Saints 31, Panthers 26:
SAINTS 31, PANTHERS 26
New Orleans survives a surge in the fourth quarter by Carolina and QB Cam Newton.
ORLEANS» Drew Brees NEW passed for 376 yards and two touchdowns, and the New Orleans Saints held off Carolina’s late comeback bid to seal a 31-26 victory in their NFC wild-card playoff game Sunday.
The Panthers had a first down at the Saints’ 26-yard line with 58 seconds left, but heavy pressure from all-pro defensive end Cameron Jordan a couple plays later induced an intentional grounding penalty on Carolina quarterback Cam Newton, making it thirdand-25 at the Saints’ 34, and a required 10-second runoff left only 22 seconds on the clock.
After an incompletion in the end zone on third down, Vonn Bell sacked Newton on a safety blitz, ensuring the Saints swept all three meetings with Carolina this season, in addition to winning their first playoff game in four seasons.
“We wanted it more,” Jordan said. “I mean, they’ve been to their Super Bowl, let ’em go to another one next year. We want our run.”
Brees’ touchdowns went for 80 yards to Ted Ginn and 9 yards to tight end Josh Hill. Fullback Zach Line and running back Alvin Kamara ran for short touchdowns, the latter set up by Michael Thomas’ 46-yard reception.
Thomas caught eight passes for 131 yards on a day when the Saints needed the passing game to compensate for a ground game that struggled to get going.
Helped by the presence of tight end Greg Olsen — who did not play in the teams’ previous two meetings — Newton marched Carolina into Saints territory more often than not. But the Panthers stalled four times from inside the New Orleans 25, settling for four field-goal attempts on those drives, one of which kicker Graham Gano missed.
Olsen had eight catches for 107 yards and a touchdown. Newton finished 24-of-40 passing for 349 yards and two touchdowns, the other a 56-yard scoring strike to former Valor Christian star Christian McCaffrey that pulled Carolina within a TD with 4:09 left.
But Newton was sacked four times. The sack by David Onyemata came as Newton tried to spin away from Tyeler Davison and slammed his head into Onyemata’s chest. Newton was checked for a concussion; he missed one play before returning.
“We had to finish out the game and put it on our defense, put it on me, put it on our secondary, our D-line,” Jordan said. “I mean, everybody responded the way we were supposed to.”
Still, the Panthers were in striking distance for the win after a failed gamble by Saints coach Sean Payton, who chose to keep the offense on the field on fourth-andshort with two minutes remaining. He hoped to run out the clock on Carolina, which was out of timeouts. It backfired when Brees’ pass was intercepted to give Carolina the ball at its 31 with 1:51 left.
“This win is special,” Jordan said. “They came back late in the fourth quarter, made this a game.”