TAMPA, Fla. -- Late in the third quarter Sunday, the Panthers appeared poised to cruise to victory. They led by 14 points, had shut out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the last 38 minutes and 24 seconds and hadn't even allowed them to run a play inside the Carolina 20-yard-line all day. They even had a positive turnover ratio after coming into the game with a league-worst minus-nine figure.
"You look at that first drive, there were some mistakes we wish we could have had back. Besides that, I think we played pretty well," said middle linebacker
Then two bugaboos of the first four games began biting the Panthers once again -- giveaways and returns for touchdowns.
Over the next nine minutes, the Panthers allowed their first touchdown return on kickoff return in 11 years and saw two Jake Delhomme passes get intercepted, the latter of which Tanard Jackson took into the end zone for a game-tying score.
The giveaways were the Panthers' second and third of the day. The touchdowns were the fourth and fifth scored via various returns by the Panthers this season, the most yielded by any team this year. And if not for a game-sealing touchdown drive, a solid defensive effort -- punctuated by four sacks and two takeaways -- would have gone for naught.
"I think we go out of our way to give people points otherwise," head coach John Fox said.
The struggles mirrored the previous two games at Dallas and at home with Washington. In Week 3 at Cowboys Stadium, Carolina's defense repeatedly solidified in the red zone, allowing the Cowboys just one touchdown, but an interception return by Terence Newman with the Panthers only trailing by six effectively ended all hopes. Thirteen days later, offensive turnovers forced the defense to set up at its 13- and one-yard-lines on a pair of series, leading to Washington's only two touchdowns.
The Panthers have allowed 125 points this year. Sixty-four of them -- nine touchdowns and a subsequent two-point conversion -- have been a result of returns or short fields (15 yards or less) set up by turnovers. Toss those out, and the defense has turned in a stout effort, averaging just 12.2 points against it per game -- and just 23 (7.7 per game) in the past three contests.
"I thought defensively the last couple of weeks we played well enough for us to win, and luckily it worked out that way today," Fox said.
That worked against the Redskins and Bucs, but as the first three weeks demonstrated, the Panthers can't afford to give the football away and win -- particularly through the air, where Carolina quarterbacks have thrown 11 interceptions.
"We need to be more precise in the pass game; I don't think there's any doubt, and I think we're all working towards that," said quarterback Jake Delhomme, who finished the day with nine completions in 17 attempts for 65 yards, a touchdown and the two second-half interceptions. "We're lucky it didn't come back to bite us today. It's something we're working towards. If teams are going to play us the way they've been, we've got to run the football like we did."
The last six games dating back to last January's divisional playoff have been difficult ones for Delhomme, who now carries a four-to-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio. But Delhomme was resolute Sunday in saying that the numbers haven't affected his confidence.
"It doesn't bother me one ounce. I know we scored on a touchdown pass (to
"But for me to lose confidence ... I'm not even close. Not even remotely close. I know what's going on. Sure, would we like our numbers to be better? Probably so. But who cares? We won."
WESLEY EJECTED:
"I was trying to see what the ref called on the play, and their whole team came and surrounded me," Wesley said. "I didn't know how to react to it ... I didn't see anything but a sea of white."
Moments later, Wesley had escaped to the safety of the Panthers' sideline, but soon headed to the locker room, where he was forced to remain for the balance of the game. Smith didn't return, either; he suffered a concussion but walked off the field under his own power.
Wesley said the collision happened when he "mis-timed" his surge toward Smith, last year's NFC Pro Bowl kick returner.
"The first time we punted the ball, he tried to do (something) like a fake fair catch, but he caught it and ran anyway, and I was kind of slow reacting to it," Wesley said. "We watched the film, and we know that he never fair-catches the ball; he always tries to do something with it."
Both player and coach maintained there was no malicious intent.
"I was just trying to make a play," Wesley said. "I would never try to hurt anybody or do anything like that."
"I know the kid (Wesley), I know the kid's character and I know he would never do anything intentionally like that," head coach John Fox said. "It's unfortunate that it happened, and I'm sure he'll learn from it."
SPLIT SECONDS: The game was played in unusually cool conditions for mid-October in Tampa, with the kickoff temperature registering 64 degrees and a stiff northerly wind of 17 miles per hour gusting throughout the game. The temperature rose to 66 during the contest, which was 25 degrees lower than the high temperature for their game at Raymond James Stadium last year, played just six days earlier on the calendar (Oct. 12) ... Carolina's third-down efficiency was its highest since Week 2, as the Panthers converted eight of 14 chances (57 percent). The Bucs, however, were nearly equal to the task, converting six of 11 opportunities (55 percent).
