You knew it was going to go down this way.
While the Panthers were rolling through the regular season on their way to the seventh 15-1 season in NFL history, the Seahawks were heating up on the opposite coast, stringing together wins down the stretch.
As the regular season wound down it felt like these two teams, separated by some 2,300 air miles, were on a collision course and destined to meet in the playoffs.
It took a flukish series of events in the wildcard game in frigid Minneapolis – an Adrian Peterson fumble, a Blair Walsh hooked, chip-shot field goal – to set the matchup.