But Norman repeatedly returned to a phrase that appeared to imply that Carolina had the deck stacked against it. He said the Panthers had been forced to play against “two teams,” leaving some to wonder if he meant that the officials in the game were biased toward the Broncos.

At one point in his comments to reporters, Norman also used slightly different wording to make the same, cryptic point. “There were chances and opportunities there and we just didn’t capitalize on them and it’s just so hard to play one team and play the other one, it really is. You have to tip your hats off to them. They did their job, they really did,” he said Sunday night.

One take on Norman’s comments was that he was referring to his own offense’s inability to put points on the board. An account in USA Today contained this passage:

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Norman on Sunday night repeatedly referred to the difficulty of playing ‘two teams,’ an apparent reference to the Panthers defense playing well enough to win but Denver’s defense being able to rattle and smother Carolina’s offense throughout.

But many took the “two teams” wording as a veiled reference to the officials. The Panthers were called for twice as many penalties and penalty yards (12-102) as were the Broncos (6-51), although several of Carolina’s infractions were of the pre-snap variety, including four false starts and one delay of game.

Norman himself was flagged twice in the Super Bowl, both times for defensive holding. One of those penalties occurred late in the game on an incomplete pass on third down, and the fresh set of downs that ensued allowed Denver’s C.J. Anderson to score a game-sealing touchdown.

Another, more controversial moment occurred earlier in the contest, when a long catch attempt by Carolina’s Jerricho Cotchery was ruled incomplete. The Panthers challenged, and replays appeared to show that the ball never touched the ground — a view that CBS analyst Mike Carey, a former NFL referee, espoused — but officials upheld the initial ruling. That left the Panthers pinned deep in their own end, and two plays later, the Broncos got a fumble off Carolina quarterback Cam Newton and ran it in for the game’s first touchdown.

Of course, if the Panthers want to point the finger for the loss, they could start with themselves. The team’s offensive line was a sieve and receivers dropped numerous Newton passes.