Panthers' Ted Ginn Jr. comes up big vs. former team

"Yeah, we are going to the Super Bowl".

But even before their 2016 dream was officially over, Arizona's social media outfit appeared to have accepted their team's fate.

Ginn scored a 22-yard touchdown, a run after catching a flip from quarterback Cam Newton in the backfield to set the tone during the first quarter of a 49-15 victory.

After Ginn chased down Peterson, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer threw the first of his four interceptions and the Panthers took a commanding 24-7 lead into halftime. "I just wanted to get the ball to the right guys and give them opportunities", said Newton, who passed for 335 yards, ran for 47 yards and accounted for two touchdowns in each area.

Earlier, Denver and veteran quarterback Peyton Manning edged last year's champion New England Patriots and their signal caller Tom Brady 20-18 for the AFC title.

"Cam played a great game", Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said. He's just the fourth player in National Football League history to throw and run for multiple touchdowns in a playoff game. "All I could do was go out and play as hard as I can for 60 minutes, and that's what I tried to do". But Arizona still had one more step to take before they can make it back to their first Super Bowl since the 2008 campaign, and they learned that in the most painful way possible against the Panthers. He had 52 yards in receptions, and he tracked down All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson to prevent a touchdown on an interception return. 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. He completed 27 of 38 passes with one touchdown in a 36-14 at Bank of of America during Newton's second season.

Cornerback Cortland Finnegan, who was a midseason acquisition, made a couple of key defensive plays in the first quarter for the Panthers. It's the Super Bowl and their guards are going to come out. The Panthers found a way to win every game but one so far and the train will run into Santa Clara for Super Bowl 50. Palmer didn't play exceptionally well, but he did enough to get his team past Aaron Rodgers and his late game heroics connecting with Larry Fitzgerald on an 80-yard play in overtime that helped win the game. Don't tell that team that it has not been disrespected, because many people felt that winning 15 games on the NFL's easiest schedule meant nothing if they couldn't go 3-0 in the playoffs. Capping the barrage was Luke Kuechly, who returned an interception 22 yards for a score. In a season that began with bad news regarding Kelvin Benjamin's torn ACL, Carolina's other options stepped up in a major way.

Davis came out of the game midway through the second quarter after a Carson Palmer pass to Darren Fells.

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