The Cardinals started with the ball but they have been stopped in less than 2 minutes by the Very good Panthers defense and the following bad punt put Carolina in a good field position gano fg, good f position balanced offense steward 13 td break 3 tackles, punt bad play recovered by AZ then D.Fells receiving TD, gang missed 42 fg, chromate pick 6 on a crossing route cotchery bad pass ret to 20 y, M.Grice dive TD, Newton got the last ball of the 1st half in his hand to score some points and he did driving his team right inside the Cards redzone with a good passing game especially to the fast rookie WR Philly Brown who got injured during the drive, once inside the Cards redzone they haven't been able to continue to be effective due to the great pressure by the AZ blitzes forced by the obvious pass situation so Gano scored 3 points out of this drive with a 39 yards FG.
The 1st drive of the 2nd half began with a Cards defense who made good adjustments especially on 1st 2 downs to stop read-options but they didn't a good job to stop Newton on 3rd down because he converted 3 of them with both legs and passes but the 4th time he fell a lil bit short on a quick screen and with the bad weather conditions they punted the ball refusing to kick a 55 yards FG with Gano. AZ offense continue to be awful and another very bad punt let the Panthers have a great field position near the 40 yards of the Cards, they punished their opponents at the very 1st play with very well designed and executed screen to the HB Fozzy Whittaker who read great every block in front of him and with a great change of direction went right to the end zone to give his team the lead.
Ginn Jr. fumbled the ball on the following kick-off return recovered inside the AZ 10 yards by the Panthers ST's. The Cardinals' defense seemed to stop the Panthers' offense but a Jefferson's pass interference on Olsen happened close to the end zone extended the drive for the home team who scored on the very next play with passing TD by Newton to FB Mike Tolbert on a flat route out of a play-action fake. Awesome Carolina's defensive stand lead by a brilliant Thomas Davis forced AZ not only to a quick 3 and out but even to lose yards and gave Newton & Co. another good field position. The Cardinals tried to score some points or at least to put their offense in a position to do it forcing Newton to fumble the ball on a person by Acho then recovered and advanced by Rashad Johnson who brought it to the Panthers' 9 yards but on the very following play Lindley made an embarrassing mistake passing the ball out of a bad executed play action fake to Fitzgerald on a curl route in the slot well read by Luke Kuechly that picked the pass off. The "Double trouble" shown that when healthy they are for real and with few runs they took their team right in the Panthers' territory but once there the Cards' defense against the pass prevented to allow other points stopping Newton and force the home team to punt. Again nothing from the Cards' offense this time due to back to back sacks that forced them to punt again. The Panthers chew some minutes from the cock and they punted the ball back to the Cardinals but an holding penalty made Nortman to repeat it and on the re-make of the play he missed the handle of it and gave the ball to AZ right in his own field. Lindley seemed to get on rhythm with few good straight passes until Kuechly deflected 1 of his passes reading great the direction of it out of hi zone coverage and this let rookie FS Tre Boston to intercept the ball and delete the Cards' hopes to advance in playoffs.
The Cardinals injuries have been too much to overcome for them, they play without an offense and their defense tried everything that they could to win the game but they never have a chance because in the playoffs 97 total offensive yards are something that would make lose every team in this league.
The Panthers won their 4th straight game showing very good improves in both offense and defense, it's interesting how good they have been to alternate and use at the best the qualities of their RB's during the game against 1 of the best defense in that department. the entire o-line made a good job all game long especially on running game and along with a good special team's plays they have been able to score more than most of spectators expected. On defense they have been remarkable in last few games showing improvements especially on their young secondary and along with an healthy Charles Johnson who lead their 4 linemen to put pressure on the opponent's QB the results have been great.
The MVP of this game goes to Panthers' Linebackers Davis and Kuechly who played a perfect all around game providing everything their team needed to win.
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