Super Bowl 50 is on the NFL schedule for February 7 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California as the Carolina Panthers take on the Denver Broncos.
TV coverage for the game is on CBS and starts at 6:30 pm ET, while the halftime show is scheduled to have Coldplay as the main performers along with Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. The game has the Panthers coming in listed as the betting favorites after their dominant performance against the Arizona Cardinals, opening as a 5.5-point favorite in the game.
Jim Nantz, Phil Simms and Tracy Wolfson will handle the CBS broadcast for the game, which will put Peyton Manning up against Cam Newton. Manning is looking to win his second Super Bowl title, while Newton is in the game for the first time in his career. Newton is the likely favorite to win the MVP award this season and he can cap that off with a Super Bowl victory.
Manning had an up and down season while dealing with injuries for the Broncos, but now he is back in the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons. The Broncos made it a couple years ago and got blown out by the Seahawks and now Manning and company have the chance to rectify that result a little bit. The team was embarrassed in that game and now they have another dominant NFC team coming in with the Panthers.
Carolina has been putting the hurt on teams this season, as they are the top scoring offense and they also have one of the best defenses in the league. Denver had the top ranked defense in the NFL this season and that should make for a fantastic matchup in the Super Bowl. The Panthers dominated the Arizona Cardnials and made Carson Palmer look like a rookie and now Newton and company will get the chance to battle with the Broncos.
The Panthers and Broncos were each the top seeded team in their respective conference and that is the third time in a row that the top seeds have made it to the Super Bowl. The Panthers opened the season 14-0 before listing their first game and they finished the season 15-1. There are some interesting notes about this game, including that it will be the first time that number one overall draft picks will face off in the Super Bowl with Manning and Newton going at it.
Newton and Manning have faced off once before in the regular season back in 2012 and that was a win for the Broncos against the Panthers. ESPN reports that Gary Kubiak is the first person to play in a Super Bowl for a team and to coach that same team to another Super Bowl. The Broncos last made it to the Super Bowl a couple years ago against the Seahawks, while the Panthers have not been in the big game since after the 2003 season when they lost to the Patriots.
