A touchdown would put the Carolina Panthers up by 27 points in the NFC championship and effectively slam the door on the last dying embers of the Arizona Cardinals’ season.
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By no means was he a one-man show.
Arizona met Carolina for the third time in the postseason, including the second year in a row. “We came out here and fought our tails off, and we did what a lot of people said we couldn’t do”, Newton said. It’s not over yet.
“We won as a team”.
The wrap-up for the day goes like this: The AFC was thrilling to watch, with a climactic ending no one saw coming. “We are a complete team”. It was a historic night for Carolina who clinched only their second Super Bowl berth in franchise history after finishing an impressive 15-1 in the regular season.
That game ended with the Tom Brady leading New England to a field goal in the final seconds for a 32-29 win over the Panthers in Houston. At most books in this gambling city, the Panthers were a four-point pick, though the early line varied, with the over/under settling in at 45.
The Panthers don’t have much of a history with the Broncos, having split four games with them. The books benefited from the Seahawks’ slaughter of Manning and the Broncos, who attracted overwhelming support from the betting public.
And one of his TD passes was an 86-yard catch-and-run by Philly Brown, helped by Rashad Johnson’s botched tackle.
Jon Price called it in his Huffington Post feature that the Denver Broncos would make it to Super Bowl 50.
The fake street sign in the Panthers’ locker room reads: “Thieves Avenue, ” and it hangs along the row of stalls for the Carolina defensive backs. Newton’s 43 career rushing touchdowns during the regular season tied Hall of Famer Steve Young for the most in the Super Bowl era. “All I can do is go out and play as hard as I can”. “We still have one more game to go, and that’s whole mindset we’ve had, and one more game it is”.
Special teams also had a takeaway, and when Carolina grabbed a 24-7 halftime lead this time, it didn’t back off as it did in nearly blowing a 31-point margin a week ago against Seattle.
Ginn’s touchdown came on a 22-yard reverse in the first quarter. And the defense, after giving up a touchdown and two-point conversion that enabled Arizona to pull within 34-15 early in the fourth quarter, had three interceptions after that.
“We’ve just got to try to get some pressure on (Manning)”, Kuechly said.
Head coach Bruce Arians didn’t agree, per Hanzus.
“I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what was wrong”, Davis said.
The Panthers jumped out to a 17-0 lead and Palmer felt like he had to do something.
“I believe in me”, Davis said. The Panthers responded with a Graham Gano field goal, giving them a 3-0 lead that they would not lose for the rest of the game. Obviously, we didn’t want it to end here, but Carson’s a great quarterback. Before reaching the sideline he made a nice move, cut back to the right to avoid some Cardinals and eventually got into the end zone about five yards from the right sideline.
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And, of course, Luke Kuechley and Josh Norman will anchor Carolina’s pass defense, with ball-hawking safety Kurt Coleman and his seven interceptions waiting for any mistakes. Arizona has a decent run defense, holding opponents to 3.9 yards per carry, but they will have to take another step forward to stop the Panthers.
