While the Broncos' offense didn't do much to win the Super Bowl, the Denver defense certainly did. But considering how well the Panthers played leading up to it, you could make an argument they lost the game more than anything else.

Carolina coach Ron Rivera wouldn't say as much Thursday at the NFL combine, but he landed in the general vicinity.

"There really is a lot more to that game," Rivera said. "I think people have to go back and break it down and look at it, and if you do that, I think you'll get a sense as to where I'm going with this."

Stressing he didn't "want to take anything away" from what Denver did, where Rivera was going centered on what his team did to itself. The tragedy of errors featured four turnovers, dropped passes, special teams mistakes and two touchdowns allowed after strip-sacks by MVP Von Miller.

"We had missed blocks. We had some missed chips that we didn't get that resulted unfortunately in plays that they made," Rivera said while defending an offensive game many have questioned.

"You've got to look at what happened and the way that was executed. Sure, there might have been a couple calls that could have been different, but what we did, the plan we had was more than enough to win a football game."

Because he's been busy cramming for the offseason, general manager Dave Gettleman admitted Wednesday he hasn't yet watched the Super Bowl. But Rivera has "several times," and each viewing looks the same.

"There were some things that happened in the game that were very uncharacteristic of the way we played all year on the offensive side, and that was disappointing," Rivera said. "Our defense played well; I think gave us the opportunity to stay in the game until the very end of the fourth quarter, so we'll learn from it.

"I know that the coaches all feel the same way I do, and that was we missed an opportunity."