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The Panthers had another chance after Jake Delhomme lost this fumble, but came up short. (PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

NEW ORLEANS -- What the Saints left undone last December, they finished Sunday afternoon.

Ten and a half months ago, New Orleans could not hold back the Panthers in the final moments at the Louisiana Superdome, allowing a last-gasp drive to a game-winning field goal, rendering moot a 20-point comeback. But this year's edition of the Saints is far different from the one the Panthers vanquished then.

Instead of conceding a late-game score, the Saints landed the knockout punch, stopping the Panthers three times in the final three minutes and scoring on an Anthony Hargrove fumble recovery, dooming Carolina to a 30-20 loss Sunday afternoon.

Hargrove's score off a DeAngelo Williams fumble at the Carolina 1-yard-line sent most of the 70,011 on hand into hysterics, while leaving the Panthers to lament how a 14-0 start and a 17-6 halftime lead devolved into their first loss in Louisiana in eight years.

"The first thing that went through my mind was, 'Game over,'" quarterback Jake Delhomme said of the fumble. "We had no timeouts. Right there, that was the first thing that went through my mind."

The result pushed the Saints to 8-0, matching their win total from last year and securing their best start in a 43-season existence. The Panthers dropped to 3-5, their worst midseason record in five years and two games behind the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons, the two teams who hold the wild-card positions. Both beat the Panthers in September.

"It's not good," Delhomme said. "Four and four would have been great, I don't think there's any doubt."

"We just dug outselves a deeper hole, but it's still not over," linebacker Jon Beason said. "We're halfway. We've got five of the next eight at home and hopefully things work out in our favor. But today, it just didn't bounce our way."

A game that began with everything going in Carolina's favor went awry in the third quarter, when a pair of Saints touchdowns were bracketed by a 19-play, 73-yard march that consumed nine minutes and 47 seconds but yielded only a 25-yard John Kasay field goal after an aborted snap and a backfield collision on first-and-goal from the New Orleans 1 pushed the Panthers back six yards.

"That was a huge play in the game," head coach John Fox said.

Two snaps later, a pass to Williams skipped out of the receiver's grasp, and the Panthers settled for three points. Because of that, a potential 24-13 lead was just seven points, and six plays later a 54-yard Drew Brees-to-Robert Meachem touchdown created a 20-all deadlock as the fourth quarter began.

That touchdown pass -- Brees' second of the day -- might have been prevented if cornerback Chris Gamble could have stopped Meachem. But the Saints receiver bounced off Gamble and into the open field, picking up 31 yards after the catch.

"I've just got to make the tackle," Gamble said.

Carolina's defense rebounded in the final quarter, even after losing linebacker Thomas Davis to a knee injury with 10:40 remaining. Carolina stifled the Saints in the red zone with five minutes remaining, forcing end-zone incompletions on consecutive plays that led to a 40-yard John Carney field goal and a 23-20 Saints lead. One series later, the defense coaxed a three-and-out with 2:29 remaining, giving Carolina's offense another chance.

But it could not capitalize. On their first possession with a deficit, the Panthers used 11- and 19-yard passes from Delhomme to Gary Barnidge and Tyrell Sutton to move into New Orleans territory. But the drive stalled on consecutive deep incompletions from the Saints 43, then died when Delhomme was sacked by Will Smith on fourth-and-8.

The second-down incompletion was intended for wide receiver Steve Smith, who went one way while the pass sailed another.

"I lost the ball," Smith said. "I didn't see the ball until it hit the ground. (It was an) honest mistake; it happens."

Carolina got the football back at its 2-yard-line after the subsequent Saints three-and-out, but Williams lost the football and Hargrove recovered for the touchdown, accounting for the final margin.

It was a full reversal from the game's opening, when the Panthers burst out of the locker room after kickoff and raced to a 14-0 lead in the game's first nine minutes on 66- and 7-yard scampers by Williams. His second score was set up when Tyler Brayton sacked Brees, forcing a fumble that Beason recovered at the New Orleans 11-yard-line.

But the Panthers wouldn't cross the goal line after that. Three more forays into the New Orleans red zone netted just six points.

As has been the case through most of the last few weeks, the Panthers leaned upon the run, and in the first three quarters, the Panthers had 33 rushes to just 13 pass plays. They averaged 5.2 yards on their carries and 4.2 yards when they took to the air.

But in the fourth quarter, the Panthers were forced to the air, with more than three times as many pass plays (19) as runs (six). This was due as much to long-yardage situations as the score, as the Panthers ran six plays on second, third or fourth downs with at least eight yards to gain when the game was either tied or within three points.

Delhomme completed nine of 18 fourth-quarter passes for 139 yards, but it wasn't enough.

"It's the same song. We need to get our passing game (going)," left tackle Jordan Gross said. "Our run attack, people are preparing for that. We need to get the passing game, get the ball more, tight ends, just keep working at it.

"We need to get more dangerous on offense."

But this loss, as with most defeats, belonged to the team, not to one segment of it.

"It hurts," Beason said. "We can play with them. We can play with anybody. We proved that for three and a half quarters.

"Down the stretch we've got to make more plays. We can't give them stuff, and that's what we did late in the game."