Wednesday 27 January 2016 13:04, UK
We know that Denver are going to play Carolina in the Super Bowl, live on Sky Sports, and we know that we get to see Peyton Manning play what will probably be his last game.
But there's more to know than that - so Alex Ferguson has five things he learned from both Championship Games.
It's all about the pressure
Even if you put someone like Tom Brady under pressure, he'll suffer. He was pressured on 19 of his 61 dropbacks and caused him to hit just 48 percent of his passes. In other words, he was dominated. The defense - led by Von Miller - didn't need to blitz as they got through a fairly makeshift New England offensive line pretty easily. Brady also threw three interceptions (we're counting the two-point conversion as an INT too, folks!), which was very uncharacteristic of him.
Belichick is kicking himself
I made a joke on Twitter that New England kicker Stephen Gostkowski would never have to buy a drink in Denver again after shanking an extra point early on in the game. But nor will Bill Belichick, if you consider how many chances he had to take field goals that he decided against. Instead, he decided to go for it on fourth down - despite having timeouts in his pockets - and his strategy fell to pieces. There is the argument that had he decided to take the ball against the New York Jets on the coin toss that the Patriots would have been playing this game at home, but then, if only Chris Waddle had aimed his penalty a bit lower against West Germany in Italia '90….
Manning was 50 percent good
If you watched Peyton Manning during the first half, you would have been encouraged. He had the time, hit the passes easily, and controlled the offense. His throws throughout the game weren't great but they were connecting where they needed to, and he didn't end up seeing an opposition cornerback celebrating in the end-zone. But in the second half, Manning struggled to find consistency, and Denver only came out with three points.
Thin air makes a difference
Anyone notice how much 'Gronk' was struggling to play in Denver's thin air? He seemed constantly cramped. It seemed that everyone was on oxygen at Mile High on the New England side. Rob Gronkowski's still the best tight end in the nation, mind.
THAT defense
Can we mention again how good Denver's defense was? They pretty much shut down Julian Edelman, and if it wasn't for Gronkowski's circus catch on the fourth down, they would have shut him down too. Von Miller's 2.5 sack performance - on top of all the other stuff he did - was something for the ages. I loved it. Props to Wade Phillips for that one. Now, chill out on the dancing…
Newton is Superman
After the Super Bowl, he's battling Doomsday to save Metropolis (I really need to get out more!). Throwing-wise, he had an excellent night, going 19-28 for 335 yards with two TDs and one INT. On top of that, he rushed 10 times for 47 yards and two TDs. If you played fantasy football, this would be a big day (did I mention I won this year's Sky Sports tournament by a point?). Good luck to Denver in stopping him.
Palmer was horrible
Four interceptions and two lost fumbles killed his own team. This was a performance of a quarterback who fell to pieces and couldn't get his own personal Humpty-Dumpty back together again. Now what would have happened if the Cardinals had had a good back-up? Would Palmer have been removed? One would hope so.
Carolina's defense is awesome
Four picks, including one more for Luke Kuechly. The secondary completely shut down Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown, David Johnson and Michael Floyd, ensuring that the whole receiving unit had just one TD.
And Carolina's special teams were too
They had a field day, recovering a Patrick Peterson fumble too. Ted Ginn can return punts and kick-offs, and he will also get involved in the offense too, as he did with his mazy TD run in the first quarter. Ginn's looking a lot like the incredible Ohio State player who was the ninth pick in the 2007 draft. That's a good thing.
Carolina didn't take their foot off the accelerator
Remember the Seattle game, when Carolina were 31-0 up and looked like they'd put up half-a-century (more than England's batting line-up in the second innings of the third Test), but then they relaxed, let Seattle in and nearly lost? Well, this didn't happen. The 49-15 beat-down did. And the good thing for Carolina? This is the worst offense that they've faced in the play-offs thus far. And it's on Super Bowl Sunday.
