- The Carolina Panthers planned to use Sunday night's
showdown with the Dallas Cowboys to showcase themselves in front of a national
television audience. Instead, the Panthers demonstrated why they are the NFC's
biggest disappointment of the season's first half.
The game started out like a dream come true for Carolina, which built a 14-0
lead after one quarter, but ended up being a nightmare fitting of the
Halloween season when the Cowboys erupted for 25 fourth-quarter points to come
away with a shocking 35-14 win.
The Panthers failed to execute in nearly every facet of the game down the
stretch. Three fourth-quarter turnovers were turned into 22 Dallas points. The
offense, plagued by dropped passes and shaky blocking up front, was lifeless
after the early stages. The defense was shredded in the second half by Tony
Romo, the Cowboys' quarterback who came in with zero NFL starts and 27 career
passes under his belt.
'We haven't found a way to finish a game yet, and this was probably as poor of
a performance in the fourth quarter that I've been associated with,' said a
terse Panthers head coach John Fox following the loss. We dropped balls. We
fumbled balls. We didn't tackle. It's probably as poor of 14 minutes as I've
ever seen.'
That's saying an awful lot, considering Carolina's lack of success late in
games during some of their other defeats this season. The Panthers were
dominated in the second half in a 17-14 loss at Cincinnati just last week,
while a botched play on special teams helped enable Minnesota to rally for a
16-13 overtime victory back in mid-September.
Now the team anointed by many as the NFC's best heading into this season
enters its bye week with a pedestrian 4-4 record and a number of areas to
correct.
'It might give us a chance to get healthy and find some guys who can finish
games,' said Fox of the upcoming bye.
TURNING POINT
The snowball began for the Panthers immediately after Dallas had pulled within
one point on Mike Vanderjagt's short field goal with just under 10 minutes to
play. Carolina fullback Brad Hoover then mishandled the ensuing kickoff and
the Cowboys recovered, setting up Julius Jones' 14-yard touchdown run that
gave the visitors a 19-14 lead. Romo would connect with Terrell Owens for the
two-point conversion to extend the margin to seven.
'I made a mistake that cost us the game,' Hoover remarked. 'It's one of those
things. I thought I was going to be able to field it cleanly. It took a weird
hop to the right and got by me.'
GROUNDED
Of the 414 yards the Panthers surrendered during Sunday's debacle, 156 of them
came via the ground. It's the fourth time this season Carolina has surrendered
100 or more rushing yards, and the team has lost all four times.
The Panthers yielded an average of only 91.6 rushing yards per game last
season, the fourth-best mark in the league. This year Carolina ranks just 20th
overall in that category with an average of 119.8 yards allowed.
It looked like the Panthers had few, if any, holes on the defensive side of
the ball when this season started. However, it's clear the club misses the
presence of standout middle linebacker Dan Morgan, who suffered a season-
ending concussion in Week 1, as well as the free-agent departures of Will
Witherspoon (Rams) and Brandon Short (Giants) during the offseason. Former
Packer Na'il Diggs has disappointed in place of Short on the weak side, while
second-year man Thomas Davis -- a converted safety -- still remains a work in
progress.
KEY DROP
Keyshawn Johnson faced the Cowboys for the first time since being released
by Dallas during the offseason, and failed to get a measure of revenge. The
veteran wide receiver had just one reception for 19 yards and dropped a sure
touchdown pass with Carolina clinging to a 14-10 lead in the third quarter.
Johnson got past Dallas' Anthony Henry down the right sideline and was in
position to catch quarterback Jake Delhomme's perfectly-thrown deep ball, but
allowed the pass to bounce off his fingers.
'If I catch that touchdown pass and I walk into the end zone instead of taking
my eyes off the ball and looking toward the end zone first, now it's 21-10,'
said a dejected Johnson afterward. 'Then things start to happen a little bit
different for us, and then all of a sudden things just go wrong.'
The Cowboys also held Johnson's counterpart, the always-dangerous Steve Smith,
in check. The All-Pro wideout, who entered the day averaging a league-best 115
receiving yards per game, had a season-low 55 yards on six catches and
seemingly had Dallas corner Terence Newman on his hip pocket all night long.
Smith did score Carolina's second touchdown on a 24-yard end-around late in
the first quarter, however.
BUCS AFTER THE BREAK
Following its much-needed bye week, Carolina returns to divisional play on
November 13 for a Monday night matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Bank
of America Stadium. The teams clashed in Tampa back in Week 3, with the
Panthers prevailing 26-24 on a last-second field goal by John Kasay.
Carolina has won six of the last seven meetings between the NFC South rivals,
although the Bucs did record a 20-10 win in Charlotte last December.
© 2006 The Sports Network
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