|
|
September 08, 2003
Panthers nip Jags
Second-half comeback is spurred by new Panthers
By Joe Menzer | JOURNAL REPORTER
The new-look Carolina Panthers failed to show up for the first half of yesterday's regular-season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Ericsson Stadium, looking every bit the part of the old version of the team.
That all changed in the second half. Buoyed by three free agents signed in the off-season who were all too silent in the first half, the Panthers battled back from a 17-point deficit and held on for a thrilling 24-23 victory in front of a crowd of 64,357.
It was the largest comeback in the Panthers ' nine-year history.
Quarterback Jake Delhomme, who replaced starter Rodney Peete at the start of the second half, hit wide receiver Ricky Proehl with a 12-yard touchdown pass on fourth down with 16 seconds remaining to provide the winning margin. The second-half revival of an offense that had been miserable in the first half was also given a lift by running back Stephen Davis, who rushed for 111 yards on 22 carries.
Neither Delhomme, Proehl nor Davis were on the Panthers ' roster a year ago. They hadn't experienced the kind of late-game heartbreak that strong safety Mike Minter had grown used to during his six previous seasons, making it symbolic that Minter put his own finishing touch on yesterday's win by blocking a 55-yard field goal attempt by Seth Marler, Jacksonville's placekicker, as time expired.
"It feels good to be on the winning side of something like this. We've been on the other side so many times," Minter said.
The Panthers were dead in the water in the first half, when Peete and their supposedly new-and-improved offense managed to produce one first down and 36 yards of total offense. The Jaguars, who had struck first on a 2-yard touchdown run by fullback Marc Edwards, took a 14-0 lead into the locker room when they stunned Minter and the Carolina defense with a 33-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mark Brunell to wide receiver Matthew Hatchette on the last play of the half.
The key, according to Minter and others, was that Coach John Fox didn't permit the Panthers to panic.
"It was tough, coming in here at halftime," Minter said. "Everyone was mad. Everyone was sort of keeping to themselves. But I think Coach Fox did a great thing then. He brought everybody together and said, 'Okay, guys, we've got another half. Let's get it together and play our kind of football.' That's all he needed to say."
Proehl added: "As a team, we were embarrassed by our performance in the first half. We just rallied behind each other. We started getting the running game going, and then we started making some plays in the passing game."
They started doing the latter with Delhomme as the quarterback instead of Peete, who completed just 4 of 10 passes for 19 yards in a dismal first-half performance that, he acknowledged afterward, probably cost him the starting job.
Delhomme entered the game with the Panthers trailing 17-0 after the Jaguars began the second half with a 10-play drive and a 40-yard field goal by Marler. He said that his first words in the huddle were simple.
"I told the guys, 'Let's do this one drive at a time. Let's get some points on the board right now, on this drive, even if it's just a field goal,'" said Delhomme, who promptly moved the Panthers to the Jacksonville 13-yard behind the hard running of Davis and a 27-yard pass interference penalty on the Jaguars.
From there, Delhomme wasn't about to settle for a field goal. He drilled a 13-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad, and place-kicker John Kasay's extra point kick made it 17-7.
The Panthers cut it to 17-10 on a 49-yard field goal by Kasay on the first play of the fourth quarter, and then made it 17-12 when special-teamer Rod Smart blocked a punt that Chris Hanson of the Jaguars ran down and booted out of the end zone to and rob the rapidly pursuing Smart of the chance to pounce on it for a Carolina touchdown.
Delhomme wasn't perfect, though, and he threw the first of two interceptions to kill off another potential scoring drive at the Jacksonville 7 the next time the Panthers had the ball. One possession later, though, he was at it again - and he didn't even let the instant-replay reversal of an apparent 26-yard touchdown pass to Muhammad faze him.
Two plays after the Muhammad score was nullified (officials determined that he had lost possession of the ball when he hit the ground and did not regain it until he had rolled out of bounds), Delhomme found wide receiver Steve Smith for a 24-yard touchdown that gave the Panthers their first lead, at 18-17 with 6:10 remaining. A subsequent attempt at a 2-point conversion failed.
That lead lasted all of 56 seconds before Brunell burned cornerback Terry Cousin for a 65-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jermaine Lewis, putting the Jaguars back on top 23-18. Their ensuing attempt at a 2-point conversion attempt also failed.
Delhomme was intercepted again on Carolina's next possession, but the Panthers ' defense forced a Jacksonville punt after three plays. With 3:34 to go, Delhomme and the Panthers ' offense were back in business at their own 46, thanks to a 36-yard punt return by Smith.
That was plenty of time to mount the drive that ended with Delhomme's touchdown pass to Proehl. To Minter, that play and his subsequent block of Marler's 55-yard field-goal attempt signaled the beginning of a new, better era for the Panthers , who haven't made the playoffs since 1996.
Minter celebrated after his block by running to the east end of the stadium and jumping up to slap hands with screaming fans.
"We hung in there until our offense could start making plays. When they started making plays, I think that energized the whole stadium. They put life back into us," Minter said.
"Six years I've been around here, and we weren't doing what we were supposed to be doing. To be down 17-0 and show everybody that this is a team that's going to fight and win some football games, man, I just wanted to go to the crowd and tell them to stick with us, that we're going to be something special."
• Joe Menzer can be reached at jmenzer@wsjournal.com