After taking a big lead, Carolina never let off the gas and beat the Arizona Cardinals, 49-15, to advance to Super Bowl 50, where they will face the Denver Broncos.
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Newton threw for two touchdowns and ran for two others, and Carolina’s big-play defense stifled Arizona’s top-ranked offense.
One of them will be a Super Bowl champion in less than two weeks.
The team that was under-rated and unappreciated for much of the season despite a 15-1 record before the playoffs, was installed as a four-point betting favorite against the Denver Broncos for Super Bowl 50 shortly after its dominating performance against the Cardinals.
The victories mean conference titles for the Panthers and the Broncos – and, more importantly, a trip to the Super Bowl for both teams.
“We’ve just got to try to get some pressure on him”, he said. By the end of the first quarter, Carolina had piled on a 17-point lead, and the team’s turnover-happy defense kept feeding quarterback Cam Newton the ball. Earlier in the day, in the AFC, the Denver Broncos narrowly survived a late-game push from the New England Patriots to emerge with a win.
Davis vowed after Sunday’s game to be ready for the February 7 matchup with the Broncos in Santa Clara, Calif., and the veteran has demonstrated time and again that it’s unwise to bet against him. We could have done the MVP ceremony right here.
That left it to one play, and after the Broncos took a timeout to give DeMarcus Ware time to rest and get back in the game, Aqib Talib stepped in front of Brady’s pass and deflected it skyward.
Who will come out on top this time? However, Johnson did end up as the Cardinals leading receiver, with 68 yards on nine receptions. It was part of an effort that made him the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era to pass for more than 300 yards (335) and rush for multiple touchdowns (2).
“The players said it, and then Cam Newton stepped up and really challenged everybody”.
It didn’t get any better even when Arizona finally moved the ball into Carolina territory, only to see Kawann Short sack Palmer and strip the ball. “He overthrew him and Patrick Peterson had an opportunity to return it. Low and behold Ted Ginn Jr. caught him from behind”. It was Brown’s first game of his National Football League career to break 100 yards, and he added a touchdown as well on an 86-yard touchdown catch and run in the first quarter.
“I told our coordinators this morning that we’re going to stick to what got us to where we are, and we’ll emphasize that to our players”.
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The Panthers will have two weeks to study what defensive coordinator Wade Phillips did to discombobulate Brady. Palmer alone had six – four interceptions and two lost fumbles.
