Cam Newton rescues Panthers from near disaster

Fate was briefly on the side of the New York Giants.

But the Carolina Panthers had Cam Newton ... and karma.

Bolstering his case for NFL most-valuable-player honors, Newton threw five touchdown passes and directed the winning field-goal drive inside of two minutes Sunday as the Panthers held on to beat the Giants, 38-35, and avoid an epic upset.

The Panthers are 14-0 and two victories from matching the 2007 New England Patriots as the only teams to win all 16 regular-season games. Those Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Giants, so they finished 18-1, meaning the 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only modern-era team to go undefeated for a season. A regular season was 14 games then, so those Dolphins finished 17-0 overall.

Carolina is the fourth team in the Super Bowl era to start a season 14-0. In addition to the 1972 Dolphins and 2007 Patriots, the 2009 Indianapolis Colts did it, too. Of those three teams, only Miami turned that great start into a Super Bowl victory.

Carolina, which closes the season at Atlanta and home against Tampa Bay, nearly frittered away Sunday’s game after building a 35-7 lead with less than six minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Giants roared back with four touchdowns to tie it, 35-35.

That’s when Newton mounted an eight-play, 49-yard drive in the final 1 minute 46 seconds, setting up the winning 43-yard field goal by Graham Gano as time expired.

That the game went from a laugher to a nail-biter was acutely disappointing to Newton.

“It shouldn’t have been a thriller, I can tell you that,” he said. “We just had to find ways. It’s great for us to be in a game like this, it’s kind of like our first dose of mini-games of what playoff football is going to be about. We have to create that killer instinct. The Giants did an unbelievable job at the end, but for us we have to do better, and we will do better.”

As for karma, that came in the heralded matchup between two of the most talented players on the field. Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and Carolina cornerback Josh Norman tangled all game, and TV cameras caught Beckham going out of his way to land cheap shots with his fists and by spearing his helmet into Norman’s.

“I really like the battle with him and Josh, it was like Floyd and Pacquiao,” Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara said. “It was a great matchup.”

There might have been more punches thrown in Beckham-Norman than in that overblown fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

This time, Beckham was flagged for personal fouls three times.

“He lost his composure,” Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said of the receiver.

Making matters worse for the Panthers, it was Beckham who made a 14-yard touchdown catch to forge a 35-35 deadlock. It looked as if he was going to be the hero, dirty play notwithstanding.

That’s when Newton returned to slam the door, completing three passes for a total of 37 yards, and running twice for 12.

“That’s what he’s done all year,” Coach Ron Rivera said of Newton. “When we’ve been in tight ballgames and we’ve had to get something done, he’s been able to do it. That doesn’t surprise me he made the plays that he did to put us in position to win the football game at the end.”

Newton became the first player in league history with at least 300 yards passing, 100 yards rushing and five touchdown passes in a game.

The outcome was briefly in doubt, but in the end, New York (or New Jersey, actually) proved to be Newton’s apple.

Playing catch

Seattle’s Russell Wilson is the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for at least three touchdowns with no interceptions in five consecutive games.

Wilson threw for three in the Seahawks’ 30-13 victory over Cleveland, which secured a playoff spot for Seattle.

A lot of those touchdowns have gone to Doug Baldwin, who has caught 10 in the last four games. The only other receiver to match that during a four-game stretch? Jerry Rice.

Texas turnaround

Carolina started the day 13-0. In a sense, Houston was 0-13.

In 13 tries since they were formed in 2002, the Texans had never won a game played in Indianapolis.

That came to an end as the Texans beat the Colts, 16-10, to move into the driver’s seat in the AFC South. It was Brandon Weeden, cut loose by Dallas this season, who bailed out the Texans. He replaced the injured T.J. Yates and threw the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

At 7-7, Houston is in sole possession of first place in the division. The 6-8 Colts have lost three games in a row and would need help to reach the playoffs.

Roll Tide

Cincinnati clinched a playoff berth for the fifth consecutive year when A.J. McCarron, replacing the injured Andy Dalton, led the Bengals to a 24-14 victory at San Francisco.

McCarron, who won two national championships at Alabama, is the school’s first player to win an NFL game as the starting quarterback since Jeff Rutledge did that for the Giants in 1987.

Safety first

The Tennessee Titans played it safe with Marcus Mariota after the rookie quarterback injured his right knee midway through the second quarter at New England.

Even though Mariota said he wanted to go back in the game right away, Coach Mike Mularkey held him out the rest of the way, replacing him with Zach Mettenberger.

“I don’t think it was serious,” Mularkey said of Mariota’s injury. “I’d rather err on the side of caution.”

Mariota, who sat out two games this season because of an injury to his left knee, said he doesn’t expect to be sidelined for the Titans’ final two games.

Quick snaps

• Kansas City beat Baltimore to win for the eighth time in a row. The Chiefs are the only team in league history to win eight games in a row immediately after a five-game losing streak.

• Antonio Brown had two touchdown catches in Pittsburgh’s 34-27 victory over Denver. He leads the AFC with 116 catches and is one of two players to catch at least 110 passes three seasons in a row. The other is Wes Welker, who did that with New England from 2007 to 2009.

• The Patriots won their 12th game, something they have done six years in a row. The only other NFL team to accomplish that was the Peyton Manning-led Colts, who had a seven-year streak from 2003 to 2009.