In the first half of the NFL’s season opener between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos on Thursday night, Cam Newton seemed to be a man on a mission to redeem himself for his failures in last season’s Super Bowl. But the second half was a reminder of just how good the reigning Super Bowl champion Broncos can be, as they charged back from a 17-7 deficit to beat the Panthers, 21-20, after a 50-yard field-goal attempt by Graham Gano sailed wide left in the closing seconds.
The game started inauspiciously for Denver, with John Elway and Peyton Manning presenting the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Denver’s fans, before handing the keys to the franchise to Trevor Siemian, the quarterback asked to replace Manning despite having previously thrown just one pass in his NFL career.
Siemian displayed some jitters, with two interceptions that probably could have been avoided, but he also showed a quick release and a strong arm, completing 18 of 26 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown while seeming content to let C. J. Anderson, the Broncos’ top running back, lead the way in a dominant second half. Anderson finished with 92 yards rushing and 47 yards as a receiver. He also scored both of Denver’s fourth-quarter touchdowns.
In a televised interview after the game, Siemian was quick to credit his teammates, including Anderson, with the win, saying, “I’ve got a lot of guys to lean on.”
The Panthers’ collapse came after a first half in which they seemed capable of doing anything they wanted. Newton was spreading the ball around, mixing in some punishing runs, and had seemingly regained the exuberance that he displayed before the loss in the Super Bowl left him fuming.
That seemed to end when Newton was viciously sacked in the third quarter, enduring a helmet-to-helmet hit from Von Miller at the same time that DeMarcus Ware was slamming into Newton’s lower back. Newton writhed in pain on the sideline while Carolina’s defense was on the field, but he returned after the Broncos were forced into a three-and-out. Whether he was feeling the effects of the hits or Denver’s defense simply tightened up was unclear, but the Panthers’ offence went from dynamic to lifeless.
With under a minute remaining, he took another shot to the head, this one from Darian Stewart, but he again stayed on the field without any examination, and nearly led the team to victory, with a gutsy pass to Ted Ginn Jr. with 12 seconds remaining that put Gano well within his range. The much-maligned process of icing the kicker ended up paying off for Denver, as Gano appeared to easily make his first attempt, which came just after the Broncos called a timeout, but missed his official try, perhaps because of a high snap.
The loss overshadowed a remarkable personal achievement for Newton, whose lunging four yard score in the second quarter was his 44th career rushing touchdown. It broke a tie with Steve Young for career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback, although Young appeared in 90 more games than Newton has played.
Before the game, Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall, a college team-mate of Colin Kaepernick, took to a knee during the playing of the national anthem. Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem during San Francisco’s preseason games, explaining it was to protest racial oppression and police brutality in the United States. It opened a wide debate and put the microscope on a pregame tradition that has, for decades, been routine. Marshall went out in the second quarter for a concussion evaluation but was cleared to return.
(New York Times service)
