The entire Carolina Panthers team is surely ecstatic today considering they're now set to square off against the Arizona Cardinals in the franchise's first NFC Championship Game since 2005 after they convincingly punched their ticket against the Seattle Seahawks, 31-24 on Sunday afternoon. And to hear Panthers players tell it, the fact that the victory that put them into the conference championship game came against Seattle, made it all the better.
"A little sweeter," defensive tackle Kawann Short said, per Jonathan Jones of the Charlotte Observer. "Those guys had our number. We knew we were the better team, we just had to come out and play better."
The Panthers are now 2-0 in close games against Seattle this season after managing an abysmal 0-4 record the past three seasons. Of course, the victory on Sunday didn't come without quite a bit of trepidation at the end, especially after the Hawks pulled within one score late and lined up for an onsides kick.
But Thomas Davis, in some ways the face of Carolina's "never stop working" attitude, came down with the ball and the Panthers had suddenly made it two in a row against Seattle en route to the NFC Championship Game.
"It feels good. It really does. I'm not going to lie about that. It's awesome," Panthers coach Ron Rivera said, per Jones. "It's everything you strive for, you work for. It's part of our vision. We haven't accomplished what we want yet but we played some very good football teams along the way - Seattle being one of them.
"In all honesty, they have been the watermark here in the NFC, and we have an opportunity that we want."
