Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Arizona Cardinals at Carolina Panthers – NFC Championship Game

carolina-panthers-arizona-cardinalsPanthers host the Cardinals in NFC championship game

The Carolina Panthers held on to beat the Seattle Seahawks 31-24 on Sunday with their 12th straight home win. Now they’ll host the NFC championship game for the first time in franchise history. The Arizona Cardinals beat the Green Bay Packers 26-20 in a wild overtime game on Saturday night to advance. The Panthers and Cardinals have not played this season but this game has a potential to be high scoring. The Panthers averaged more than 31 points this season and the Cardinals were a close second at 30.5. These two teams couldn’t be much closer to one another and home field advantage is the only thing separating them. The NFC Championship Game  between the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers is scheduled for Sunday, January 24, 2016, at 6:40 p.m. ET at Bank of America Stadium. The matchup will be broadcast on FOX.
The Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer threw for 349 yards and three TDs with two picks during their win against the Packers. Palmer had issues hitting his receivers and one of his touchdowns was of a fluke pass that was intended for a different receiver and landed in the hands of Michael Floyd. The other touchdown was a big catch and run by Larry Fitzgerald. The Arizona receivers Floyd, Fitzgerald and John Brown are all very good, and are sure to have a big impact in this game also. For the second game in a row, the Cardinals had trouble running the ball, gaining just 40 yards on 19 attempts.
The Carolina Panthers defense wore down last week after going up 31-0 over Seattle, and had to recover an onside kick to pull out a 31-24 victory. Carolina has a very talented defense however they don’t have a particularly deep unit. Arizona could take advantage of this if they can stay on the field for a majority of the time. The Panthers are going to rely on quarterback Cam Newton during this NFC championship game. Against Seattle, Newton completed 16 of 22 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown. The Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart was able to run over 100 yards on the ground against Seattle, who has the league’s best rush defense.

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