|
|
January 25, 2004
Sly Moves: Fox has led Panthers to Super Bowl
By Joe Menzer | JOURNAL REPORTER
CHARLOTTE - To truly understand the remarkable run to the Super Bowl by the Carolina Panthers, one of the best places to start is last Dec. 8.
The Panthers had just lost their third game in a row. Suddenly, nothing seemed certain. Not the NFC South division title; not the playoffs; not even a winning record.
The Panthers were 8-5 and reeling from their third loss in a row - an emotional overtime defeat at Atlanta, when wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad inexplicably stopped running his pass route. A pass that might have ended up in his hands was intercepted instead and returned for the winning touchdown by cornerback Kevin Mathis of the Falcons.
That night and again the very next day, Coach John Fox missed no opportunity to publicly point out Muhammad's mistake. But by the time the team returned to practice the next Wednesday, Fox was defending his player and grudgingly, in his own way, admitting that he may have made a mistake of his own by being so harsh on one of his own in the first place.
At first glance, the whole mess appeared to be one more sign of the Panthers who had begun the season with five consecutive wins, continuing to tighten up and disappear, leaving a less confident, less effective team in its place.
Thus began a string of mostly subtle December moves by Fox that set the Panthers back on the right path, the one that ultimately led them to Super Bowl XXXVIII and a date against the New England Patriots a week from today at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Here is a look at five key coaching decisions by Fox, outside of the usual game-day Xs and Os, that led the Panthers to Super Sunday:
1. Before the game at Arizona on Dec. 14, Fox asked three veterans - center Jeff Mitchell, wide receiver Ricky Proehl and tight end Jermaine Wiggins - to speak to the rest of the team about not wasting the opportunity that was right in front of them. Mitchell, Proehl and Wiggins had more than the fact that they were Panthers' teammates in common. Each also had previously won a Super Bowl ring with another team.
The effect was to have the Panthers approach the game with the lowly Cardinals with an almost playoff-like intensity, which ended being required because the Cards weren't the pushovers their 3-10 record indicated they should be. A 49-yard field goal by place-kicker John Kasay of the Panthers with four seconds left in regulation secured a hard-fought 20-17 victory, clinching a winning season, the NFC South division title and a playoff berth. From that point forward, the Panthers began playing looser and with newfound - or at least rediscovered - confidence.
2. Fox inserted rookie Ricky Manning Jr. into the starting lineup at cornerback at Arizona.
True, it was done that day because of a minor injury that sidelined usual starter Reggie Howard - but Manning stayed in the lineup the next week when the other usual starting corner, Terry Cousin, sat out because of a calf injury. Fox seemed to sense that Manning, a third-round pick out of UCLA, was ready to step it up, and he was right.
By the time the Panthers got to the final regular-season game against the New York Giants, both Howard and Cousin were healthy. Fox left Manning in the lineup ahead of Cousin, and Manning responded with his third interception of the season, which he returned 27 yards for a touchdown. He has gone on to become perhaps the team's biggest star in the playoffs, coming up with potentially a game- and season-saving interception in overtime at St. Louis in the NFC divisional playoff victory and three more interceptions in the NFC championship game at Philadelphia.
3. After getting beat up at Arizona, running back Stephen Davis told reporters that he "was hurting all over." Yet Davis still wanted to play the next week in a seemingly meaningless game against the Detroit Lions at Ericsson Stadium. Fox steadfastly refused. He knew how valuable grabbing some extra rest for his bruising back would be, even if Davis seemed at first to resist the idea.
When Davis returned the next week, playing only the first half of the blowout win against the Giants, he suddenly looked like the Davis of the first half of the season, when he averaged 5.1 yards per carry and 124 yards per game. Fox again wisely pulled Davis after making sure he was ready for the playoffs - and even though Davis eventually suffered a quadriceps strain at St. Louis that limited him in the NFC championship game, it could be argued that Fox kept that injury from being worse by resting Davis as much as possible down the stretch of the regular season.
4. Fox didn't hesitate to return middle linebacker Dan Morgan to the starting lineup, no questions asked, against Detroit.
Some coaches might have given up on the injury-prone Morgan, especially since he was a first-round draft pick under the previous coaching regime. But Fox, ever the defensive expert, has known all along that the Panthers never could have advanced this far without Morgan manning the middle. Morgan not only makes the Panthers better against the run because of his ability to stuff the middle and race from sideline to sideline with remarkable speed, but he's also adept at dropping into pass coverage when necessary and getting to the quarterback on the occasional blitz.
Perhaps more important, Fox never let on that he might have been losing patience with Morgan earlier in the season - when Morgan encountered great difficulty recovering from a concussion suffered early in an Oct. 19 game against Tennessee. Morgan essentially played in about half of the regular-season games, starting in 11 but leaving a total of three others, including two before the first half was over, because of recurring dizziness and headaches. Now Morgan is healthy and he is the Panthers' leading tackler in the playoffs.
5. Beginning in Arizona partially because the Panthers were playing from behind again at the end, Fox and offensive coordinator Dan Henning began opening up the offense a little more. Quarterback Jake Delhomme completed 20 of 32 passes for 236 yards at Arizona, 29 of 35 for 260 yards and two touchdowns the next week against Detroit. Wide receiver Steve Smith was used more often and more wisely. Muhammad began a month-long stretch that would atone for his gaffe in Atlanta. You got the idea that Delhomme could easily have passed for 400 yards in the season finale against the Giants, but he settled for 191.
So it is going into the Super Bowl that while the Panthers still rely mostly on Davis and the running game, plus their stout defense, they have confidence in a passing game that pretty much was kept under wraps at Philadelphia.
Delhomme passed only 14 times, but it no longer appears to be because the coaching staff is afraid of him making the big mistake. If he has to pass in the Super Bowl, he will - and Fox won't cringe.
The Patriots almost certainly will attempt to shut down the run first, meaning passing opportunities should be available.
• Joe Menzer can be reached at jmenzer@wsjournal.com