By Damon Salvadore ([email protected])

First Posted: Jan 21, 2016 11:56 AM EST

The Arizona Cardinals and Carson Palmer will beat the Carolina Panthers and Cam Newton to advance to Super Bowl 50. Here are five reasons why.
(Photo : Christian Peterson/Getty Images)

The Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers have been the two best teams in the NFC all season long. After huge wins last week, the two squads are going to face off this upcoming weekend in the game that every NFL fan has been waiting for. This should be a fantastic match with lead changes throughout.

Here are five reasons I think the Cardinals can beat the Panthers on Sunday.

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This is, without a doubt, the single biggest advantage going for the Cardinals. Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown and Michael Floyd create arguably the best wide receiver core in the entire league. Carson Palmer is already a solid quarterback, but this arsenal of targets only makes him more dangerous.

Not many fans realize it, but Fitzgerald had a career high in receptions this year with 109. It’s great to see him have a chance at winning the big one again. Double teaming Fitzgerald will only leave Floyd and Brown open to make plays.

The Panthers have a solid secondary led by Josh Norman, but they will be tested against these elite targets.

The Cardinals have the most underrated defense in the NFL this season. No, it’s not the 1985 Chicago Bears, but they can certainly hold their own against top quality offenses and great quarterbacks.

This season the Cardinals defense ranked fifth in yards allowed, seventh in points given up, eighth against the pass and sixth against the run. That’s really balanced.

Not only do the Cardinals’ defensive statistics and analytics paint a pretty picture, but the team does a great job against tight ends. The Panthers offense runs through their tight end, Greg Olsen. It will be difficult without Tyrann Mathieu in the secondary, but the Panthers don’t have elite wide receivers to deal with anyway.

It’s kind of hard to imagine the Cardinals with a running game. Cardinals fans have watched their team struggle to establish a run game for years now. However, this year has been a tad bit different.

The Cardinals ranked eighth in rushing yards and sixth in rushing touchdowns this season. Unfortunately, Chris Johnson will not be playing because of a leg injury, but David Johnson will be starting. Johnson had a breakout season with eight rushing scores and a 4.6 yard per carry average this year.

Much of the Cardinals’ ground game success has emerged because of the offensive line. Palmer was only sacked 25 times in 16 regular season games. For some perspective, Aaron Rodgers was sacked 46 times this year with the Green Bay Packers.

Who needs home-field advantage? The Cardinals posted the best road record in the league at 7-1 this year away from Glendale, Arizona.

It should be mentioned the Panthers did have the best home record this season at 8-0. One couldn’t ask for much more in an NFC Championship game.

The point is, playing away from home hasn’t fazed the Cardinals one bit, and that’s really impressive for a west coast team. Still, it’s going to take every bit of this Cardinals team to take down the Panthers in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Ron Rivera has done an outstanding job coaching the Panthers this season, but Bruce Arians is a little better. Arians has Super Bowl experience, having won two championships with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is also the man who stepped in for Chuck Pagano and did exceptionally well.

Arians draws up a lot of creative plays. That final five yard shuffle pass play to Fitzgerald in overtime up the middle last week was genius. Nobody saw that coming. Those are the kind of plays that win big games.

Follow Damon Salvadore on Twitter @DamonSalvadore1

TagsNFL, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, Arizona Cardinals vs carolina panthers, nfl predictions, damon salvadore, larry fitzgerald