Carolina beat Seattle to move into Championship game

“It was really excruciating to watch”, All-Pro quarterback Cam Newton said. The Seahawks then pulled off an improbable 10-9 road win over the Vikings in frigid conditions before almost erasing a 31-point deficit Sunday at Carolina.

Based on the first half alone, the Carolina Panthers would have received straight A’s this week, because that was one of the most dominant halves of playoff football a fan will see. That’s why you have games like that, because you saw us turn it, and you saw how well we played for such a long time, and you can see the potential of this team.

Newton said the final 30 minutes of Sunday’s game will hold his team in good stead going forward.

“It was a tale of execution”.

On the game’s first offensive snap, Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart, back from a three-game absence with a foot injury, burst right through the heart of the Seattle defense and sprinted 59 yards before Richard Sherman dragged him down from behind. “You just have to find ways to get your groove back on”.

“I don’t know how that’s going to go”, Carroll said Monday.

“They played better than us in the first half, we played better than them in the second half”. It’s insane – you go into these games and you expect it to be like this, so it wasn’t a surprise for us.

The best part about this Carolina team is that Newton doesn’t have to win games by himself, despite having a major lack of household names on offense.

Newton’s touch on the touchdown toss to Olsen makes for fresh evidence.

Seattle (11-7), showing its pedigree as two-time NFC champs, climbed back within seven points.

“We played a helluva a first half”, Panthers defensive tackle Dwan Edwards said.

The ending to the Seattle Seahawks season was a microcosm to the year as a whole. The Panthers got the ball back with 26 seconds to go in the third quarter and consumed more than 5 1/2 minutes.

“We needed to stop it somewhere in there and it just wasn’t well done in any phase”, he said. Finally with time to throw, Russell Wilson hit Jermaine Kearse for a 13-yard score and rookie Tyler Lockett for 33 yards, making it 31-14 – and making the full house at Bank of America Stadium unnerved.

The half ended with Hauschka’s 55-yard field goal attempt falling short. “We wanted these guys to come into our home”.

The Carolina Panthers look for their first Super Bowl appearance since the 2003 season. While Jonathan Stewart was on fire in his return from injury, Lynch only managed 20 yards on six carries while Wilson led the team with 32 yards on three quarterback scrambles.

This year, they will not make it that far though.

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was deliberately vague when asked about whether Marshawn Lynch would wear a Seattle uniform during the 2016 season.

The Panthers were up 31-0 at halftime Sunday.

Russell Wilson’s first- and second-half stats couldn’t have been more different.

Carolina won 15 of their 16 matches during the regular season and looked on their way to an easy victory against Seattle.

This season, Lynch had the worst season of his career, rushing for a measly 3.8 yards per carry.