After getting bogged down in the rain and muck for most of the game, quarterback Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers’ offense saved their best for last – marching 65 yards for a game-winning, playoff-clinching touchdown with just 28 seconds in regulation against the New Orleans Saints.
Newton’s 14-yard strike to Domenik Hixon put the Panthers in the postseason for the first time since 2008 – and avenged an embarrassing week 14 loss to the Saints in New Orleans.
Carolina (11-4) has now won ten of its last eleven games – including clutch victories over playoff bound teams like San Francisco and New England.
Newton completed just 13 of 22 passes for 181 yards with one touchdown and one pick – and seemed totally incapable of moving the Carolina offense during a rain-soaked second half. But when the downpour finally subsided, he hit Ted Ginn Jr. on a 37-yard strike and then connected with tight end Greg Olsen on a 14-yard completion – two of his best throws of the afternoon.
Well, until the game-winning touchdown pass to Hixon that is …
The yardage gained on the Panthers’ final drive – which consumed barely half a minute – more than quadrupled the yardage Newton and Co. managed to rack up on the previous four drives combined.
As much as our founding editor cannot stand the Panthers … that is coming through in the clutch (something Carolina has been doing consistently ever since our guest columnist Reece Funderburk called the team out back in September).
The Panthers did it without wide receiver Steve Smith, too. The franchise’s all-time leading wide receiver left the game in the first half with a knee injury.
New Orleans had a chance to put the game away – leading 13-10 and getting the ball back with under two minutes remaining. But after two short runs yielded only a yard, Saints’ head coach Sean Peyton opted not to let NFC passing leader Drew Brees throw the football on third-and-long (choosing instead to run additional time off the clock and make Newton beat his defense).
Newton did …
As a result, Carolina joins the Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs as teams which have clinched berths in the 2013 NFL playoffs.
This is the Panthers fifth playoff trip in 19 seasons in Charlotte. The team is 6-4 in the postseason, reaching the NFC championship game three times and the Super Bowl once (losing a nail-biter to the Patriots after the 2003 season). The Panthers last playoff win came against the Chicago Bears on January 15, 2006.
16 comments
Yessir!!
…coming through in the clutch (something Carolina has been doing consistently ever since our guest columnist Reese Funderburk called the team out back in September).
*Rolls eyes*
I was in Quatar in 2004 when the Panthers lost against New England. I remember it very well, It was about 0600 hrs and the sun was coming up in the final minutes of the game. They “allowed’ us 3 beers per ration. It was a great game as Super Bowls go but alas the Panthers lost.
As a rule, I don’t give a rats ass about college or professional football but for Sic Willie to say he hates the Panthers speaks volumes about how he views the North and South Carolina I-85 corridor. From what my wife told me when I got home, that season was a period of great unity between both areas of the I-85 corridor. Something that Sic Willie from the ass hole part of South Carolina can’t understand or acknowledge. But maybe back then he was too busy kissing ass while playing politics for that shirker Sanford.
Tell you what Sic Willie, keep your ass down in Columbia and let us in the I-85 corridor of North Carolina and South Carolina (along with Charleston) get on with the business of keeping the rest of the state of South Carolina afloat
I ain’t lost nothing past Spartanburg County on I-26 East or past Greenville County on I-85 South.
It’s just somewhere to pass through on the way to Florida or Atlanta or head north where the real action is in Charlotte and points north.
Sparkle – I have similar memories and similar though slightly reversed sentiments. I never left anything “worth going back for” between I-85 and SC-11.
Hey FITS: you might want to Google: “Luke Kuechly”..and see how mnay tackles he had vs the Saints…
Instead of marching lock-step to suck-off Cammy Juice, how ’bout come up w/ an original thought….or an observation that’s fresh and accurate….
The media narrative is to worship the $#!*iest thugs of the league, and I see FITS is just as easily led as most. Another blown opportunity for FITS to stand out and justify himself…and he screws up again…
Hey FITS: Get a brain…
Really GT? Christian haters is why Tebow is not playing in the NFL? Give us all a break. The NFL is a business about winning with 53 players. There are plenty of christians in the NFL. Check out Malliciah Goodman who, since you most likely do not know, is from South Carolina, played at Clemson, and is a DE for the Atlanta Falcons.
Let’s add football to the ever growing list of subjects of which you know very little.
Tebow did a pro-life commercial…He is hated for that…They cannot tolerate his right to express his support of life over abortion.
Tebow is probably the greatest college player in the history of the NCAA. Two National Championships in 3 years. If Tebow were the right race and dirty…he’d get credit for it…
And: Tebow’s 8-2 as an NFL starter and took a 1-7 team to the playoffs, and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers…And he was paid for it by being permantly benched…
The NFL is just as Filthy as Obama…playing to the leftwing pop culture. It’s why the simple-minded idiots like FITS are sucking off Cam Newton, and look ignorant doing it…
When’s the last time you had a hard cock in your hand? …yes, it can even be your own.
Remember when that Penthouse editor revealed about how much better Conservatives are at satisfying a woman..She was so very correct and I’m a Conservative…
And I doubt you have any idea about what I speak. Like most liberals, you probably talk about how good it’s gone be (see Obamacare)….but you remained shriveled, limp and uptight…
I seem to not to be able to find that on the vast interwebs, so please link or give us the name of said “editor”.
You must be new here…Conseratives like GT have to pay for it.
Many facts that liberals HATE, gets SCRUBBED from the Internet…
But you don’t have to wring your effeminate little panties over it..you know that you are a limp and small little liberal…which I would not hold against you…it’s just that you talk such a BIG, only to hav ethe women talk to guys like me about how weak your game is…
Again, Grand Tango flops. Maybe his porn watching has made him insane? Well, why don’t you and Tebow run on the GOP ticket ( also known as the Big Dick Party) and take this country by the nads? LMAO!!
Goddamnit! Do you really have to say “lock-step” in every fucking post?
GO Panthers!!!
sigh…I’ve heard the term Scam Newton, whatever his previous fuckups entail, he pulls wins out of his ass much like Brady, Brees and Manning. Charlotte is performing at the pro level what SC will never do. At least the the team was nice enough to include you in the logo. And I think we actually include the Rock and Upstate in PSL folks
Putting Cam Newton on the same page with Brady, Brees or Manning, makes you look like a Total Dumb@$$…
Charlotte got a real easy schedule this year, because they based it on how putrid the team was last year…Scam will be short-lived w/o a lot of help from the officials…