Panthers To Meet Cardinals in NFC Championship Game

“We want to find a way we can sustain that through the whole game”.

“The playoffs bring out more than any other time the impact of ‘Big Mo.’ Momentum”, Newton said after Carolina (16-1) reached the NFC title game, which they will host Sunday against Arizona (13-3).

“A win’s a win”, Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly said. Some of the Seahawks changed their cleats after the first series or two.

“When you start like that, it’s going to be tough”, Seahawks wide receiver Jermaine Kearse said. Those key touchdown catches were not designed so much as discovered with the Panthers line applying smart coverage most of the time against potential Wilson runs. That made it 31-21 with 6:04 remaining.

“We can learn so much from that game”, he said.

Let’s check out a few of the notable players and stats from this one so we can figure out why things happened the way they did.

“No such thing as coming out flat”, defensive end Michael Bennett said. “But this is the playoffs and that’s how it is”. Greg Olsen continued a trend of tight ends burning Seattle’s defense by hauling in seven passes for 131 yards, including the go-ahead 26-yard TD with under a minute to play.

Finnegan’s pick set up Graham Gano’s 48-yard field goal and a 24-0 lead. In retrospect, so were the field-goal options for the Seahawks late in the first half. But even then, Norman said he wasn’t anxious.

This is a Carolina defense that surrendered 24 unanswered points in the second half of their victory over the Seahawks on Sunday.

Carolina scored 31 points – in the first half – on Seattle on Sunday. Carolina got the ball back and upped the advantage to 31-0 on Newton’s 19-yard touchdown pass to Olsen, who made a superb leaping catch in the back of the end zone.

Not before they got two touchdowns in the first 7:20 of the third quarter.

On the first snap of the game, Carolina running back Jonathan Stewart raced 59 yards between the tackles. Three plays later, he scored from 4 yards out. Seattle hadn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher in 27 games…. He was on a short leash in the second half.

Lynch was mainly a decoy in the second half.

Arians was asked about the play of Larry Fitzgerald, especially his 75-yard catch on the first play from scrimmage in overtime that got University of Phoenix Stadium rocking.

The Panthers backed up their NFL-best 15-1 regular-season record with a dominating first-half performance that was enough to advance.

From about mid-November on the Seahawks knew they likely would need to win three playoff road games to return to a third consecutive Super Bowl.

Sunday, it was Russell Wilson’s turn to nearly rally a Panthers’ opponent from the jaws of defeat to the brink of an improbable comeback 24 points after intermission. Also, with Thomas Rawls’ emergence this year before he broke his ankle, Seattle will still have a dominant running game next season. But with the abyss the Seahawks (11-7) fell into early, his part of the game plan disappeared.

This game wasn’t lost by Seattle because of bad footing, but because of bad execution.

Diagnosing the problems is easier than fixing them, however.

This game, like most, is a tale of two quarterbacks as Peyton Manning is healthy after having missed much of the season with a foot injury. One, he lined up on the left instead of the right. Two?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Cam Newton.

Hauschka kicked the ball perfectly. Wilson hit Kearse again, scrambled twice for 23 yards and hit Lockett for a 33-yard touchdown.

SEA-Hauschka 36 yard field goal, 1:12. Stewart had 84 of Carolina’s 118 rushing yards in the first half on 11 carries.