The Carolina Panthers scored twice in less than two minutes on Cam Newton touchdown passes in the third quarter and rode a powerful defense to a 27-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals in an NFC wildcard playoff game on Saturday.
The triumph was Newton’s first playoff win and the first victory in the postseason for the Panthers since the 2005 season, and it came largely thanks to Carolina’s defense and a strong performance from their quarterback.
“I told my teammates, no matter what — hell or high water — I am going to give them everything I’ve got and that is what I tried to show today,” said Newton, who finished with 198 yards passing, two touchdowns and an interception.
Carolina will now play at either the Green Bay Packers or the Seattle Seahawks in the divisional round this weekend.
The Cardinals, with third-string quarterback Ryan Lindley, were totally ineffective on offense and finished with 78 total yards, the fewest in NFL playoff history.
Lindley was playing in his first playoff game after injuries to starter Carson Palmer and replacement Drew Stanton earlier this season left the Cardinals with no choice but to go with the untested 25-year-old.
“We did the things we needed to, but we caught them at a good time,” Panthers head coach Ron Rivera said.
However, his counterpart Bruce Arians refused to blame the injuries to his two quarterbacks for the loss.
“I never buy into that. We have to make game plans to win games and ask players to do things they are capable of doing to win games. I never buy into injuries losing games,” the Arizona coach said.
After a 47-yard field goal from Graham Gano opened the scoring for the Panthers, Jonathan Stewart ran for a 13-yard touchdown run, giving the home side a 10-0 first-quarter lead.
However, two bad errors allowed Arizona to take a 14-13 lead by halftime.
Panthers punt returner Brenton Bersin got himself in an awkward position and allowed the ball to bounce off his leg, with Arizona recovering. Darren Fells collected a one-yard touchdown pass from Lindley on the ensuing drive.
Then Newton was picked off by Antonio Cromartie, who returned the ball 15 yards, setting up his team for a one-yard touchdown run from Marion Grice.
However, the Panthers took a firm grip on the game in the third quarter thanks to a brilliant 39-yard touchdown run from Fozzy Whittaker after a smart screen pass from Newton.
After Carolina recovered a Arizona fumble on a kickoff return at the Cardinals 3, the Panthers extended their lead when Newton found open fullback Mike Tolbert for a one-yard touchdown.
Arizona had a chance to get back into the game when they drove to eight yards from the Carolina end zone, but Lindley’s pass intended for receiver Larry Fitzgerald was intercepted by Luke Kuechly.
Lindley completed 16 of 28 passes for just 82 yards and was sacked four times and intercepted twice.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but