|
|
November 17, 2003
Panthers rally yet again
Carolina survives turnovers to beat Washington for first time in regular season with its fifth second-half comeback of year
By Joe Menzer | JOURNAL REPORTER
On his first play of the day yesterday at Ericsson Stadium, running back Stephen Davis ran into the Carolina Panthers' record books - and fumbled away the football, presenting the Washington Redskins with a golden opportunity.
On the last play of the day for the Carolina offense, Davis scored the winning touchdown on a 3-yard run and took away the Redskins' opportunity to pull off an upset in front of 70,029. Davis' touchdown came with 1:09 remaining and gave the Panthers a 20-17 victory that was their first in seven regular-season tries against the Redskins.
In between there was so much that happened, and not all of it involved Davis and his personal grudge match against the Washington team that chose to let him go after last season.
Davis had a big day - rushing for 92 hard-earned yards on 28 carries and catching two passes for 40 yards, including a 25-yarder on fourth-and-1 to keep the Panthers' winning touchdown drive alive with 2:50 left to play. But Davis was only one part of the Carolina offense.
For the second week in a row, quarterback Jake Delhomme led the Panthers offense on a long do-or-die drive as the game drew to a close. This time, they marched 71 yards on seven plays after the Redskins had taken their first and only lead on a 10-yard pass from quarterback Patrick Ramsey, to wide receiver Darnerien McCants with 4:24 left to go.
The 17-13 Washington lead was short-lived because Delhomme didn't panic and Davis was determined, perhaps even more so than earlier in the game. The fifth second-half comeback victory of the year for the Panthers improved the record of Coach John Fox's team to 8-2 while the Redskins fell to 4-6.
"We find a way to make it interesting," Fox said.
Delhomme, who completed 20 of 30 passes for 317 yards, said that he was calm on the final drive and why not? He had to accomplish the same feat only seven days earlier to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-24 on the same field.
"I can't say that it's nerve-racking because you can't feel nerves," Delhomme said. "You just have to go out and play. I think we feel comfortable in what we are doing. We knew we needed to get it done and basically that's it.
"If you go into a drive like that playing and trusting your instincts and your reads, and you just let it fly and trust your receivers to make plays for you, then you have the confidence that you're going to get the job done."
The two biggest plays on the final drive were the Delhomme-to-Davis swing pass on fourth-and-1 from the Carolina 38-yard line, and on the very next play when Delhomme dropped a long bomb into the hands of a leaping Steve Smith for a 30-yard gain to the Washington 7-yard line.
"Once we made the big play to Stephen, I felt like the pressure shifted from us to them. The pressure was on them to try and stop us," Delhomme said.
The Redskins didn't really do that all afternoon. The Panthers rolled up 427 yards of total offense, but kept stopping themselves earlier with costly mistakes. Twice Delhomme was intercepted - but on both occasions, the ball slipped right through the hands of his intended receivers, first Muhsin Muhammad and later Smith.
There also was the lost fumble by Davis on the first offensive play of the game, and a later lost fumble by Muhammad following a catch. The first lost fumble, after an 8-yard run that made Davis only the second Panther in the team's nine-year history to rush for more than 1,000 yards, presented the Redskins with an immediate scoring opportunity; the second terminated a possible scoring drive by the Panthers.
But the Redskins made a number of their own mistakes, including two potential touchdown passes that were overthrown by Ramsay. But the first and perhaps most costly Washington error came when running back Rock Cartwright fumbled away the ball at the goal line shortly after the Redskins recovered Davis' fumble at the Carolina 25.
The Cartwright fumble was caused by Brentson Buckner of the Panthers and was recovered in the end zone by Shane Burton.
"We had the turnovers early and the defense made the stops," Buckner said. "But when we needed the offense, they came up with some drives.
"This was a totally team effort today."
The offense's only other touchdown drive was capped by a brilliant call on fourth-and-1 at the Washington 1-yard line on Carolina's first possession of the second half and with the scored tied 3-3. Delhomme faked a handoff to Davis in the backfield and rolled to his left, where he practically walked into the end zone untouched behind left guard Jeno James - who couldn't even find a Redskin defender to block at first.
"It was a great call," Delhomme said. "I'm sure they assumed that we were going to give it to Stephen."
The Panthers, whose only other points came on short field goals by John Kasay, did that often enough. But in the end, they had to throw it some to pull off another improbable comeback victory.
Strong safety Mike Minter said that the Carolina defense watched with confidence as Delhomme and Davis and the rest of the offense took the field with 4:13 remaining and a 17-13 deficit to overcome.
"When you've done something like that before, you're not scared. You've already walked that fight.... And then if you get the ball down there to the 7-yard line, you know we're going to get it in because all we've got to do is hand it off to Stephen Davis. So there was no stopping us," Minter said.
The officials ordered up an instant-replay review of Davis' final run, as free safety Matt Bowen punched the football loose just after Davis appeared to break the plane of the goal line for a touchdown. But after a quick review, the touchdown stood - and soon thereafter, so did the Panthers' first regular-season victory ever against the Redskins.
Buckner said that it wasn't all about Davis yesterday. He said that the Panthers wanted to win for owner Jerry Richardson as well.
"This one was for Stephen and it was for our owner. Before he came into the Carolinas and Carolina didn't have a team, this was Redskin country," Buckner said. "You could see by our (crowd at the) stadium today that this meant a lot to everyone. It means a lot to the owner. He's not one of those owners who comes around a lot and is very vocal, but we know deep down in our hearts that, hey, this was a victory that he wanted.
"So it feels good. We've got that monkey off our back. Now we can quit hearing about how the Panthers have never beaten the Redskins in a regular-season game. It's just a great feeling."
• Joe Menzer can be reached at jmenzer@wsjournal.com