Broncos to face Panthers in Superbowl 50

Carolina beat the Arizona Cardinals 49-15 at Bank of America Stadium, and these Panthers joined the 2003 group as the second in franchise history to advance to the Super Bowl.

Just about everything that could have gone wrong for the Arizona Cardinals did go wrong in their 49-15 loss at the Carolina Panthers in Sunday night’s NFC Championship game.

The Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos are set to face off after winning the conference championship games.

“We knew from the get-go when he first got here”, said center Ryan Kalil, like Newton an All-Pro, “we had something special”.

INJURIES: Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis said he broke his right forearm against Arizona – “I knew something was wrong”, he said – but sounded like someone who plans to play in the Super Bowl.

Several sports books began accepting bets last week on potential Super Bowl matchups, with Carolina at the time a 3-point pick over Denver. “You look at the score and there’s still time left on the clock, and you’ve got to really think, ‘All right, we’ve got to keep playing because the game’s not over yet'”. It’s not over yet. “And like I said, I put us in that hole”.

Newton finished with 335 passing yards for the night on 19-of-28 completions with 2 touchdowns and an interception plus two rushing TDs.

Discarded by Arizona just one year into a three-year contract, Carolina receiver Ted Ginn Jr. did just about everything against his former team. He scored the first touchdown Sunday on a spectacular 22-yard touchdown run – an opportunity set up by his 32-yard punt return.

Carolina’s defense did the rest, most notably making Palmer uncomfortable in the pocket and turning Larry Fitzgerald, the star of last week’s overtime victory against Green Bay, into a virtual non-entity.

-Carolina’s defense led the National Football League with 39 takeaways during the season, but collecting seven turnovers against the Cardinals seemed nearly unfathomable. After Arizona’s Patrick Peterson intercepted a Cam Newton pass at the Cardinals 10, Ginn – who was standing on the goal line and giving the speedy Peterson a 10-yard head start – sprinted 78 yards to tackle him from behind at the 22.

“I felt like deep down inside that [the Cardinals] thought I couldn’t do it”, Ginn said.

For a team that was outscored 24-0 in the second half a week earlier by the Seattle Seahawks, the Panthers showed a killer instinct the team discussed all week.

CAR-Ph. Brown 86 yard pass from C.Newton (Gano kick), 0:49. He appeared to be on the verge of breaking free on a punt return, but slipped and fell after picking up 32 yards.

The Panthers led 17-0 after the first quarter, 24-7 at halftime. Newton fired a dart to Philly Brown.

Peterson made a huge muff trying to field a punt later in the second period.

Newton’s counterpart, Palmer, was performing like anything but a Most Valuable Player. But maybe his biggest play was chasing down Peterson after an interception in the final minute of the first half.

The son of a Puerto Rican father and Mexican mother, Rivera guided his team to a 18-1 record at a time when there has been a maturing of North Carolina’s Latino immigrant Latino population that first started expanding a couple of decades ago.