Panthers run over, shut out Giants

The Carolina Panthers’ defense played like coach John Fox was in the New York huddle, spying on his former team.

The Giants had no such insight into the Panthers, allowing Steve Smith and DeShaun Foster to beat them at their own game in their own place.

Fox had Carolina prepared for everything New York attempted, rattling Eli Manning into four turnovers, and Smith scored two touchdowns to lead the Panthers to a lopsided 23-0 win over the Giants in the first round of the NFC playoffs on Sunday

We challenged ourselves this week to know the Giants better than they knew themselves,” said Carolina defensive tackle Brentson Buckner.




It was New York’s first playoff shutout in 20 years — and not much of a stretch for the Panthers (12-5) under Fox, who spent five seasons as New York’s defensive coordinator before taking over in Carolina in 2002.

Fox still maintains close relationships with everyone from the front office to the cleaning crew, and marked his return to the Meadowlands by staying one step ahead of everything the Giants tried to do.
“It was strange — they were in our huddle a little bit,” said running back Tiki Barber, who was held to a season-low 41 yards. “They kind of had us dissected and figured out and we couldn’t get anything going consistently.

Not on offense, not on defense and not on special teams. Manning had his worst game of the season, the defense couldn’t find a way to slow Smith or Foster and the Giants muffed a punt while becoming the first home playoff team to be shut out since 1980, when the Los Angeles Rams blanked Tampa Bay.

The Panthers played nearly as well as they did in their Super Bowl season two years ago and advanced to Chicago (12-4) for the divisional playoffs. The Bears won the only meeting this season, 13-3 in November.
source : ap.com