Who you got in Super Bowl 50?

If you’re having a hard time picking a winner, perhaps you’d like to know that the official EA Sports Madden NFL 16 simulation predicts the Carolina Panthers will defeat the Denver Broncos in thrilling fashion by a score of 24-20.

Let’s Hope the Real Game Is This Good

In the simulation depicted in the video above, Cam Newton and the Panthers jump out to a 17-0 lead at halftime. Peyton Manning and the Broncos come storming back to take a 20-17 lead in the fourth quarter.

Then, with 41 seconds remaining in the game, Newton scrambles and gets into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. It’s not just any run-of-the-mill scramble for a score—Newton punctuates the scamper with one of his signature dives into pay dirt.

Per a press release provided to Bleacher Report from EA Sports, Newton won the simulated game’s MVP on the strength of a 19-of-26 passing performance with 216 yards and a touchdown through the air to go with the one on the ground.

Manning didn’t embarrass himself as he completed 21 of 37 passes for 241 yards and two touchdowns. If this is the game fans get on Super Bowl Sunday, only Broncos Nation will be disappointed.

The Madden Sim Has Been Scary Accurate in the Past

Before you laugh off that prediction and say it’s just a video game, you might want to consider how accurate Madden has been predicting winners of the big game.

Per the aforementioned press release, Madden has accurately predicted the Super Bowl nine of the last 12 years.

If you found a sports prognosticator who was right 75 percent of the time, you’d be advised to put some stock in their predictions.

Madden hasn’t just predicted the winners the majority of the time; in last year’s Super Bowl, the game not only picked the New England Patriots to defeat the Seattle Seahawks, it also tabbed the exact final score (28-24).

The simulation also came eerily close to predicting key individual statistics. The Patriots’ Tom Brady threw for 335 yards with four touchdowns. The Madden simulation had him throwing for 328 yards with four scores.

In the simulation and in real life, the Patriots trailed by 10 points in the third quarter before staging a fourth-quarter comeback. Julian Edelman caught the game-winning touchdown in the real game as well as in the simulation.

Madden didn’t forecast that Pete Carroll and his Seahawks coaching staff would make the most boneheaded decision in Super Bowl history. Well, no prediction is perfect.

Perhaps Manning and the Denver Broncos are capable of pulling the upset in what could be the future Hall of Famer’s “last rodeo.” It would be a great story, but the Madden sim tells us Newton’s journey from criticized top pick to car-crash survivor to Super Bowl champion will be the topic of discussion on the day after.

Follow Brian Mazique aka FranchisePlay, the Sports Video Game Journalist.