It's going to be difficult for the Carolina Panthers to top the high-water mark they set back in 2015. After a near-perfect regular season, they stormed through the NFC side of the playoffs—beating their long-time nemesis, the Seattle Seahawks to advance to the conference championship.
That's where the Panthers obliterated Carson Palmer and the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 49-15. MVP quarterback Cam Newton dropped 335 yards and two touchdowns on the Cards, as linebacker Luke Kuechly and the Panthers' swarming defense picked Palmer off four times en route to the dominant victory.
Naturally, that win has been named the best in franchise history by Bryan DeArdo at CBS Sports:
After a 15-1 regular season, the Panthers dethroned the defending NFC
champion Seahawks in the divisional round, 31-24. In the NFC title game, the Panthers dominated a talented Cardinals team, led by league MVP Cam Newton's four touchdowns and 382 all-purpose yards. Linebacker Luke Kuechly returned one of the Panthers' four interceptions of Carson Palmer for a score, as the '15 Panthers punched the franchise's second ticket to the Super Bowl.
In the Super Bowl, the Panthers ran into a buzzsaw in the form of the Denver Broncos defense. The disappointing 24-10 loss, however, doesn't take anything away from their awesome run to get there, though.
It may be a long time before we see Carolina in the NFC Championship again, but it is worth noting that the Panthers upset the Los Angeles Rams in the regular season and came very close to doing it again in the wild-card round of the playoffs. The Rams eventually lost to Seattle, but they have the best roster in the NFL—and have since added All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and, most recently, future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald.
On paper, it looks like the Panthers have a long way to go before they're ready to contend with heavyweights like that. But on the field, we’ve seen that they're capable of beating anybody when they're playing at their best.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: 2015 NFC title game named best win in Panthers history
