“They say to get something that you never got you have to do something you’ve never done before”, Newton said. The receiver, 32, weaved through would-be tacklers on his way to a 75-yard gain – a play later deemed the “Hail Larry” – and two plays later, was given the ball on a shovel-pass to score the game-winning touchdown.
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Christian Petersen/Getty Images Carson Palmer won the Heisman Trophy at Southern Cal and became the top pick of the Bengals.
For Newton, the path has been a bit more smooth, as he has now lead the Panthers to the playoffs in three straight seasons, which of course has been capped by his MVP-like performance in 2015.
“A lot of people are viewing it wrong”, Newton said.
With any luck, we may see a couple more Heisman winners in Winston and Mariota make their way to the playoffs in years to come, increasing the odds that we won’t have to wait another 81 years for this statistical oddity to repeat itself. “That’s irrelevant. Right now we’re focused on the Arizona Cardinals”. We just got to keep putting it back together. In 2008, the Cardinals upset the No. 2-seeded Panthers 33-13 in the divisional playoffs en route to their only Super Bowl appearance. In three wins and a Super Bowl loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Fitzgerald set post-season records of 546 receiving yards, 30 receptions and seven touchdown catches. “When you’re the No. 1 seed coming off the regular season your destiny is in your own hands and we took care of business against what has been the pinnacle of the NFC the last few years, so this was a big step forward as an organization”. It’ll be the first time the Panthers host an NFC Championship Game. Palmer was out with a torn ACL a year ago and backup Drew Stanton was also sidelined by a knee injury, leaving Ryan Lindley to start in a 27-16 loss.
That would be the game against the Cardinals on Sunday back here at Bank of America Stadium. Newton, easily the youngest of the quarterback quartet in the conference championship games, remains with the Panthers.
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“I’m very proud of what we did in the first half”, said coach Ron Rivera. “We’re not one game away. We just have to play it until the end”.
