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Grinding out a victory
Panthers dig out of an early hole to win 31-22
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
DeAngelo Williams of the Panthers pulls away from Daniel Bullocks during a 56-yard touchdown run.
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Published: November 17, 2008
CHARLOTTE
It's a good thing for the Carolina Panthers that NFL games are marathons, not sprints.
Otherwise, the Panthers would have lost to the winless Detroit Lions yesterday.
But the Panthers ran and ran and ran and ran and eventually pulled away for a 31-22 victory at Bank of America Stadium.
They spotted the Lions a 10-0 early lead, then turned to their 1-2 punch of Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams on what turned out to be a record-breaking afternoon.
Stewart rushed for 130 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries, and Williams went for 120 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, becoming the first running backs in franchise history to rush for more than 100 yards in the same game.
The Panthers also set a franchise record with 264 rushing yards.
"We started off a little slow and then we started getting some momentum and confidence," fullback Brad Hoover said. "You have to give credit to the guys up front and both backs for hitting those holes and making plays -- and not only hitting the holes but making guys miss and breaking tackles and getting downfield.
"It's nice. Any time you have one guy over 100, that's good, and we had both guys. Offensively we struggled at times, but our running game was something we were able to stay positive on and be productive in."
The Panthers raised their record to 8-2 with the win, remained unbeaten at home in six games, and maintained their one-game lead against Tampa Bay in the NFC South.
The Lions, at 0-10, are the only winless team in the NFL.
"As I've said before, there's no such thing as an ugly win," Coach John Fox said. "There are wins and there are losses. Losses are ugly and wins are beautiful. That's our team's take and there are no easy ones."
Williams, who ran for 140 yards the previous week in the Panthers' 17-6 win at Oakland, burst 56 yards for a touchdown as part of a 21-point second-quarter explosion. Then he scored on a 4-yard run with 4:44 left, after an interception by safety Charles Godfrey, to put the game out of reach at 31-22. It was Williams' third straight 100-yard-plus performance.
Stewart, the Panthers' top draft pick last spring, showed no lingering effects of heel injury that has bothered him the last three weeks and had career highs in carries and yardage. His touchdown came on a 22-yard run in the second quarter, when he and Williams combined for a whopping 149 yards on nine attempts.
"The holes were really good," Williams said. "Our offensive line did a really good job of blocking and Brad Hoover did an excellent job of picking up those linebackers and safeties. We had to do our job and make a couple of guys miss and break a couple of tackles, so we did some good things out there today. But we did some bad things, so we have a lot of room for improvement."
The Lions came into the game ranked 31st in the NFL in rushing defense, allowing an average of 161.2 yards a game.
"You kind of take what the defense gives you," Fox said. "I thought our coaches made some good adjustments early on. Our players adjusted. That is what this game is about and we were able to get some things going offensively in the run game, there is no question. It was a matter of adjusting."
The Panthers' second-quarter blitz came after the Lions drove 80 yards after the opening kickoff to take a 7-0 lead on Daunte Culpepper's 29-yard pass to Calvin Johnson. Detroit then pushed the lead to 10-0 early in the second quarter on Jason Hanson's 40-yard field goal.
Stewart's 22-yard run and a 16-yarder on a reverse to Steve Smith keyed the Panthers' first scoring drive, which ended with quarterback Jake Delhomme hitting Jeff King from 15 yards out. Stewart then ran for 20 yards on the first two plays of the Panthers' next drive, and Williams burst 56 yards for the touchdown to give the Panthers their first lead at 14-10.
Godfrey's fumble recovery set up the Panthers' third touchdown of the quarter, a 22-yard run, to push the lead to 21-13 with 1:10 left in the half. But Hanson, who kicked a 56-yarder early in the second quarter, tacked on a 27-yarder with four seconds left to make it 21-16 at halftime.
The Lions never went away, and eventually cut the lead to 24-22 on Culpepper's 1-yard run with 6:05 left. They had a chance to tie, but Culpepper was stopped inches short of the goal line by linebacker Jon Beason on the two-point conversion.
Then Godfrey came up with his interception and return to the 4 on the Lions' next possession, and Williams' run on the next play pushed the lead to 31-22.
"That's what it's about, finding a way to win," defensive end Julius Peppers said. "We don't play well every w eek but it's just about getting the win at the end of the day. A team like that is dangerous. They have nothing to lose and they are going to play like that."
The Panthers will play at Atlanta next Sunday.
"It's a win," Delhomme said. "It's so hard to win. It's a tough business. (Detroit) wasn't a team that if you got on top of them, they were going to lay down. They played hard. They fight. But we were able to come out with a win and that is huge."
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
Detroit 7 9 0 6 -- 22
Carolina 0 21 3 7 -- 31
First Quarter
Det--C.Johnson 29 pass from Culpepper (Hanson kick), 7:23.
Second Quarter
Det--FG Hanson 40, 12:59.
Car--King 15 pass from Delhomme (Kasay kick), 8:19.
Det--FG Hanson 56, 4:43.
Car--Williams 56 run (Kasay kick), 2:39.
Car--Stewart 22 run (Kasay kick), 1:03.
Det--FG Hanson 27, :04.
Third Quarter
Car--FG Kasay 29, 8:24.
Fourth Quarter
Det--Culpepper 1 run (run failed), 6:05.
Car--Williams 4 run (Kasay kick), 4:44.
TEAM STATISTICS
Det Car
First downs 20 16
Total Net Yards 316 362
Rushes-yards 34-130 32-264
Passing 186 98
Punt Returns 1-7 1-2
Kickoff Returns 3-72 5-92
Interceptions Ret. 0-0 2-16
Comp-Att-Int 20-35-2 10-19-0
Sacked-Yards Lost 3-21 0-0
Punts 3-38.7 5-37.4
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 1-1
Penalties-Yards 1-14 7-55
Time of Possession 34:17 25:43
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Det., Kev.Smith 24-112, Culpepper 5-13, R.Johnson 5-5. Carolina, Stewart 15-130, Williams 14-120, Smith 1-16, Delhomme 2-(minus 2).
PASSING--Det., Culpepper 20-35-2-207. Carolina, Delhomme 10-19-0-98.
RECEIVING--Det., C.Johnson 6-65, McDonald 3-30, FitzSimmons 3-11, Standeford 2-48, Kev.Smith 2-23, Gaines 2-21, R.Johnson 1-5, Owens 1-4. Carolina, Smith 6-59, King 2-19, Muhammad 1-16, Stewart 1-4.
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