Cards crumble in Carolina

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) ― Cam Newton finally has his first playoff victory ― with a big assist from his defense.

The fourth-year quarterback threw for 198 yards and two touchdowns, Carolina’s defense set an NFL record for fewest yards allowed in a postseason game, and the Panthers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-16 on Saturday.

It was Carolina’s first playoff win in nine years and Newton’s first playoff victory since entering the league as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft.

Jonathan Stewart ran for 123 yards and a touchdown on a rain-soaked afternoon.

The Panthers held Arizona to 78 yards, intercepted Ryan Lindley twice and sacked him four times. Carolina had 386 yards.

The Panthers (8-8-1) will play at top-seeded Seattle next weekend if Dallas beats Detroit on Sunday. If the Lions win, the Panthers play at Green Bay.

After a 9-1 start, Arizona’s once promising season was undone by a rash of injuries, including to quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton.

The New York Giants held the previous NFL record for fewest yards in a postseason game, holding Cleveland to 86 yards on Dec. 21, 1958.

It appeared the Panthers wouldn’t get the record, but Arizona began lateraling the ball around the field on the final play and lost 20 yards.

It was a fitting end to Arizona’s offensive struggles. The Cardinals managed 12 yards in the second half and had eight first downs for the game.

Trailing by one at halftime the Panthers scored two touchdowns in a span of 1 minute, 32 seconds late in the third quarter to take control.

Rookie running back Fozzy Whittaker caught a pass in the flat from Newton, reversed fields and got a key block from Kelvin Benjamin to spring him for a 39-yard touchdown.

On the ensuing kickoff, Melvin White stripped returner Ted Ginn Jr., a former Panther, at the Arizona 3 and Kevin Reddick recovered for Carolina. A pass interference penalty on Tony Jefferson on third down gave Carolina a new set of downs, and Newton took advantage. He found wide-open fullback Mike Tolbert in the left flat for a 1-yard touchdown and a 27-14 lead.

The Cardinals (11-6) had one last chance to get in the game when Newton was hit from behind and Rashad Johnson recovered the ball and returned it to the Carolina 8. But All-Pro Luke Kuechly ruined any chance of an Arizona comeback when he stepped in front Larry Fitzgerald and intercepted Lindley’s pass at the 5.

Carolina outgained Arizona 208-65 in the first half, but entered the locker room trailing 14-13 after two costly turnovers led to two Cardinals touchdowns.

The Panthers were in complete control when Stewart put his team up 10-0 with a nifty, spinning 13-yard run and the defense came up with three stops to start the game.

But the momentum turned when Carolina punt returner Brenton Bersin inexplicably crouched down on the soggy field like a shortstop, only to have the ball bounce off his right thigh.

Ravens get playoff win in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (AP) ― Joe Flacco and the NFL’s playoff road warriors are heading to New England with their swagger ― and their pass rush ― fully intact.

The rarely flustered Flacco tossed two second-half touchdowns and the Baltimore Ravens dominated the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-17 on Saturday night in the AFC wild-card game.

Flacco hit Torrey Smith for an 11-yard score in the third quarter and found Crockett Gillmore with a 21-yard pass in the fourth one play after Terrell Suggs picked off Ben Roethlisberger. The Ravens won in Pittsburgh for the first time in the postseason.

Baltimore (11-6) sacked Roethlisberger five times and kept the NFL’s second-ranked offense off-balance. Roethlisberger passed for 334 yards, but the Steelers (11-6) settled for field goals while the Ravens kept scoring touchdowns against their AFC North rival.

Baltimore heads to top-seeded New England next Saturday.

“The big thing is we have a good team and we didn’t hurt ourselves tonight,” Flacco said. “We didn’t have a lot of possessions early. We made the most of them by getting some kind of points.

“We played a clean football game and kept at it.”

The Ravens won their third wild-card game as the sixth seed. It provided another twist in a season that began with running back Ray Rice’s suspension and eventual release following a domestic dispute with his fiancee (now his wife). When the chaos died down, the Ravens emerged galvanized.

And two years after leading the Ravens to the franchise’s second Super Bowl title ― with wins at Denver and New England along the way ― Flacco did what he always seems to do when the calendar flips to January.

Flacco’s seven road playoff wins are the most by a quarterback since the 1970 merger. He completed 18 of 29 passes for 259 yards and the two scores. The Ravens gained a measure of revenge after the Steelers knocked them out of the postseason in 2008 and 2010 at Heinz Field. Yet Flacco has come of age in the interim. And while Pittsburgh’s bounce-back season included its first AFC North title in four years, the Steelers’ revamped roster could do little when it mattered.

Pittsburgh played without All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell, out with a hyperextended right knee. Fill-ins Ben Tate, Josh Harris and Dri Archer managed just 43 yards on 15 carries as the Steelers’ four-game winning streak came to an abrupt and decisive end.