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February 02, 2004
Wrong Ending
By John Dell | JOURNAL REPORTER
HOUSTON - Wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad of the Carolina Panthers had seen this way too many times this season.
The Panthers found themselves in another close game last night, but this time it was Super Bowl XXXVIII against the New England Patriots, and the stakes were higher than ever before.
"I thought the script went perfectly," Muhammad said. "Those are the games you live for, to have an opportunity to have a 2-minute drive at the end of the game and catch the game-winning touchdown."
Muhammad's biggest catch was an 85-yard pass from quarterback Jake Delhomme with 6:53 left that gave the Panthers a 22-21 lead. It was the first time in eight games that the Patriots had trailed.
The Delhomme-to-Muhammad hookup was the longest touchdown pass in Super Bowl history, something that caught Muhammad off-guard.
"Was that a record?" Muhammad asked. "I didn't realize it was a record. I never quit on the play. I just kept running on it, and I saw Jake heave it up, and I said 'OK.'I was smiling when it came down."
Muhammad shook off a lackluster first half in which he had two drops. He had another dropped pass in the third quarter, but he ended up with four catches for 140 yards and the long touchdown.
He could have had more, but he looked as if he was pressing in the first half to make the big play.
"One of (the drops) was a pretty good hit, and that was really the only one I dropped," Muhammad said. "The guy hit me pretty good, and I didn't see him. He kind of took my legs out from under me."
Muhammad said that the reason the Panthers put up a fight in the second half was they had to abandon their running game.
"As an offense, I figured if we weren't going to be able to run the ball it's going to turn into a shootout," Muhammad said. "I figured this game would a low-scoring game or it would be a shootout."
It was really both because, through the first 25 minutes, or so neither team could manage to score. The Patriots finally scored with 3:05 left in the half, a record for the longest start to a Super Bowl without any points.
Muhammad made a clutch 23-yard catch on the Panthers' first scoring drive late in the half.
After the Panthers tied the game with 1:08 to play, Muhammad said he thought the game would be decided in overtime, but it never got that far.
"They made the play at the end," Muhammad said. "And I think all the fans out there, if you weren't a Patriot fan or a Carolina fan, you got a great game. And it was a great game and both teams played their hearts out, and they made the last play to win it."
If not for the Panthers' defense in the first half, it could have been a blowout. But Muhammad said that when one unit of the team isn't doing so well the other usually picks up the slack.
"I don't think at any point in the game we were going to lay it down," he said. "We weren't going to quit. It was just another situation where we fell behind a little bit and we stayed in the game."
Muhammad was asked to describe the mood of the Panthers' locker room. "It's quiet," he said.
"I think a lot of guys really understand where we were and understand it's a hurtful feeling. But I think we can take something positive away from this."
• John Dell can be reached at jdell@wsjournal.com.