Panthers Team Report
Yahoo! Sports
15 hours, 19 minutes ago
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Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Carolina Panthers is they were able to win despite quarterback Jake Delhomme on Sunday.
He was 7-of-27 for 72 yards against the Raiders and threw four picks, two deep in Carolina territory.
But the defense limited the Raiders to just two field goals and Carolina won 17-6.
“Being of a defensive background, I don’t think there’s anything ugly about a 17-6 win. Again, would I have liked our offense to play better? Yes,” coach John Fox said. “But I thought we ran the ball very effectively. I think DeAngelo Williams had arguably one of his best games here as a Panther. He made a lot of runs on his own, a lot of runs where he made people miss. To rush for that many yards—I’m still happy with it. There’s no question that we could have played better in the pass game, but it wasn’t just Jake.
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“There’s a couple of drops, a couple of better routes (that could have been run), a couple of better protections. Again, Jake’s a stand-up guy, and he’s going to take responsibility. I think his teammates appreciate that about him. I know that I do as a head coach. But it’s a scenario that we’ve got to work on. These games all have different personalities. We had a pretty good idea what kind of game that was going to be. They were going to challenge us to throw. We’ve had games like that in the past here and we’ve gotten better for it. I thought it was an outstanding job by our special teams and our defense, and when you win two out of three (phases), you usually win the game—and we did.”
Fox said Carolina’s struggles in the passing game were a result of the Raiders playing well and their own futility.
“I don’t want to take anything away from them (the Raiders). I thought they covered us down pretty good,” Fox said. “I thought they made it tough for us to run, but we were still able to run, so I think that one of the real bright spots was that. Most of that was against eight-man fronts—and aggressive eight-man fronts. I thought that was a real bright side. We just needed to be able to take more advantage of it in the pass game, and we weren’t able to—and it was a combination of both them and us.”
When asked if he chalked Sunday up to a bad game for Delhomme, Fox said, “I thought it was a real good day in our run game, and a not-so-good day in our pass game, and it’s not just Jake.”
Notes, Quotes
• Jonathan Stewart has been a non-factor of late for the Carolina Panthers and coach John Fox was asked if he thinks Stewart has hit the wall.
“He did miss two days of practice this week. That never helps,” Fox said. “He made some hard runs. Part of those (rushing) yards were his; there’s no doubt the bulk was DeAngelo. It goes that way. … It’s a long season, and we’re going to need him and he knows it and we know it. It’s nothing he’s done wrong.”
Stewart also has a number of runs for negative yards.
“I’m totally happy with Jonathan Stewart as well as DeAngelo Williams. That’s not changed,” Fox said.
• Defensive end Julius Peppers quieted his critics, who claim he doesn’t get enough sacks, by getting to the quarterback three times in Carolina’s 17-6 win over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.
For Peppers it was his first multi-sack game since Week 6 of last season when he had 1.5 sacks against Arizona and his first three-sack day since Nov. 13, 2006, against Tampa Bay.
“We did a good job. We got pressure on them and collapsed the pocket on them all day,” Peppers said. “That was key in this game. I know the offense struggled, but the defense came up big today and played big when we needed to.”
As a team, the Panthers had five sacks with defensive end Charles Johnson and linebacker Thomas Davis accounting for the other two.
The Panthers kept their defensive strategy fairly simple.
“We knew it was a situation where we wanted to get most of our pressure out of our front four, in particular our ends,” coach John Fox said. “I thought we had steady pressure around the corner from everybody, but Julius especially. I thought he did cause some havoc.”
Peppers now has seven sacks on the season.
“It feels good to get sacks,” Peppers said. “I won’t put a lot of stock into that because it’s misleading. But as far as for the outside people on the outside looking in, it was good to get those.”
• After struggling to move the ball for most of the first half, DeAngelo Williams took a first down handoff and burst through the line of scrimmage and raced 69 yards for a touchdown before being tackled as he crossed the goal line.
“It was a simple stretch play and Jeff Otah stretched his man out there and the linebacker kind of overran the play and the O-line did a great job of blocking. I just followed Brad Hoover and broke a few tackles and went in and scored,” Williams said. “But it was a total team effort. It’s great to be running down the field with Smitty (Steve Smith) running alongside of me giving me directions to the end zone.”
• John Fox is a pretty superstitious guy, so there was no way his wife, Robin, wasn’t coming on this road trip.
The only two games the Panthers lost have been against Minnesota and Tampa Bay, which happen to be the only two games Robin had missed this season.
“There’s a lot of pressure of me,” she joked before the game.
• John Fox chose to go with D.J. Hackett over Dwayne Jarrett as his No. 3 receiver on Sunday despite the steady development of Jarrett over the previous three weeks.
Hackett made a big 13-yard grab on third down on the first drive leading to Carolina’s first touchdown, but didn’t do much else.
When asked about deactivating Jarrett, Fox said, “It’s a numbers game. We activate four receivers and those are the four we chose.”
• The Raiders brought eight men in the box on Sunday and forced Jake Delhomme to beat them, which he struggled to do.
“They were playing a lot of man-to-man,” said Delhomme, who completed just 7 of 27 passes. “When I tried to hit check-downs, we just didn’t have it. We tried to run screens and it just wasn’t there. It was one of those days.”
• John Kasay’s personal streak of 21 consecutive field goals ended when he missed from 54 yards out at the end of the first half. Kasay’s boot, into a stiff wind, fell well short of the goal posts.
Kasay entered the game having converted all 16 field goals attempts this season.
Strategy And Personnel
PLAYER NOTES
• QB Jake Delhomme had his worst game as a pro on Sunday with four picks. He was 7-of-27.
-C Ryan Kalil left Sunday’s game near the end of the first quarter after being unable to push off on his previously injured sprained ankle. “He just had a little bit of a problem pushing off. No setbacks; but that did occur,” coach John Fox said. “It’s just that until you get out there in a game, sometimes you don’t totally know. Not that he was real (bad), it’s just that there was a problem pushing and they (the Raiders) were pretty big inside and we needed some push.”
• KR/PR Mark Jones was terrific for the Panthers on returns with a 59-yard kickoff return and 55-yard punt return. “I think there is improvement in the return game,” coach John Fox said. “We’ve, knock on wood, stayed healthier. We’ve got a little bit more experience as a return. Early in the year a year ago we had a rookie. I thought he (Ryne Robinson) improved as the year went on. I think Rhys Lloyd kicking off, I know that’s not the return game, but that affects your coverage. We’ve got guys that are coachable and are doing things right and are doing it under pressure. I think that’s probably the biggest difference.”
• WR Dwayne Jarrett was inactive Sunday.
• WR D.J. Hackett was Carolina’s No. 3 receiver.
REPORT CARD VS. RAIDERS
Passing Offense: F—Jake Delhomme had his worst statistical game as a pro, finishing 7-of-27 for 72 yards with four interceptions and one touchdown for a career-low 12.3 passer rating. In a word, he was terrible, and he’ll admit that. Delhomme overthrew a bunch of receivers and never could get in sync. After the game, coach John Fox said the Panthers will have to “take a closer look” at the passing game. Steve Smith was held to just one catch for nine yards. Muhsin Muhammad had three grabs for 38 yards and a score but also dropped a ball on third down.
Rushing Offense: B-minus—It was by no means a dominant rushing performance by the Panthers, but DeAngelo Williams managed 140 yards on 19 carries, 69 of those coming on a touchdown run up the middle in the second quarter. Take away that one run and the Panthers averaged just 3.4 yards per carry against the league’s 30th-ranked run defense. But Williams’ run, which included a 360-degree spin, was tremendous and a key part of the game, giving the Panthers a 14-0 lead. Jonathan Stewart, playing with a sore heel, added 21 yards on seven carries.
Pass Defense: A-plus—The Panthers turned in a dominant performance, registering five sacks and two interceptions. Andrew Walter, starting for the injured JaMarcus Russell, completed just 14 of 32 passes for 143 yards with two interceptions for a passer rating of 31.1. Oakland’s wide receivers were a non-factor with Javon Walker limited to two catches for 27 yards.
Rush Defense: B-minus—The Raiders were able to run the ball a little bit on the Panthers, finishing with 147 yards on 36 carries, a 4.1-yard average. Justin Fargas was particularly effective with 89 yards rushing on 22 carries, but the Raiders had nothing to balance out their running game.
Special Teams: A—The Panthers forced a fumble on the opening kickoff which led to a touchdown. Mark Jones had a 59-yard kickoff return and a 55-yard punt return in what was clearly his best game of the season. Carolina’s coverage teams were outstanding, limiting the Raiders to 2.4 yards per punt return and 18 yards per kickoff return. John Kasay’s streak of 21 straight field goals ended when he missed a 54-yarder into the wind. He did hit from 32 yards late in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Coaching: C—The Panthers looked flat on offense, but everyone insists that wasn’t from having a week off. The Panthers claim they had their best week of practice last week on offense, although it didn’t translate into production on the field. When you have a weapon like Steve Smith you have to get him involved in the offense, and the Panthers did not. From a defensive standpoint, the Panthers were fantastic. The Raiders had 17 offensive possessions on Sunday, but managed just six points.
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