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The Carolina Panthers and the Arizona Cardinals have been the two best teams in the NFC, and they’ll face off in the NFC Championship Game in Charlotte. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 10:40am AEDT.
Carolina were the best side in the NFL during the regular season, amassing a 15-1 record, with their only loss coming against the Atlanta Falcons.
They took on the Seattle Seahawks in the divisional round, and survived a ferocious rally from the visitors to win 31-24.
A hot start was encouraging for the Panthers, but they faded out of the game after half time, and they can’t rely on a similar start against a very strong Cardinals side.
The Cardinals were the victors in one of the best postseason games in recent memory, surviving an Aaron Rodgers miracle to run out with a 26-20 overtime victory.
Larry Fitzgerald was the catalyst in overtime, coming up with a 75-yard catch and run on the first play from scrimmage, before taking a shovel pass five yards for the winning score.
Arizona will need improved play out of Carson Palmer against the Panthers this weekend, as the Cardinals’ quarterback was lucky not to throw the game away against the Packers.
All eyes will be on Cam Newton in this one. The MVP comes into this match off a fairly ordinary performance in the divisional round, and he’ll be looking for a huge game to push his side into their second Super Bowl.
While extremely efficient last week (16-22), he only gained 161 yards through the air, and couldn’t get anything going on the ground (3 yards). However, if Jonathan Stewart can repeat his performance from last weekend (106 Yards, two touchdowns), that will just about seal a Panthers victory.
As mentioned before, Carson Palmer will need to improve if the Cardinals’ stand any chance. While the stats looked okay last weekend (25-41, 349 Yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions), they don’t tell the entire story. Palmer was extremely inaccurate, and was quite lucky not to have thrown a couple more interceptions.
The Cardinals will also need more out of the running game, as they only managed 40 yards on the ground against the Packers.
Prediction
This is a tough one to predict. Both sides would be worthy representatives in the Super Bowl, and both sides would have a very good chance of winning it all. As it stands, I think the home crowd will be enough to get the Panthers over the line.
Panthers by 3
Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 10:40am AEDT.
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