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October 20, 2003
Titans hand Panthers first loss
Early mistakes help seal Carolina's fate in 37-17 defeat
By Joe Menzer | JOURNAL REPORTER
Kris Jenkins of the Carolina Panthers stood in front of his Ericsson Stadium locker stall yesterday, wearing a 1972 Miami Dolphins throwback jersey.
The Panthers' 37-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans that had become official about 30 minutes earlier made the snug No. 12 Bob Greise jersey seem even more out of place as it tugged at the 335-pound frame of the defensive tackle.
The "72 Dolphins - the only NFL team ever to go through a regular season unbeaten - can rest easy now, at least as far as the Panthers are concerned. The Panthers had joked all along that they weren't a serious threat to that remarkable record, and yesterday they displayed why it was true.
The Panthers fell behind early to the Titans, fumbling away the opening kickoff when Brad Hoover lost the ball in the sun. They never did find their usual game in front of an Ericsson Stadium crowd of 69,414, many of whom left the premises wondering how so much could go so wrong so fast in a season that until yesterday had been going so well. The loss snapped the Panthers' season-opening five-game winning streak, while the Titans improved to 5-2.
Coach John Fox of the Panthers was visibly upset with his team afterward.
"I had no visions of going undefeated," Fox said. "But I didn't want to lose a game like that."
Whatever could go wrong seemed to go wrong for the Panthers. After Hoover lost the fumble on the opening kickoff, running back DeShaun Foster later coughed up another one that was returned for a touchdown by the Titans. The Titans scored a touchdown on a trick play, even though the Panthers later argued that they saw it coming. Linebackers Dan Morgan and Brian Allen suffered injuries and had to leave the game - the oft-injured Morgan with a concussion after taking a knee to the head on the second play of the game, and Allen later with a groin injury.
Quarterback Jake Delhomme couldn't throw the ball effectively until it was too late, and running back Stephen Davis, who was held to a season-low 20 yards rushing on 11 carries, couldn't run it any better. Ricky Proehl, a usually sure-handed receiver, dropped a couple of passes - as did fellow receiver Muhsin Muhammad and others.
Meanwhile, the Titans were rolling up 294 yards of offense - in the first half. The Panthers during the same stretch struggled to total 58, and didn't even manage a first down until deep into the second quarter, when the game already was nearly 24 minutes old and the Panthers were behind 20-0.
Jenkins said that the loss might have been a blessing in disguise for the Panthers.
"Nobody wants to lose, but I think this was the best thing for us," Jenkins said. "I mean, we were flying pretty high at 5-0. We still have the rest of the season to go, and this is a reminder that on any given Sunday anybody can beat you. You can never forget that."
Hoover muffed the opening kickoff and Robaire Smith recovered for the Titans at the Carolina 30-yard line. Five plays later, the floodgates opened when quarterback Steve McNair of the Titans ran for a 7-yard touchdown.
The Titans scored a touchdown on their next possession as well, stunning the Panthers on fourth-and-2 when backup quarterback Billy Volek snuck onto the field and threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Eddie Berlin. Fox said that the Panthers spotted the fake-punt formation before Volek shifted to a shotgun formation and took the snap, and insisted that the Panthers had the right personnel on the field to defend the play.
But in the end, Karl Hankton of the Panthers didn't wrap up Berlin after the catch was made, and Berlin then turned what should have been about an 11-yard gain into a 50-yard touchdown.
"We didn't do a very good job on that play," Fox said. "It wasn't a surprise. We knew it was coming and had a play called to stop them. We just didn't execute it."
While the Panthers' offense continued to answer the Tennessee points' explosion with one three-and-out series after another, the Titans added two field goals by Gary Anderson to go up 20-0. And when the Panthers finally got on the board with a 53-yard field goal by John Kasay, the Titans answered with yet another touchdown on their next possession.
The Panthers could have held the Titans to another field goal on that occasion, but chose to accept a holding penalty that moved the Titans from the Carolina 12 to the 22-yard line - at the same time enabling them to replay third down after they had been stopped short of a first down. McNair took advantage of the unexpected opportunity to find wide receiver Drew Bennett for a 22-yard touchdown and a 27-3 lead with 11 seconds left in the first half.
Even when the Panthers finally struck for their first touchdown on a 67-yard pass from Delhomme to Steve Smith in the fourth quarter, it didn't take the Titans long to counter. On Carolina's next possession, defensive end Jevon Kearse caused DeShaun Foster of the Panthers to fumble - and linebacker Keith Bulluck scooped up the loose ball and returned it 32 yards for yet another touchdown and a 37-10 lead.
The Panthers closed out the scoring with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Delhomme to Nick Goings with 3:37 left.
Delhomme completed 31 of 49 pass attempts for 362 yards.
Davis averaged just 1.8 yards per carry, and the Panthers ran the ball 17 times for 44 yards and a 2.6 average.
"You never want to lose," Delhomme said. "It's a terrible feeling. It's not fun. I am miserable right now.
"We've got to come back (today) and get back to work. Let's try to have a good taste in our mouths next Sunday."
First, they'll have to spit this one out.
• Joe Menzer can be reached at jmenzer@wsjournal.com