Super Bowl bound! Panthers beat Cardinals 49-15

Newton matured under the tutelage of Ken Dorsey and Mike Shula and now find themselves one win away from the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy.

Palmer said so much work went into the season that the conclusion was hard. Davis reached the NFC Championship game for the first time in his rookie season, when the Panthers fell to the Seahawks in 2005. With their explosive passing game and 30 minutes left, that would have transformed the game. When it was over Brown had an 88-yard scoring play and the Panthers a 17-0 lead. “I thought our guys came with really good plans”. Coleman, Kuechly, and Tre Boston all got their turn to pick off the Cardinals quarterback. “That was the biggest turnover of the game”.

Ginn took a reverse 22 yards for the game’s first touchdown.

While extremely efficient last week (16-22), he only gained 161 yards through the air, and couldn’t get anything going on the ground (3 yards).

The Cardinals had defensive players yelling at each other on the sideline, a wide receiving corps that dropped all sorts of passes and a quarterback who looked shell-shocked. Tom Brady started out sloppy in the first half but was able to get his bearings back in the second half.

20 DEC 2015: Carolina Panthers middle linebacker Luke Kuechly (59) with teammates Carolina Panthers cornerback Josh Norman (24) and Carolina Panthers cornerback Charles Tillman (31) during the fourth quarter of the game between the New York Giants and the Carolina Panthers played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. Head coach Ron Rivera would later call that the play of the game.

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.

Which is rather unbelievable, when you consider all of the great quarterbacks to win titles at the college and National Football League levels.

Davis left the game in the second quarter with six tackles – including two for a loss.

Those are questions that will have to be answered in two weeks in Santa Clara, but one thing is absolutely certain now: Nobody will be overlooking or disrespecting the Panthers.

But from the start it was Newton, who sparked Carolina to a 15-1 regular season, who dominated the matchup as Arizona committed seven turnovers. Palmer forced a pass through traffic in the end zone-resulting in an interception-and momentum was back in the Panthers’ favor.

On Arizona’s first play after Peterson’s muff, Palmer was sacked and fumbled.

“The public normally bets what they saw last and they liked what they saw in the Panthers”, said Jay Kornegay of the Westgate Las Vegas Super Book. Arizona’s defense consistently remained on the field, as Newton converted on third down at will. Pro Bowl cornerback and punt returner Patrick Peterson’s muffed punt didn’t help either.

So now it’s on to the Bay Area to face Peyton Manning and the Broncos.