The golden anniversary, the shining achievement, the big game. The National Football League’s supposed “Biggest and Best” Super Bowl yet turned out to be a dud, leaving fans disappointed from the game itself to the halftime show, and even the commercials.

According to CNN.com, the game “averaged 111.9 million TV viewers,” and was the “third most watched broadcast in U.S. television history.” Many die-hard football fans expected the clash between the defensive juggernaut Denver Broncos and offensive powerhouse Carolina Panthers to be one for the ages. It ended up being one to forget.

Concerning the game itself, the 60-minute clash between the conference champions was not a battle of who could outplay their opponent, but rather who could make the least amount of mistakes. Peyton Manning, 39 year-old quarterback for the Broncos, in what in all likelihood was the last game of his legendary, hall-of-fame career, completed 13 out of 23 passes (56.5%), threw zero (yes ZERO) touchdowns and one interception. Evan Grossman of Rolling Stone said concerning Manning’s performance, “to be known as the greatest QB ever, you have to do it in the regular season, you have to do it in the playoffs and you have to be able to do it when the stakes are at their highest.” Manning clearly did not meet these criteria. It became quite clear before the game that it was Denver’s highly-vaunted defensive unit that brought them that far, and that notion was solidified in the big game. According to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, the Denver D-unit “set the tone that this was a different level than Carolina had seen.” They forced four fumbles (one, early on, was recovered for a Broncos touchdown) and four sacks of League MVP Cam Newton.

Shifting focus to the losing side, the Carolina Panthers were favored by most experts to win the game, most likely because they were offensively manned by MVP quarterback Cam Newton and tight end Greg Olsen, and had defensive talent such as linebacker Luke Kuechly and cornerback Josh Norman. All this combined for yet another grand letdown. Newton ended the day with a passer rating of 55.4; the Panthers rushed for only 118 yards, and were only able to muster 10 total points, hardly enough to compete with the 24 courtesy of the opposite side.

On Sunday, February 7^th, football fans across the globe were left unhappy. The League should have stuck with Roman numerals while naming this year’s championship game. “Super Bowl L” sounds more appropriate…we all lost.