During much of the Super Bowl, early this morning in France, I was complaining how awful it was.

It reminded me of the sort of game I associate with the first 20-or-so editions of the NFL’s championship game, which often were wretched spectacles — uncompetitive or poorly played, or both.

With turnovers, dropped balls, penalties and elite players playing like rank amateurs.

And we got those mistakes from the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, during the latter’s 24-10 victory, and early in the game it annoyed me.

But then the a switch toggled inside my head, and I realized I was enjoying what I saw.

Why?

Because it was a rare instance when a half-century of steady movement toward dominance by the offense, characterized by the overwhelming importance of one man, the quarterback, was put on hold. On the biggest of stages.

This was a day for defense and special teams — and helpless quarterbacks. Which I realized I miss.

And I am reminded that I covered the most dominant defensive performance in NFL history.

That would be when the Los Angeles Rams pushed back the Seattle Seahawks to minus-7 net yards in a 24-0 regular-season victory, in Seattle, on November 4, 1979. I was traveling with the Rams that year, which would end in Super Bowl XIII.

That Seattle game was fun. A very good Rams defense (Jack Youngblood, Jim Youngblood, Isiah Robertson, Fred Dryer) throttled a Seahawks team that entered the game favored by three points. Quarterback Jim Zorn was 2-for-17 for 25 passing yards. Seattle gained 23 rushing yards on 12 carries. However, the Rams sacked Zorn six times for 55 yards, which took them to minus-7 overall. Seattle had one first down. O-n-e. The Rams had 29.

But I digress.

Ahead of SB 50, we had a strong suspicion (OK, certainty) that Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning would struggle. He’s pretty much broken, physically.

Not only did he have trouble with basic throws, aside from field-goal drives to open each half, he had issues with “managing” the game — which was really all that the Broncos needed from him.

He almost didn’t deliver, throwing an interception, and fumbling twice, losing one of them.

The tart expression “one job!” came to mind after Manning jogged off after the lost fumble.

What we did not expect (but didn’t mind seeing) was the usually self-satisfied Cam Newton looking slow, distracted and not entirely competent. This is the season’s MVP, remember.

Much of his trouble — though perhaps not all — was about the Denver defense, which sacked him six times and a held him to a completion rate of less than 50 percent (18-for-41) — and intercepted him once.

He also had trouble with basic plays. His arm is immeasurably stronger than Manning’s, but I remember thinking, “Well, that’s interesting” when he sailed his first pass a yard over the head of his intended receiver. It was not his last awful throw.

His biggest mistakes were two fumbles, each caused by Broncos defender Von Miller (the game’s MVP), each of which led to Denver touchdowns.

The first was a great example of a defender not only zeroing in on a quarterback for a sack, but planning to take a swipe at the ball, as well.

Miller ripped the ball out of Newton’s grasp as he rammed into him. It came loose at the 5-yard line, was booted around and covered in the end zone by the Broncos, and it was 10-0.

At that point we still thought the Broncos needed many more points … but they did not.

The game puttered along to 13-7 at the half, and 16-7 after three quarters. It was 16-10 when Miller’s second “stripsack” put the game to bed. He came around the edge, stuck out his right hand and knocked the ball out of Newton’s hand as the latter was preparing to throw, and the Broncos recovered at the 4, and managed to “drive” into the end zone, adding a two-point conversion pass — the highlight of Manning’s performance.

By the time it was over, the game had seen seven fumbles (four lost, three by Carolina), two interceptions (one by each quarterback), 12 sacks (seven by the Broncos), 15 punts, 18 penalties for 171 yards (12 for 102 assessed against Carolina) and 194 yards gained by the Broncos, 50 yards fewer than the previous low for a winning team.

It was ugly. It was beautiful.

The quarterbacks and their receivers were unable to do what they wanted to do, and Denver dealt with it better because they had few expectations of their quarterback, while Carolina thought Newton would do … something.

(After the game, Newton’s media interview lasted two minutes before he got out of his chair and left. Way to be a pro, Cam.)

The CBS-organized coverage, meanwhile, focused on Manning, who probably wasn’t in the top 15 of his team’s performers, but it may have been his final game and he’s been around longer than pigskin.

Here in France, the announcers were mostly innocuous, as they spoke over the English broadcast. The color guy used “incroyable” (incredible) far more often than the game warranted.

Their saying “la-la-la-la” when things were going wrong for the team with the ball … that made a lot more sense.

It ended after 4 a.m. here, perhaps closer to 4:30 (pushing four hours in length). The NFL apparently no longer logs the “time of game” statistic, perhaps with the Super Bowl in mind.

I had been frustrated at the half but I was fine by the time it ended, and I am pleased we got a chance to see two really good defensive teams take control of the game, leaving the quarterbacks and offensive coordinators with some ‘splainin’ to do.