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ENGLEWOOD, Colo – Hardly anyone gave the Denver Broncos a chance in Super Bowl 50. It may seem like a distant memory now, but no matter where Vegas sportsbooks set the line—some moving it all the way to a touchdown—they simply couldn’t bettors to put money on the Broncos. It created the odd situation where Vegas needed Denver to win to avoid taking a loss, the Orange & Blue came through.
Somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of Super Bowl bettors tore up their tickets as Denver not only covered the spread but ran away with the game in convincing fashion. It was certainly a lesson for bettors in falling in love with the sexy pick.
The lesson, apparently, was not taken to heart.
Yes, once again the line opened in favor of the Panthers for Thursday’s season opener (-1) and once again the money has come in on Carolina, forcing the books to move the line further in their favor (-3).
“We’ll probably be underdogs Week 1, underdogs Week 2 and so on,” said Broncos running back C.J. Anderson. “We’re fine; we’ll be the underdogs.”
It’s just another thing the Broncos use to motivate themselves, something they are looking for every day according to linebacker Brandon Marshall.
“Everybody is going to pick the Panthers, man,” he said with a laugh. “I feel like it’s an offensively-driven world as far as football goes. Even though defense wins championships and that is proven, when the media and everybody looks at an offense they’re going to say, ‘Oh my God, these guys are so great, they’re this and that and they’re going to beat the No. 1 defense. Usually, that’s not the case.”
But why? It seems every day the Broncos are talking about being the underdog or about how they’re disrespected. They were doubted all the way up to the Super Bowl, and it doesn’t seem that even the rings on their finger have changed that. It’s not as if this isn’t a storied franchise with a history of success.
A befuddled Anderson offered an interesting theory.
“I think people just don’t like Colorado,” he said with a laugh. “You go to Carolina, you see the Steph Currys [on the sideline], you go to Colorado, and they just don’t love it out here. It snows, and then it’s hot, and then it rains, maybe people don’t like coming here. It’s like it’s just an underdog state, [the underdog] out of all the states.”
C.J. knows a little something about being an underdog. Colorado vs. Everybody? That’s something we can get behind.
