CHARLOTTE
First, the Carolina Panthers' medical staff carted off Jordan Gross.
Later, they carted off Jeff Otah.
So by the time that the Panthers' 24-9 victory against Atlanta ended yesterday, the Panthers were without their starting tackles -- and down to five healthy offensive linemen.
That brought mixed emotions from the guys who were left in the trenches at game's end. There was concern about injuries to their teammates -- Gross a concussion, Otah a sprained ankle -- but there was also pride in how everyone pitched in and contributed.
When Gross was carried off with 9:45 left in the first quarter after laying motionless for several minutes, Geoff Hangartner came in at left guard and Travelle Wharton moved from left guard to left tackle. Then when Otah went out with 2:40 left in the third quarter, Jeremy Bridges took over at right tackle.
"That is definitely not the way we planned it out," Hangartner said. "Obviously we don't have to have (tight end) Jeff King over there taking tackle sets on the sideline. I guess that's where you go next.
"But J.B. and I have been around a while. We know what our role is. We have to be ready to play on game day, and even Travelle having to hop out to left tackle, that was an adjustment. But we just have a lot of flexibility, it seems like."
Center Ryan Kalil praised his teammates for sticking together and adjusting.
The line established a running game, with Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams combining for 109 yards. And it didn't allow any sacks of quarterback Jake Delhomme, who threw for 294 yards.
"Obviously having Jordan go down was a big loss, but Geoff came in and Travelle is one of those guys who you can plug in anywhere," Kalil said. "And the same thing when Otah went down, Jeremy is one of those guys who's played a lot here and knows the offense. So there were no concerns when we plugged those guys in.
"We just knew we had to keep getting after it, and that's what we did. I think more than anything, we showed a lot of heart today. We really got after it today."
Gross went down after getting knocked in the helmet while trying to block linebacker Michael Boley on a run by Williams.
It took several minutes before Gross was able to sit up, a sign that he was conscious again and that there was no damage to his spinal column.
Delhomme said it was a "sickening feeling" to see Gross on face-down on the field, and Kalil and Hangartner both said they "feared the worst."
"You know, I've never once seen him miss a practice," Delhomme said. "I've never once seen him miss a rep. I watched the play and I looked and he wasn't moving. It's a sickening feeling. You realize right then and there that this is much bigger than the game.
"But we could hear him. He was coming to. You prayed that everything was fine. I'm looking at his extremities saying, ‘Move, move, move.' I just wanted to see that."
Gross talked to some of the offensive linemen at halftime.
"He just said, ‘Sorry,' and then he said, ‘Just go win,'" Kalil said. "So that's what we did."
To Kalil, the line's performance was redemption after a dismal performance in a 20-10 loss at Minnesota last week, when the Panthers gave up five sacks and had six false starts.
"You look at that performance we had last week, and we weren't the team we knew we are," Kalil said. "We took that as motivation this week. You can sit down and think of all kinds of excuses why we were bad last week. I think one of the things that helped us this week was not having all those penalties. That's something we've been working on. We were more disciplined today. For the most part, we were able to stay pretty focused."
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement