Super Bowl 50 Halftime Post

CAR 7 DEN 13

Welcome in to the halftime post of Super Bowl 50 between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos where the Broncos have a 7-13 lead at the half.

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C.J. Anderson (DEN), 7 carries, 58 yards. I said in the "Keys for the Broncos" in my preview that the running game has to be established and it starts with C.J. Anderson. Anderson found some good holes in the running lane against this good Carolina run defense as it was evident in Denver's first series on offense and during the 2nd quarter when he found a big hole to put the Broncos into the red zone. The O-line gets credit too for paving some holes for Anderson to run loose. Even though the Panthers stopped Denver a few drives, the running game managed to put their defense on ice.

Defense (DEN). Cam Newton held to 0 rushing yards in the first quarter, a couple of fumbles, one returned for a TD, sacks by Miller and Ware, the defense is doing its job in frustrating Cam Newton and giving him no room to run. If the Broncos are going to win this game, they have to ride on their defense to make plays and give Peyton Manning some opportunities to field some decent drives together.

Luke Kuechly (CAR), 6 tackles, 1 sack. Without a shadow of a doubt, Luke Kuechly is one of the best middle linebackers in the game and he's translating his elite play to the Super Bowl. He was able to get Peyton off a blitz, his activity was well evident when covering the whole field (look at the hit he made on Demaryius Thomas).

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Aqib Talib (DEN), 3 penalties. If there's one thing that's going to cost the Broncos, it's the penalties. The defense hasn't given the Panthers' offense any life, but some big penalties by Aqib Talib has given the Panthers a fighting chance and the Panthers were able to cash in on their first score by those two big penalties by Talib. Talib has costed them the Colts game awhile. He can't afford to cost them here in the big game.

Jitters (CAR). Understandably so, the Panthers are a young team, playing in the biggest game of their young careers. The Panther receivers were dropping a lot of balls, Mike Tolbert fumbled twice when the Panthers were in good field position to field a couple of drives. Right now, they're relying on Cam Newton to put something together and they're not trying to make plays to help out their quarterback because the Broncos defense is zoned out to contain Newton.

Bottom Line

The Panthers' offense have to shake off the jitters and the receivers need to stop dropping some balls to give Newton a fighting chance. That's detrimental for the Panthers to get back in this game since the defense is doing their job containing Peyton Manning and the offense. The Broncos, it's all about defense, defense, defense. This Denver defense is going to make plays and give Manning some opportunities to put together some solid field position to put together some solid scoring drives. Let's see what happens in the 2nd half as Carolina gets the ball after deferring the coin toss.