Davis hopes to play Super Bowl with broken arm

Cam Newton, the Carolina Panthers quarterback, took his game to a whole new level Sunday as his team routed the Arizona Cardinals 49-15 to win the NFC championship.

The over/under on the game was settling in at 45 points in early betting.

By no means was he a one-man show. Unlike last week the Panthers kept the pedal down for a full 60 minutes and boosted the lead to 34-7 on the strength of two Newton touchdown runs.

The Panthers reached the Super Bowl and won 17 of their 18 games this season by keeping their attention squarely on the game in front of them, Newton said. We changed a lot of things up because of the size of me [5-11]. It’s not over yet. “I’ll do everything in my power to be ready to go”.

But in the end, the game was less about the future Hall of Famers under center, and more about one dominating defense. “We are a complete team”. All of the Panthers recognize the storybook ending Manning could write to his Hall of Fame-caliber career. The Panthers opened as a 4-point favorite, and I have a hunch the public will hit that number heavily.

Carolina and Rivera will next face the Denver Broncos on February 7th at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., home of the San Francisco 49ers.

The Panthers advanced to Sunday’s NFC title game for the fourth time in the franchise’s history and first since 2005.

Coleman ranked third in the National Football League regular season with seven interceptions, which was one shy of the team’s single-season record.

Ginn played for the Panthers during the 2013 season and finished the year with 36 catches for 556 yards and five touchdowns.

“We’ve been dreaming about this moment since Day 1”, Newton said.

“We knew from the get-go when he first got here”, said center Ryan Kalil, like Newton an All-Pro, “we had something special”. Newton, for his part, converted those opportunities into four touchdowns – two through the air and two rushing scores.

“They owned it”, Panthers coach Ron Rivera said of his team’s performance in the second half.

“I ain’t missing the Super Bowl”, Davis said.

At one point, the Cardinals had turnovers on three consecutive plays: the muff, Palmer’s fumble, and Coleman’s first of two picks.

Ginn’s 32-yard punt return set up the Panthers at the Arizona 49-yard line. Sunday, he didn’t have an interception and he didn’t recover a fumble, but when the clock ran out, the Cardinals three top receivers (Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown) combined for nine catches for 90 yards on 23 targets and did little-to-no damage when lined up outside. Peterson unwisely came up to field the short punt and took his eyes off the ball.

Davis isn’t sure how he’ll get back on the field but he promised he would return.