Heisman Trophy winners Newton, Palmer meet in NFC title game

“Sure it will be nice, but he wants to win the Super Bowl”. This is the first time in years that the top seeds for the playoffs were the teams left standing for the Conference championships. Can the veteran quarterback lead the Arizona Cardinals past the Carolina Panthers?

Paul said ice and snow have been removed from the stadium, but the tarp will remain on the field until about six hours before the game.

Carolina Jim Newton I think it’s going to be Seattle and absurd things could be New England Journal and a super ball so take a Ford Taurus.

Carolina (17-1) ran away with a 49-15 victory over the Arizona Cardinals for the NFC title Sunday night, after Denver (14-4) edged the New England Patriots 20-18 in the AFC. Panthers QB Cam Newton won the Heisman in 2010; Cardinals’ starter Carson Palmer won in 2002.

In Arizona’s 36-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 17, Johnson gained just 25 yards on 11 carries, and the Cardinals rushed for a mere 27 yards.

Hence, home-field advantage, the first NFC championship game in Charlotte. While he threw for 349 yards and three scores last week, Palmer was very shaky in earing his first postseason win and will have to play better this week.

-Carolina’s defense led the National Football League with 39 takeaways during the season, but collecting seven turnovers against the Cardinals seemed nearly unfathomable. “We came out here and fought our tails off and we did what a lot of people said we couldn’t do”.

Arians vows not to allow that to happen again. Panthers coach Ron Rivera said there is little the team can glean from that game since Palmer was sidelined with a torn ACL. One thing you do notice in certain situations (is) who his go-to guys are. “I wanted to get the ball to the guys, but I knew I’d have opportunities as well”.

Carolina’s defence 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.

DON’T GET CONSERVATIVE: Carolina played it way too safe last week after building a 31-0 lead over Seattle at halftime.

So, here’s your two-part question: Will the Cards send as much pressure on Sunday as they usually do – and if so, will Newton make big plays in spite of it, through the air and/or on the ground?

“Defensively, we were just tremendous”, said Denver’s Gary Kubiak, the seventh coach in National Football League history to get to the Super Bowl in his first year with a team. Six of those were from Palmer (two lost fumbles, four interceptions), who was 23 of 40 for 235 yards passing and one touchdown.

“We’re playing better teams, and we didn’t bring our best game”, he said.

GAME CHANGERS: Several other players who could be the catalyst to their team getting to the Super Bowl: TE Greg Olsen, DT Kawaan Short and S Kurt Coleman for Carolina; WRs Michael Floyd and John Brown, S Rashad Jefferson and DE-LB Dwight Freeney for Arizona.