Chicago ? Steve Smith and the Carolina Panthers road show left Chicago’s vaunted defense face down and out of the playoffs.

Now it’s off to Seattle for the NFC championship, where the Panthers will have to rely on their playmaker more than ever.

Smith had 12 catches for a career-high 218 yards and two long touchdowns, including a 58-yard scoring reception on the second play from scrimmage, to lead Carolina to a 29-21 victory against the Bears on Sunday.

It sends the fifth-seeded Panthers into their second championship game in three years. But they’ll go without running back DeShaun Foster, who broke his ankle late against the Bears, leaving Smith as their only true offensive threat.

“All we’ve got to do is keep plugging,” Smith said. “Guys got to step it up and I think they will. We will play it by ear after that.”

But with Smith on their side, the Panthers like their chances.

“He is as tough a competitor as you can find at any position,” Carolina coach John Fox said. “He does well home or away.”

Carolina Panthers' Steve Smith (89) gets away from Chicago Bears' linebacker Lance Briggs. Smith has 218 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday's NFC divisional playoff game in Chicago.

Smith carried the Panthers this entire year, his comeback season after missing 15 games in 2004 with a broken leg. He returned better than ever and ended the regular season as the NFL leader with 1,563 yards receiving.

The Bears should have known what to expect out of him – after all, Smith had a career-high 14 catches for 169 yards in their first meeting, a 13-3 Chicago victory. The Bears spent all week boasting about that win, which only fired up Smith and his teammates.

“Last time we played them I had 14 (catches) but we didn’t score,” Smith said. “All I heard all week long was what I didn’t do. We were ready for whatever they threw at us.”

He proved it by catching the Bears off guard just 55 seconds into the game.

Smith beat Charles Tillman on the Panthers’ second snap, leaving him face down on the ground as Smith reeled in a long pass from Delhomme.

Smith has done it time and time again this year en route to his first All-Pro season.

“I’m just really utilizing my talents,” he said. “They throw me the ball, my job is to catch it. If I don’t catch the ball, they will get somebody in here who will. I’ve got four people at home depending on me to do my job, so I can’t come home with excuses.

“If you lined up my mama out there, I got to catch it over her, too.”