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The early line on Super Bowl 50 has the Panthers installed as 3.5-point favorites over the Broncos, something that doesn’t bother the Broncos defense.

Well, that’s not quite true. They were bothered quite a bit at being viewed as underdogs in the AFC championship game — “totally disrespected,” safety T.J. Ward said — but used that as fuel for an excellent defensive performance against the Patriots. Ward says the team is perfectly happy to follow the same script heading into their matchup with the Panthers.

“Hey, go ahead. We feed off that. Keep us the underdog,” Ward said. “Tell us how bad we are, and how we can’t cover and stop this person, and I bet we win the Super Bowl.”

Regardless of who they are picking to win on February 7, it’s hard to imagine that there are going to be too many people who watched Denver on Sunday and came away with the feeling that they have a bad defense incapable of covering anyone. We’re sure the Broncos will find the few that do to keep the fires burning for the next two weeks, though.