The 'what ifs' will linger for a long time.

What if Cam Newton fell on that loose football?

What if the Panthers gave Mike Remmers more help?

What if Jerricho Cotchery hadn't dropped a couple passes?

"If you're in this game long enough, you're going to have those moments where you can look back and say, 'Man, I should've made that play and if I would've made that play, this would've happened," Cotchery said. "The other night will be no different."

But it many ways, what happened Sunday will be different because it was. A drop in the regular season at Cincinnati is one thing. The Super Bowl is another.

It took 12 years for Cotchery to get that far, and then, he let two of his best chances fall to the ground. Well, the first may not have. That's what was ruled on the field, and while replays show Cotchery had his hand under the ball, it wasn't enough to overturn the call.

The second came on one of the more underrated plays of the night.

On their first drive of the second half, the Panthers had a 2nd-and-11 from the Denver 26. Newton fired a perfect pass to Cotchery inside the 5-yard line, but outside linebacker Von Miller stayed with him through the wheel route. Even though Miller appeared to get a piece of the ball, it hit Cotchery in the hands before falling incomplete. Two plays later, Graham Gano doinked a 44-yard field goal try off the upright.

Cotchery later caught his final two chances, including a gadget play on the Panthers' last drive. His final line: 5 targets, 2 receptions, 17 yards. It was hardly a game 12 years in the making.

That's one of the cruel things about the NFL — work so hard for so long, and poof. Fans can be upset a guy didn't make plays he probably should have, but imagine being in his shoes. Now, after 12 seasons, including two solid but unspectacular years in Carolina, that may have been Cotchery's final game.

When he came to Carolina ahead of the 2014 season, Cotchery signed a five-year deal, but the final three seasons were voided. Even though he turns 34 in June, he wants to keep playing — if it's with one team.

"For Carolina," he said. "This is a special place, but I don't know what the future holds right now, especially at this point in time in my career. I just don't know anything."

Except ...

"I do know this — coming back here the past two years have just been tremendously wonderful for me. Bringing my wife back down to her home state and just playing ball here again, being before these fans, it's been wonderful."