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January 11, 2004
Panthers pull out win
Carolina advances to next week's NFC championship game; St. Louis has 14-game home-winning streak come to an end
By Joe Menzer | JOURNAL REPORTER
When he caught the pass that finally ended yesterday's marathon game between the Carolina Panthers and the St. Louis Rams, wide receiver Steve Smith had no intention of slowing down until he reached the end zone. He didn't stop running until he had a remarkable 69-yard touchdown catch on a pass from quarterback Jake Delhomme that gave the Panthers a 29-23 victory in double overtime in what was without a doubt the greatest game in franchise history.
The win, in front of a crowd of 66,165 at the Edward Jones Dome, launched the Panthers into the NFC championship game a week from today against the winner of today's divisional playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles.
That game will be played at Ericsson Stadium if the Packers beat the Eagles, and in Philadelphia if the Eagles win. Kickoff already is set for 6:45 p.m. no matter the venue.
Smith's catch and run yesterday assured that the Panthers can keep their dreams of winning the Super Bowl alive for at least another week. It came on third down with the Panthers needing 14 yards to avoid punting the ball back to the Rams in a game that had more strange twists and turns than a 900-page Harry Potter novel.
The winning play was called X-Clown, and the Panthers used the break between the first and second overtime periods to tweak it a little and give Smith the chance to break a big play.
"It's called X-Clown because I'm always clowning around and messing it up in practice," Smith said. "I messed it up about 10 times in practice last week."
He didn't mess it up this time.
Smith caught Delhomme's strike in mid-stride at about the St. Louis 45-yard line, safety Jason Sehorn of the Rams slipped - and Smith was off to a date with destiny. But first he flashed back to one week earlier when he caught a long pass from Delhomme and darted toward the end zone, only to be caught from behind and pushed down at the 1-yard line in Carolina's 29-10 first-round playoff victory over Dallas.
"The first thing I thought was just catch it; don't be that guy (who drops a big pass)," Smith said. "Then when I caught it, my mind went back to last week when I had 28 messages on my phone. Fourteen of them were telling me I had a good game. The other 14 were like, 'How in the hell could you get caught on the 1?'
"That just played in my mind so much that I was going to make sure I didn't get caught on the 1 this time."
He didn't, and the Panthers advanced to the NFC championship game.
The Panthers thought they had won yesterday's game earlier, but so did the Rams. Both teams missed field goals in the first overtime, but only the Panthers made one that didn't count - when John Kasay kicked a 40-yarder, only to discover to his dismay that the ball hadn't been snapped before the 25-second play clock ran out.
Coach John Fox said that he was stunned when he realized what had happened.
"That is something I'm going to have to look at closer," Fox said. "(The officials) were fooling around with the ball, as far as the spot and getting the ball back in. They finally made the spot and we began our usual sequence, which was about the same as it always is. I was shocked when I saw that they had called delay of game."
The penalty cost the Panthers 5 yards. After two running plays, Kasay missed a 45-yard attempt wide to the right.
And the teams played on.
The Rams mounted a furious comeback from a 23-12 deficit to tie the game and force overtime.
The comeback started when Kasay missed his first field goal after making his first three to extend his all-time postseason streak of consecutive successful attempts to 13. But on a 53-yard attempt with 6:34 remaining in regulation yesterday, he missed when his effort hit the left crossbar and fell away.
That gave the Rams some life. Starting at their own 43-yard line, the Rams drove for their first touchdown, punching it in on a 1-yard run by Marshall Faulk after continuing a game-long trend of experiencing great difficulty once they got inside the Carolina 10-yard line. Faulk's touchdown and the two-point conversion that followed on a pass from St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger to wide receiver Dane Looker pulled the Rams to 23-20 with 2:39 left in regulation.
What followed was another in a series of amazing plays by both teams when Jeff Wilkins of the Rams recovered his own on-side kick attempt, immediately giving the Rams the ball back at their own 42-yard line.
"I saw the high hop and then I didn't see anyone catch it. It hit the ground again and I was like, 'Holy cow!' And it started bouncing back toward me," Wilkins said. "It was just a natural reaction to jump up for it. I was fortunate that it fell right into my hands."
Bulger then quickly completed three straight passes to advance the Rams to the Carolina 25-yard line. But then, with 42 seconds remaining, Coach Mike Martz of the Rams opened himself up to some serious second guessing.
Martz decided to run Faulk around the right end for 4 yards and then let the clock run down to three seconds before calling on Wilkins to kick the 33-yard field goal that tied it at 23 and set up the overtime.
The Rams were driving again when cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. made what teammate Brentson Buckner called "the play of the year." Manning wrestled a pass away from wide receiver Torry Holt for an interception that gave the Panthers the ball back and set up the winning touchdown by Smith three plays later on the first play of the second overtime.
"It was designed to hit or miss," Smith said.
They hit a home run with it, and now they're within one victory of making their first Super Bowl as a result.
"I've never seen a game quite like that," an exhausted Fox said.
Then he pointed to the jumble of sweaty, matted grey hair resting on top of his head.
"Just look at this hair," Fox said. "There were a lot of emotions in this one.... There were as wide a swing of peaks and valleys as you can have in a football game."
As has been the case virtually all year, the Panthers peaked at just the right time.
• Joe Menzer can be reached at jmenzer@wsjournal.com