At full-throttle, Panthers barely recognizable
By Scott Fowler
sfowler@charlotteobserver.com
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/gameday/story/386277.html
GREEN BAY, Wis. – A flea flicker on the first play. A 54-yard deep throw in the final two minutes. Five trips to the red zone that resulted in five touchdowns.
What we saw from the Carolina Panthers Sunday in their 35-31 road win over Green Bay – one of the most entertaining games in franchise history – was aggressiveness. This was the sort of aggressiveness the Panthers should be applauded for, because they don’t exhibit it very often. This was the sort of aggressiveness that makes a football team hard to beat and easy to like.
The Panthers roared through this game with the volume cranked all the way up.
And for once, their opponent got cautious first.
Green Bay’s decision to kick a field goal on fourth-and-goal from the 1, with the game tied at 28 and two minutes left, will haunt coach Mike McCarthy the rest of the season. Carolina immediately got the ball back and scored in two plays, slicing through the snow and silencing the fans at Lambeau Field much like Steve Beuerlein’s quarterback draw had silenced them nine years before.
Even the Panthers’ mistakes were made at full speed. Julius Peppers got too aggressive with Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers late in the fourth quarter, getting called for a late hit out of bounds on a Rodgers scramble.
The call was correct and gave Green Bay first-and-goal at the 7 with 3:52 to go, but it was the last bad play the Panthers made. From there, they played near-perfect football: A goal-line stand to force the field goal, a 45-yard kickoff return by Mark Jones, an unbelievable catch by Smith, DeAngelo Williams’ fourth TD run and, finally, an interception by linebacker Jon Beason to seal it.
The Panthers (9-3) reminded the NFL Sunday that they will be a team to be reckoned with in December and January. And they started early.
Normally in the first quarter, Carolina just hands off and hopes for the best. This time, on the first play of scrimmage, DeAngelo Williams took a handoff as usual – and then pitched it back to Delhomme.
Delhomme had known since Saturday night that offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson planned the flea flicker for the first play of the game. Most of the other offensive players found out shortly before kickoff.
“A brilliant call,” wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad said.
“A great call,” Delhomme said.
Very true -- even though it didn’t really work.
Delhomme underthrew the flea-flicker pass, or a wide-open Muhammad might have scored. Muhammad did catch it for a 44-yard gain, but then had it poked away by Tramon Williams. The lost fumble ended Carolina’s first drive on its first play.
Yet the play set a tone. Carolina was going to make its mistakes – and wow, did it ever make them in the defensive secondary – but the Panthers weren’t going to play tentatively.
Carolina’s offensive line was a force at the goal line, as the team scored on five brutish 1-yard runs. The defensive line had issues, but keyed that late goal-line stand.
And of course, there was Smith’s personal Lambeau leap, as he out-jumped Charles Woodson for the 54-yard catch. Smith was actually Delhomme’s second option on the play -- the quarterback was originally going to throw a short slant to Muhammad.
So, instead of throwing a two-yard checkdown pass when the 15-yarder wasn’t open, which is what most NFL quarterbacks do, Delhomme threw a 50-yarder. Smith somehow came down with it, as he’s done so many times, despite the snow and rain.v Did the weather affect Smith at all?
“I played in Utah, man,” Smith said, referring to his college. “C’mon. We played in Boulder, Colo. In Wyoming, I once played in negative-20 degree weather. I’ve played in a game where they were using a sledgehammer to get the boulder of ice out of the middle of the end zone…. I actually have had my best games in the snow.”
Then came Williams for his team-record fourth TD. Williams glanced around Lambeau Field before the run, because he has a nice appreciation for big moments.
“I was looking up at the names [like Bart Starr and Reggie White] that ring the stadium,” Williams said. “The snow was falling. You could see your breath. It was unbelievable. Just hearing the words ‘frozen tundra’ gives me the chills.”
Then Williams scored, and the Panthers survived.
The Panthers won not because they were necessarily the better team – these two squads looked dead-even all day – but because they were the more aggressive one.
That’s a lesson Carolina should note closely as the season enters the final turn.