NFL Picks 2015: Super Bowl

Road teams ruled the wild card round, but home teams have come back with a vengeance. In the six games since they are undefeated.

That means it’s number one versus number one in the Super Bowl – as it probably should be for the league’s 50^th big game.

Tony nailed the conference championship winners. He’s tied with John Vomhof for the entirety of the postseason. The rest of us split the championship games. Here are the standings heading into the Super Bowl.

And after 21 weeks of football, it all comes down to this. Two suffocating defenses and two great QB storylines – the young, brash rising star and the old, breaking down, hall-of-famer to be – squaring off for the Lombardi Trophy. Here’s how we see it:

Maggio’s Take: Two premier defenses means a low scoring Super Bowl, and a low scoring Super Bowl means it isn’t likely to be a blowout one way or the other. That said, Carolina’s offense has the tools to attack many ways, led of course by Cam Newton. I don’t see Peyton Manning being able to guile his way through this one and emerge victorious. Fortunately, Nationwide will be by his side while Cam receives the MVP trophy.

Vomhof’s Take: Cam Newton and the Panthers were the NFL’s best team throughout the regular season, and they’ve been able to keep the momentum going in the postseason. That said, Denver is capable of pulling off the upset with its defense playing championship-caliber football and Peyton Manning bouncing back a bit of late. Still, I’m picking the Cats by 10 en route to their first Lombardi Trophy.

Tony’s Take: I want to pick Denver. I really do. Especially after nailing the Conference Championship round picks, I’d really like to pick the upset, watch Peyton Manning win it to hopefully ride off into the sunset, and hopefully start appearing in fewer commercials…by the beginning of the 2016 season (of course, what’s he going to do with that free time?). But while I seem to think it’s going to be more competitive than most—due to a defense that Carolina hasn’t seen anything like—I just don’t know that I believe Denver can pull it off. Carolina isn’t this infallible juggernaut of a team, like the 2007 Patriots, that is almost destined to lose. They won close games. They won ugly games. They won games they should have lost. And that’s why on Sunday, they’ll find a way to win one more. And next year, with Kelvin Benjamin back, everyone will pick them to win again…and we’ll see what happens.

Andy’s Take: Some former Super Bowl champion this week said it’s not about having the best team but about having the best game on Super Bowl Sunday … or something like that. Cam Newton is going to be a fantastic face of the league for the next 10 to 12 years. He’s on the way to taking the mantle from Manning, who I believe will retire after this game regardless of the outcome, and guys like Tom Brady and Drew Brees, who are still great, but who can’t last forever. Manning has looked all season like he’s throwing a shot put, not a football. But he just needs to come up big one more time. I think he will do just enough – and that Denver’s defense will carry him and the Broncos the rest of the way. This will be a close, low-scoring game. And it will end in an upset.