NFL / carolina panthers

By Zane Miller On Sunday, October 12th, 2014, the Carolina Panthers and Cincinnati Bengals played to a 37-37 draw at Paul Brown Stadium, as the exciting clash saw the Panthers’ record move to 3-2-1 whereas the Bengals now held a similar 3-1-1. However, this game made history, just not necessarily in the way either team would have liked. Both the Bengals and Panthers were coming off of excellent regular season performances coupled with disappointing playoff exits. Cincinnati finished 2013 with an 11-5 record before falling 27-10 in the first round to the San Diego (now Los Angeles) Chargers, while Carolina scored a 12-4 record and were able to obtain a first-round bye, but the week of rest proved to be a moot point as they lost in the second round 23-10 to the San Francisco 49ers. With both teams retaining mostly the same rosters for 2014, they were looking to bounce back and were more or less doing so, each side already having three wins in the still-young season. This matchup would be a battle of the highly-touted quarterbacks from the 2011 draft. Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was taken with the first overall pick that year after the failed Jimmy Clausen experiment and immediately lived up to the hype, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year with 21 passing touchdowns for 4,051 yards, to go along with 14 rushing touchdowns. While his numbers weren’t as explosive the next two seasons, Newton was still among the league’s better quarterbacks going into the 2014 campaign. A preseason rib injury forced Newton to sit out the first game of the year, but a week before playing the Bengals, he had his season-best game to that point in a 31-24 win over the Chicago Bears where he threw for two touchdowns and 255 yards. While Newton grabbed most of the headlines in the 2011 draft, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton had been making noise of his own after falling to the team in the second round. After an ugly dispute with team management, veteran quarterback Carson Palmer announced he would sit out the 2011 season until he was traded, forcing the Bengals to start Dalton right away. However, Dalton was up to the task and, with the help of fellow rookie teammate AJ Green, passed for 20 touchdowns and 3,398 yards to finish second to Newton in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting. From there, the Bengals experienced sustained success in the regular season which they had not felt in decades, as the team earned three consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1977. Dalton looked to continue this streak in 2014 and was well on his way to accomplishing that as the team squared off against the Panthers. The got off to a roaring start for the Panthers, as they took the opening kickoff and methodically worked their way down the field, culminating in a short touchdown pass from Newton to Kelvin Benjamin. The drive took nearly 10 minutes of game time to complete, with the ensuing Bengals drive also taking a significant amount of time off the clock, leading to just two drives taking place in the first quarter. In the second quarter, now already well inside the red zone, Dalton hit veteran wideout Brandon Tate for a touchdown, tying the game at 7-7. The Panthers’ next drive went nowhere, though the Bengals were still pinned deep after Darqueze Dennard was flagged for unnecessary roughness on the punt. This set up the most exciting offensive play of the game, as running back Giovanni Bernard ran up the middle and shook off would-be tackles from defensive lineman Charles Johnson and linebacker Thomas Davis, before taking it to the house virtually unchallenged from there to make it a 14-7 lead for Cincinnati. The 89-yard jaunt would be by far the longest touchdown run of Bernard’s 10-year long career. The Bengals were still up front by seven at halftime after both teams traded field goals to make the first half score 17-10. However, with the Bengals knocking on the door of the red zone to start the third quarter, Carolina’s defense created a backbreaking turnover as a Dalton pass was intercepted by cornerback Antoine Cason, who ran it back 80 yards to the 10-yard line. With momentum now on their side, the Panthers capitalized on the excellent field position and punched it in with a touchdown run from Fozzy Whittaker, before the Bengals punted on their next possession and Newton himself ran it in from 12 yards out to give the Panthers a 24-17 lead. With the third quarter winding down, the Bengals were trying to restart their offense, but not before another throw was picked off by Carolina, this time by veteran safety Roman Harper. However, in a bit of foreshadowing, a special teams blunder cost the Panthers a chance to go up by two possessions as kicker Graham Gano missed a 38-yard chip shot. The Bengals looked to put the abysmal third quarter behind them and did just that, with Dalton hitting wide receiver Mohamed Sanu for a 34-yard touchdown, right after finding him for a 22-yard completion to set up the scoring play. The game was now tied up for a third time, but the Panthers were in no hurry to move the ball downfield. In a drive which took seven full minutes off the clock, Newton found wide receiver Jason Avant to put them inside the red zone, capped off by Newton’s touchdown pass to tight end Greg Olsen from 13 yards out. Obviously, this was already a competitive game, but the ensuing kickoff return was where it really started to get crazy. Bengals returner Adam Jones, who already had five career punt return touchdowns but no kick return touchdowns, took the Gano kick just inside of the end zone and cut his way past several defenders thanks in part to incredible blocks from Marquis Flowers and Shawn Williams. Jones had first kick return score in his sights, but was caught by a hard-charging Colin Jones just short of the goal line. Nevertheless, rookie running back Jeremy Hill ran it in himself from three yards out, tying it up for a fourth time at 31-all. The nightmare continued for the Panthers on their next drive, as they lost three yards before Newton airmailed a throw which ended up in the waiting arms of Bengals safety Reggie Nelson. Nelson picked himself up and ran it back into field goal range with just over three minutes to go in regulation. The Panthers had an ever bigger scare shortly after as Hill appeared to have his second touchdown of the game after running it in from 22 yards out, but the play was called back for a holding penalty. The Bengals would be forced to settle for a field goal, which kicker and Cincinnati-area native Mike Nugent delivered from 38 yards with 2:11 to go, putting the Bengals back on top for the first time since early in the third quarter. However, there was still plenty of time for Newton and company to mount a comeback. Starting at their own 20-yard line, the Panthers quickly picked up a first down before Newton hit Olsen at midfield with a minute and a half left to play. After a short gain and a pair of incompletions, the Panthers faced a fourth down, tantalizingly close to Gano’s field goal range. With no choice but to go for it, Newton called his own number, rushing up the middle from the shotgun formation to keep the drive alive. A couple more short plays put Gano in a more comfortable spot and, despite missing a makable field goal earlier, sent the 44-yarder right down the middle to force the contest into overtime. Something to keep in mind, this game occurred before the current 10-minute overtime was instituted; at that time they would still play the full 15 minutes of overtime if necessary, but the game still could not be won on a field goal on the first possession. The Bengals looked to be in good position after winning the coin toss, enabling them to go on offense first and embark on a seven-minute-long drive into the red zone. However, following a tackle for loss and sack, both courtesy of Charles Johnson, Cincinnati would have to settle for a 42-yard Mike Nugent field goal. Needing to score on this possession, Newton went back to work and found Jerricho Cotchery for nine yards and Olsen for 11 to help advance into Bengals territory. The drive temporarily stalled as they faced a 3rd-and-10 situation, but an ill-timed illegal contact penalty on linebacker Vontaze Burfict provided the Panthers with an automatic first down. Newton then scrambled for 12 yards to put Carolina firmly in field goal range, but were still thinking touchdown as that would put the game on ice. However, they were ultimately stopped on a 4th-and-1 and, not willing to risk going for it, Panthers head coach Ron Rivera opted to take the points with Gano hitting the 36-yard attempt to even the score for the sixth time on the afternoon. Now with just over two minutes left, Dalton took the reins and methodically worked the Bengals downfield. The biggest play of the drive came when the Red Rifle found seventh-round draft pick James Wright for a 24-yard gain, with an admittedly-questionable roughing the passer penalty setting the Bengals up in the red zone. Not wanting to risk anything further, the Bengals ran the clock down to just two seconds left to preserve the game-winning field goal attempt from 36 yards away. While the snap and hold were good, Nugent’s kick drifted to the right of the uprights, much like Gano’s missed kick earlier in the game. With no time left, the game concluded in a 37-37 draw, the first tie game in the history of the Carolina Panthers while the Bengals’ last tie had occurred relatively recently in 2008. Most notably, though, this set a new NFL record for the highest-scoring game to end in a draw, surpassing the mark of 35-35 set by four different contests from 1955 to 1974. This is also an important game for myself personally, as I was actually in attendance for this game. Of course, I wish that the Bengals had been able to make that last kick and get the win, but I definitely recognize the historical significance of it nonetheless. As both a Bengals fan and a Panthers fan, this game still remains 10 years later as one of my all-time favorites, even though we got stuck in the parking garage for about an hour after the game thanks to all the traffic! Both Dalton and Newton ended the afternoon with impressive stats, as Dalton threw for two touchdowns and 323 yards albeit with two interceptions, while Newton passed for a pair of touchdowns for 284 yards with one interception. The Bengals went on to make the playoffs with a 10-5-1 record, but were bounced out in the first round 26-10 by the Indianapolis Colts. Meanwhile, the Panthers achieved the rare feat of making the playoffs with a losing record, claiming the NFC South title at 7-8-1. The team scored a first round victory over an injury-plagued Arizona Cardinals by a score of 27-16, but were unable to keep the Cinderella run going against the Seattle Seahawks in the second round, losing 31-17.