. It was one of the best defensive performances in a Super Bowl in recent history. His zing of the Panthers on Instagram after the game might have been even better.

Carolina loves to dab. The Panthers dabbed on everyone all season. They even told people that if they didn’t like them dabbing to stop them. Well, Miller and the Broncos defense certainly stopped them and then Miller dipped into the popular memes on the Internet bucket to make all of the Panthers Crying Jordan.

After winning the Super Bowl, players celebrate in a wide array of ways. Some take the classic trip to Disney World. Others make confetti angels and party through the night. Aqib Talib has a plan in mind and he just happened to reveal it during the middle of an interview.

Think about that for a second. Talib was feeling so good after winning the Super Bowl that he paused while at a podium surrounded by cameras and reporters to tell his wife they were going to have sex that night. I guess when you’re the champ, you can do just that.

Coming into Super Bowl 50, the Denver Broncos knew they’d have to harass Cam Newton and muddy up his pocket to have a chance at slowing down the league’s MVP. Well, it turns out Wade Phillips’ unit was more than up to the task.

Carolina’s offensive line offered little resistance to Denver’s ferocious pass rush as the Broncos racked up 7 sacks and 13 quarterback hits while forcing 2 Cam Newton fumbles. Newton seldom had a clean pocket all day as he dealt with pressure from all angles, and once Denver got a lead and their pass-rushers could pin their ears back, it was all over for the Panthers.

Thomas Davis didn’t win the Super Bowl, but he was definitely the toughest dude who played in the Super Bowl. The veteran Panthers linebacker broke his arm during the Panthers NFC Championship Game win over the Cardinals, which prompted him to have surgery on the following Monday.

So yes, that means he was playing in the Super Bowl 13 days after he broke his arm and had a metal plate put in it. Here’s the message he sent wit this photo.

Mean Cam Newton walked out of his postgame press conference. You know what that means. It shows that he doesn’t have respect for the game. Cam just can’t lose with grace, right? Cam will dance and take selfies when things are going well but pout when he loses. What kind of role model is that?! Look at all these photos that prove this point effectively.

Photos via Kevin C. Cox and Ezra Shaw/ Getty Images