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Panthers Iced On Opening Night
- Updated: September 9, 2016
by Forrest Buck
It was a great start to the 2016 NFL season as we got what we typically want in a nationally televised opener and that’s drama. Thursday night’s Super Bowl 50 rematch between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers came down to a last-second field goal attempt by Graham Gano. Despite Denver’s defense putting the clamps on Cam and company nearly the entire second half, they found a way to get in field goal range for a last-second 50-yard attempt. Cam was good on the drive, but the biggest contributor to the Panthers even having a chance to win the game had to be Broncos corner Chris Harris who, on 4th and 21, for some inexplicable reason, was lined up in press coverage against the 6’5 Kelvin Benjamin and drew a 5-yard hands to the face penalty, which resulted in an automatic 1st down. Shortly after, Cam would hit Greg Olsen and then Benjamin for two big first downs that ultimately set up the field goal attempt. Just as Gano got ready to kick the ball, the Broncos called timeout as Gano’s attempt went soaring just inside the right upright for what would’ve been the game winning field goal. If only that kick would’ve counted. He would not be so lucky the next time as his attempt to win the game went sailing wide left and never even appeared to have a chance. Kubiak effectively iced him and the Broncos would go on to win a game that very few thought they could.
It was quite an impressive performance by the Broncos overall. Despite a very slow start in the first half, where the Panthers went into the break with a 17-7 lead and ALL of the momentum. In the 1st two quarters, it looked as though the Broncos had no answers for Cam and the Panthers offense. Meanwhile, things were not much better on the other side of the ball as the Broncos offense made 1 mistake after another. Their only 1st-half points came via a flukish 28 yard trot by FB Andy Janovich. Going into halftime, it looked like the Panthers would cruise to victory. Then the 2nd half started and all of sudden the Broncos defense started to resemble the one we saw in January that shut everybody down in route to a Super Bowl title. All of sudden the Panthers’ offense looked very stagnant. They were held scoreless throughout the entire 3rd quarter and only managed 3 points in the 4th.
The Broncos offense played better in the second half as well. Trevor Siemian seemed more comfortable after settling in a bit. It’s clear from watching him in his 1st game that he’s no star and most likely never will be. However, there’s room for optimism in Denver because that team yet again proved they only need the bare minimum of production at QB to win football games. Siemian will have to cut the turnovers down if the Broncos are to be a legitimate playoff contender but after last night Siemian showed me more than I thought he could do and he just may be good enough (or not quite bad enough) for the Broncos to get back to the postseason and have a shot to defend their title.
