Carolina Panthers beat depleted Cardinals 27-16, Advance

The Carolina Panthers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in their playoff game today 27-16. The Panthers played a complete game that was only close because Panthers miscues put the Cardinals into scoring situations. A dominant performance by the Panthers defense contributed to just enough Panthers offense to claim victory.

How dominant was the Carolina Panthers defensive performance?

The Panthers defense held the Cardinals to 78 total yards, the smallest number of total yards ever in a NFL playoff game. Cleveland can now thank us again for removing their name from that record just like they can thank the Panthers for taking out Manziel two weeks ago.

To be fair, the Cardinals would not have broken the record for lowest yards if they had not lost twenty yards on the final play doing the lateral silliness with the game not on the line.

The Cardinals were relying on Ryan Lindley, their third-string quarterback who they had cut from their practice squad earlier this year. They never established a running game. Lindley largely looked lost unless he was targeting Larry Fitzgerald.

The Panthers defense was pressuring the quarterback all day. Charles Johnson had two sacks on consecutive plays in the second half. Thomas Davis lit up the various Cardinal ball carriers. Luke Kuechly intercepted one ball and deflected another into the waiting hands of rookie Tre Boston.

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Panthers Mistakes

It was Cam Newton and Brenton Bersin who gave the Cardinals a halftime lead. Bersin misjudged a punt and muffed it. Newton threw an interception to Antonio Cromartie, which led to the other Cardinals score.
Brad Nortman had two punts never get kicked. One slipped out of his hands and he attempted to run but was stopped short of the first down. The other was when he attempted to run out the clock by playing tag in the end zone at the end of the game. That resulted in the only safety of the game for the Cardinals.

The Panthers gained the right to play next week. It will be in Green Bay or Seattle depending on who wins tomorrow in the Dallas-Detroit game. If you are particularly delusional, you can pull for Detroit to win two games and they would have to come to Carolina for the NFC Championship.