DENVER – In the NFL, “you have to win games ugly sometimes, and that’s what we did tonight,” said Denver Broncos running back C.J. Anderson after the Broncos edged the Carolina Panthers 21-20 Thursday night in the opening game of the NFL season.
The game – a much anticipated rematch of the last Super Bowl -- ended in dramatic fashion when Panthers’ placekicker Graham Gano missed a 50-yard field goal with four seconds remaining. He pulled the kick to the left. Just moments earlier he booted the ball through the uprights, but the Broncos had called time out just before the kick in an effort to “ice” Gano.