Survive and advance. That’s the postseason in a nutshell and the New Orleans Saints (12-5) survived a late rally by the Carolina Panthers (11-6) to advance to the next round of the NFL Playoffs by the score of 31-26.
The Panthers looked poised to get on the board late in the first quarter after being stopped at the Saints seven-yard line. However, Graham Gano missed only his second field goal of the season to keep it scoreless. The Saints wasted little time capitalizing on the mistake with an 80-yard pass from Brees to former Panther Ted Ginn to put them up 7-0 with 1:46 left in the first quarter.
Gano redeemed himself early in the second quarter with a 27-yard field goal to chip away at the Saints lead. However, Brees was able to find Josh Hill on a touchdown pass in the endzone to make it 14-3.
After another successful Gano field goal, Zach Line put the Saints up 21-6 with a short run into the endzone with 43 seconds left until halftime. The Panthers were able to get some momentum headed into the locker room with a booming 58-yard field goal as time expired to make it 21-9.
Both teams traded field goals in the third quarter to make it 24-12 headed into the final frame. Cam Newton managed to come back from what seemed like an apparent concussion and lead the Panthers down the field and capped off an eight play drive with a 14-yard pass to Greg Olsen.
The Saints seemingly put the game out of reach with 5:08 left in the game with a two-yard run from Alvin Kamara to make it 31-19. However, the Panthers responded quickly with a 56-yard pass to Christian McCaffrey to make it a five-point ballgame.
The Saints headed into the two-minute warning near midfield with a big decision to make: go for it on 4th and 2 or punt it away? The Saints made the decision to go for it and it wound being intercepted by Mike Adams. However, that may have been the better choice because it put the Panthers at their own 31 instead of near midfield.
The Panthers then began to put together a solid drive to get them within scoring range. However, Newton was called for intentional grounding on second down pushed them back to the Saints 34-yard line. On 4th-and-23, Vonn Bell gave the Saints the win with a sack on Newton.
New Orleans will return to Minnesota when they take on the Minnesota Vikings (13-3) with kickoff on Sunday set for 3:40 pm.
-Clint Domingue