That Carolina team was so frustrating to deal with. They were a Cinderella story due to how flukey they were throughout the season. I wouldn't call them upstart. They won most of their games by grinding things out and slowly wearing down their opponents through 4 quarters or taking them to OT. The majority of their wins were close. They played smart, situational football by avoiding turnovers and tiring teams out.
Of their 11 regular season wins, 9 of them were close games decided by a single score. They lost 2 close games, so they were 9-2 in one score games going into the playoffs.
The team's stats were deceptive, especially Delhomme's passing numbers. I remember all the debates Saints fans had of Delhomme vs Aaron Brooks. When looking at the numbers, Brooks overall stats looked better, but Delhomme won more games and was better in the clutch. This is one of many examples with that Carolina team where the stats do not tell you the entire story. You would have to watch them, and see how they wore down most of their opponents.
The Rams were the NFC team of 2003 that everyone thought was going to be in the SB. It was the revival of the GSOT with Marc Bulger at QB. The Panthers made everyone forget that, and yet that game still went into OT and lasted a full OT quarter.
I've always believed the Pats got so lucky with that kickoff going out of bounds at the end of the SB. If it goes to OT, knowing how flukey that Panthers team was, they probably pull it off. Go through their games that season. They weren't a team that you wanted to deal with in overtime.
I see more similarities right now with this SB and the 1997 matchup of Green Bay vs Denver. The Packers were heavy favorites. At one point, they were double digit favorites on the spread. An argument can be made that the Packers should've won that SB. Favre played a good game, but it wasn't enough in the end.
No one was giving the Broncos a chance, much like how most people are picking Seattle right now. Another similarity is how the Packers got a divisional foe (Tampa Bay, yes, they used to play in the old NFC Central) in the playoffs, then went on the road to face a banged up 49ers team, whom they had familiarity with (3rd consecutive year of facing SF in the post season).
