Bell: Unbeaten Panthers dig deep to claw out of Saints' trap in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — You never really know exactly when something that is either completely absurd, ridiculously unpredictable or just flat-out weird is going to go down at any given NFL venue. That’s the world we live in. Even happens in Foxborough, Mass.
So it’s no wonder that the Mercedes-Benz Superdome must have felt like a giant-sized Panther trap for the only undefeated team left in the league. Forget the records. The New Orleans Saints, four-and-whatever, clearly had something to play for on Sunday — they could rain on the Carolina Panthers' parade, like a good division rival would.
It almost happened.
The Saints jumped to a 14-zip lead, and the inexplicable stuff piled up with the breaks not flowing Carolina’s way. An iffy Jonathan Stewart fumble in a pileup (wasn’t his knee down?) was run back for a touchdown. A questionable Greg Olsen catch was ruled a fumble. A Graham Gano extra point was blocked and returned the other way for a two-point conversion — the first time that’s happened since the NFL instituted those extra-long extra points last offseason.
Hardly typical.
But this would not be the place (incidentally, the Panthers’ 16-game regular-season winning streak began here year ago Monday) where Carolina’s streak bit the dust.
The Panthers are 12-0 now, surviving with a 41-38 gut-check victory.
“You see examples of this all over the league,” Panthers center Ryan Kalil told Paste BN Sports as the music blared in an energetic visitor’s locker room. “Each and every week, it doesn’t matter, regardless of what the records are.
“We’ve been on the other side. Even when you’re out and you’re not in the hunt for the division, you’re fighting for your job, fighting for next year. You’re fighting for a lot of things. It’s not like college football. Teams don’t just lay down.”
It takes a lot more than a few bad breaks, three giveaways and two dropped touchdowns by Ted Ginn Jr., to keep a (potentially) great team down. It’s still a bit early to call them a team of destiny. But the Panthers, who clinched the NFC South title before kickoff after the Atlanta Falcons lost in Tampa Bay, are surely going places.
Now, with quarterback Cam Newton adding to his MVP checklist by engineering an 11-play, 75-yard drive in the final minutes, capped by a 15-yard TD strike to Jerricho Cotchery with 65 seconds left, they have discovered another way to get there.
“We haven’t won a game like this,” said safety Roman Harper, a former Saint. “We haven’t won a game with a last-minute drive. It’s always been the defense, with a last stop. To find another way just builds more confidence.”
One thing that has been evident all season was again apparent as their undefeated status twisted in the Dome: The Panthers are nothing if not gritty and resilient. They can win games consistently and defeat adversity, too.
The time came to prove it all again. Sure, you’re undefeated, but what have you done lately?
It was getting late when Saints tailback Mark Ingram blasted into the end zone from 9 yards out for yet another go-ahead touchdown, putting the Saints up 38-34 with 5:21 left. To keep their streak and status intact, the Panthers needed one more big rally.
Newton seemingly lives for these moments. That’s been part of his M.O. for some time. When the game is on the line, he puts on his cape and goes to work.
“I told Cam a little while ago, ‘I’ve seen this, I’ve read this book before,' " said Harper, who was on the other side with the Saints in 2013, Week 16, when Newton shook off a shaky performance to lead the last-minute TD drive that beat New Orleans to capture the first of what is now three consecutive division titles for Carolina.
“That last drive, man,” Harper added, “I saw him take it to the next level.”
Make-or-break time came on fourth-and-4 from the Panthers’ 46, with 2½ minutes left. The NFL’s best multi-dimensional threat broke out of the pocket and appeared to be headed around left end for a race to the sticks. Then Newton pulled up. His soft lob to Olsen was good for 14 yards and a first down.
Or was it? Replays showed that while the star tight end snagged the low pass with two hands, the nose of the football hit the turf. After a review, though, referee Brad Allen ruled it a catch. Finally, Carolina caught a break. In the nick of time.
Four plays later, Newton hit Cotchery for the throw that held up as the game-winner after a desperate fourth-down heave from Saints quarterback Drew Brees to Brandon Cooks fell incomplete.
That was close. But here’s to sweating it out. The best teams find a lot of ways to win, and it may not always look pretty.
The Panthers sure have that down pat.
“This lets us know we can win any way,” Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly told Paste BN Sports. “We’ve been up and figured out how to win. We’ve been down and come back to win. We have a sense in knowing what we can do.”
Still, there’s much room for improvement. No need to trumpet the pursuit of a perfect season.
“We played terrible,” Harper said. “We’ve got a lot of mistakes to get cleaned up.”
Good for them. They may have a perfect record, but there’s still an edge to be gained in realizing that they are far from perfect.
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Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell
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