Dansby Led Cardinals to Defensive Victory Over LaFell and the Panthers
Karlos Dansby and Brandon LaFell challenged each other to a game of Madden 17 at the end of this season to test their off-the-field football capabilities. Dansby and LaFell stuck to their roots in choosing the teams that drafted them – Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers. Dansby was drafted by the Cardinals in the second round of the 2004 NFL Draft. LaFell was drafted in the third round of the 2010 draft by the Panthers. Both players looked to swag out their teams on the field. As the home team, Dansby picked the Cardinals' all-black alternative uniform, while LaFell went with the Panthers' all-white uniform.
LaFell and the Panthers received the opening kickoff, but were forced to punt. In the following possession, Dansby took a 6-0 lead on a 60-yard touchdown run by the Cardinals' David Johnson. Among the on-going banter between the two, LaFell blamed the Cardinal touchdown on his DB freezing up. LaFell looked to take the lead after getting the ball back, but the Cardinals' defense had its first of five interceptions of the game. After defensive stands, LaFell and the Panthers answered with a Cam Newton touchdown pass to Corey Brown inside the 10-yard line to take a 7-6 lead. With thirty-two seconds left in the half, Dansby took a 13-7 lead into the half with a 5-yard touchdown pass by Carson Palmer.
Dansby's strategy entering the 2nd half was to run and protect the ball more as well as play smarter as a defense to not give up big-yardage plays. LaFell's plan was to protect and run ball more with Dansby's play of two deep safeties.
Both defenses came up big in the second half by not allowing any points and sharing interceptions, including a game-winning interception from Dansby and the Cardinals. Dansby's stated after the game that "Defense wins championships. We had five turnovers today. The D played well. Had to shake a little rust off the sticks, but got the job done, got the W."
