Panthers head coach Ron Rivera

RE: Opening statement
“We are on to the next round. We didn’t play as well as I thought we needed to in the second half. We did things that we were supposed to do and won the football game. That’s the bottom line that we won the football game. I’m very proud of what we did in the first half. If we could have just skipped right on over halftime and just kept playing I think we might have been in much better shape.”

RE: Nearly blowing a big lead
“The biggest disappointment I really didn’t want to play the game the way we did in the second half. I wanted to be more aggressive and try to attack but for whatever reason we got into protect mode and I’m a little disappointed in that.”

RE: Similarities to the comebacks teams have had against Panthers this season
“You look at who all those came against, and those came against very good quarterbacks who were able to do things against us. Part of it is you when you get a big lead like that, one of the things is you have to learn to not relax. You have to learn to continue to attack. It is one of those things that we most certainly as coaches have to make sure we are putting them in the right position to do those things.”

RE: Did Jonathan Stewart tweak his foot?
“He did early on and so we tried to make sure we were shuttling him in. We used Cameron Artis-Payne a little bit more and we used Mike Tolbert a little bit more. We wanted to be careful with it. So he came out a little bit more. I just got done talking with him and he said he felt pretty good at the end of the game and you guys saw him running at the end of the game.”

RE: What does it feel like to beat Seattle to get to NFC Championship?
“It feels good. It really does. I’m not going to lie about that. It’s awesome. It’s a great feeling. It’s everything you strive for, you work for. It’s part of our vision. We haven’t accomplished what we want yet but we played some very good football teams along the way, Seattle being one of them. In all honesty, they have been the watermark here in the NFC and we have an opportunity that we want. Now here comes the next one and it’s Arizona.”