Ted Ginn, Jr. scores on a 22-yard misdirection run (Video)
By John Buhler
Ted Ginn Jr. put the Carolina Panthers up, 10-0, on the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game on a 22-yard misdirection touchdown run.
With the Carolina Panthers already up 3-0 on a Graham Gano field goal earlier in the first quarter of the 2015 NFC Championship Game, Panthers offensive coordinator Mike Shula got creative in running a reverse that ended up in Ted Ginn Jr.’s hands for an impressive trot to paydirt.
Quarterback Cam Newton lined up in end shotgun just outside of the Arizona Cardinals red zone. He briefly ran to the right side before tossing the football in the Carolina backfield to wide receiver Ginn who was running to the left side.
Ginn shed a tackler near the line of scrimmage on the play before successfully evading a handful of would be Cardinal tacklers. He was aided by the Panthers’ impressive second level run blocking, running all the way to the other side line before crossing the goal line near the right pylon.
Ginn has made several electric offensive plays for the Panthers down the stretch, despite being what many consider an unreliable wide receiver in his NFL career with shaky hands. Well, he did a marvelous job on that touchdown scamper, picking apart the at-that-point shaky Arizona defense in the process.
Carolina put up 31 points on the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Divisional Round a week before. Perhaps Ginn’s elusive touchdown run is a sign of good things to come for the Carolina offense. While they did score 31 points against the Seahawks in the first half, they were promptly shut out in the second half, as Seattle mounted an impressive, but too little too late comeback, falling to the Panthers, 31-24.
A win over the Cardinals in the 2015 NFC Championship Game would send the Panthers to their second Super Bowl in franchise history. They would face the AFC Champion Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.