Carolina Panthers defeat Atlanta Falcons 28-19
by James The Aussie on Nov 15, 2009 6:03 PM EST
48 comments
Charlotte, NC- The Carolina Panthers proved there was life left in them yet with a definative 28-19 victory over the now 5-4 Atlanta Falcons.
Jake Delhomme had his best game of the season statistically throwing for 195 yards, 2 TDs finishing with a QB rating of 115.9. Coupled with a combined 173 yards and 2 touchdowns by DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart there was a remarkable improvement from the Panther offense seen in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, the Panthers' defense played well against a high powered Atlanta offense keeping Matt Ryan to 224 yards passing and intercepting the young QB twice.
It was a bright day in Charlotte, NC- except for one dark cloud.
More after the jump...
Midway through the second quarter all-pro LT Jordan Gross was hit awkwardly on a block resulting in a broken right ankle leaving a major hole in the offensive line with Travelle Wharton filling in, but doing a less than mediocre job throughout the second half. Though there is no official diagnosis on how much time Gross will miss, it's my guess he will be put on IR in the morning as the Panthers look to sign an OL with very little cap space.
On the field, however, the Panthers as a whole shone brightly over Charlotte. The Falcons struck first with a field goal on their first drive, but the Panthers quickly answered with a dominant drive in which Jake Delhomme threw for 75 yards and was capped off by a 1 yard Jonathan Stewart TD run. Panthers 7 - Falcons 3
After stopping an Atlanta drive the Panthers struck again with Delhomme leading the Panthers down the field and throwing a perfectly placed pass to Steve Smith in the right corner of the endzone for the Panthers' second touchdown of the day. Panthers 14 - Falcons 3
Atlanta weren't going to take this game laying down driving down the field and scoring on a 1 yard Justin Snelling run. Snelling was in the game due to a high ankle sprain to RB Michael Turner early in the second quarter. Panthers 14 - Falcons 10
Carolina excecuted a perfect 4 minute drive with Jake Delhomme again finding Steve Smith on a 4 yard TD pass squeezed between two defenders. Smith was hit hard on the play and was slow in getting up, but it didn't limit the WR who merely left the field for halftime early. Panthers 21 - Falcons 10
After the halftime break it was clear Mike Smith's Falcons made some adjustments on both sides of the ball, similarly it seemed the Panthers made adjustments, being forced to scheme their blocking differently with the loss of Gross on the left side. The aforementioned replacement in Travelle Wharton was not reliable as the Falcons pass rush looked much better in the second half.
The third quarter only saw one score, a 24 yard FG by Jason Elam. Panthers 21 - Falcons 13
In the forth it appeared that the Panthers were reeling as the offense could not effectively move the ball continually punting to the Falcons. The Falcons scored on a 3 yard pass to TE Justin Peele, but failed to convert the tying 2 pt conversion. Panthers 21 - Falcons 19
Again the Panthers offense failed and after a 3 and out the Falcons had the opportunity to take the lead on a Jason Elam field goal, but the combination of a bad snap and poor kick caused Elam to kick the ball wide left and the score stayed unchanged.
The Panthers were not going to let another game slip through their fingers as quickly after the missed FG Jonathan Stewart barelled though the Falcons' defense for a 45 yard TD run. Without a timeout the Falcons were forced to throw deep and the Panthers managed to close out the game 28-19.
The 4-5 Carolina Panthers face the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night football, and hope to keep their hopes of a wild card alive, against the odds.
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Although all 4 off the guys listed deserve a ball, I wanna give a shout out to 2 rooks: Sherrod freakin’ Martin was a monster in the secondary again, and Tony Fiametta made some nice blocks, most notably opening up JStew for that game clinching TD run.
Future looks good!
Good point about the rooks!
Cat Scratch Reader's resident optimist.
by James The Aussie on Nov 15, 2009 6:19 PM EST up reply actions
Fair enough
Only reason I didn’t really make a big deal out of it was that they didn’t really have to fight for the INT… Matt Ryan played pretty poorly and I saw it as a ‘right place, right time’ kind of thing.
Cat Scratch Reader's resident optimist.
by James The Aussie on Nov 15, 2009 6:18 PM EST up reply actions
You might wanna check the numbers...
We’re 6th in the NFL in INTs.
Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt
by MichaelProcton on Nov 16, 2009 12:49 AM EST up reply actions
I agree with you, but
being in the right place at the right time does take a pretty decent level of skill…to have a rookie show that kind of football IQ right out of the gate is damn impressive.
skill?
martin got to the spot too late in the end zone early in the game. he had a good break on the ball but was just a second too late to get the int. i felt that he was really bothered by that and was determined not to let it happen again. it is a skill to get there in time, but the skill is more in reading the play and making the decision to get there than anything. martin’s skill is in that phase of coverage, and he’ll make some more big plays. what sucks is that the pro bowl voting stops with two weeks left. he could finish with 6-8 interceptions, and not make it like d-will last year. of course, d-will is getting no love this year either.
by usana_gaines on Nov 16, 2009 5:24 PM EST up reply actions
You still have to give them credit for capitalizing
Something I will never take for granted after 08’s plague of the stone hands.
by Flowing Willow on Nov 16, 2009 1:42 AM EST up reply actions
We are only one game back from the wild card leaders
All teams leading the wild card race are all tied at 5-4… ATL, NYG, ATL and probably PHI (currently losing to SD). Also, most of those teams are not playing as well lately. We are only one game back, and playing better. It’s a tough schedule ahead, but the playoffs are not at all out of reach.
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
Absolutely, hope and optimism are still alive!
Cat Scratch Reader's resident optimist.
by James The Aussie on Nov 15, 2009 6:19 PM EST up reply actions
imagine how good our position would be if we had won that damned game against the bills…..
Member of Canes Country and the Cat Scratch Reader
Or both!
We’ll kick ourselves if we miss the playoffs by one win. I’m sure Atlanta is saying the same about this game.
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
You mean we'll be kicking Davidson....
Right out of town! Home run!
"Once again the trousers of evil are yanked down by the mocking hands of justice!"-Revshawn
GOING... GOING... AND GONE! (haha)
People speculate on what comes next, in the afterlife. I just hope they serve collards.
It's a Walk off
Once he outta here, we will be a better ball club
by bobbydrake24 on Nov 17, 2009 6:27 PM EST up reply actions
after watching the panthers and falcons play the saints
I knew the panthers would win this they are much better team.And i’m glad you beat those dirty bird bastards lol
by mississippisaintsfan on Nov 15, 2009 6:46 PM EST reply actions
Props to Baker
I think the game ball should go to several Panther players today, which is a good thing!
Great game by Jake and the Offense….Nice run by Stewart..
Awesome picks by Marshall and Martin..
But…I voted other because Jason Baker sure stopped the obvious 6 points, huge stop from the punter!!
Baker might very well have saved the game with that play
But it was a bit strange the way it didn’t really look like he put much effort into it.
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
Maybe he was trying to draw a penalty for a hit out of bounds.
Roughing the returner? Lol
"Once again the trousers of evil are yanked down by the mocking hands of justice!"-Revshawn
Either way
I say he get’s a pass on a muffed punt for that one
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
by southtunnel on Nov 17, 2009 11:03 AM EST up reply actions
I give the game ball to The Burners's bum ankle...lol
He was on the way to a 300 yard rushing game…
"If lessons were learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education." -Murray Warmath
no he wasnt...
he was on his way for 111 yards dummy
by carolinabrave89 on Nov 15, 2009 9:00 PM EST up reply actions
Seriously? He had 111 yards in 20 mis of play...
"If lessons were learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education." -Murray Warmath
Then you would also have to send half of the ball to Thomas Davis’ bum ACL. We can play it both ways here.
Member of Canes Country and the Cat Scratch Reader
No, I send it to Kemo's leg....
CAR’s defense would be very good with him in. What’s the word on Gross?
"If lessons were learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education." -Murray Warmath
Broken ankle. All indications are he’s out for the season.
by SlayerGhaleon on Nov 16, 2009 12:33 AM EST up reply actions
From Don Banks @ CNNSI.com
• Nobody in the NFL has executed a bigger in-season renaissance than Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme, who just logged his third consecutive game without an interception in the Panthers’ 28-19 win over Atlanta. Delhomme was a turnover machine earlier this season, and if there was NFL analyst who said Panthers head coach John Fox was right to stick with him as his starter, I didn’t hear it.
Carolina has won of its past six games after starting 0-3, and the Panthers are still dangerous in an NFC wild-card race that remains wide open and considerably shy of can’t-miss contenders.
• Unlike Delhomme, Matt Ryan is going in the wrong direction on the turnover front. Ryan threw two more picks against Carolina, and now has at least one interception in his past six games, with 11 overall in that span. He has 12 interceptions on the season, which is more in nine games than he threw for all of his rookie season (11). It’s not a huge sophomore slump at this point, but Ryan’s accuracy isn’t up to his 2008 standards.
• I’m sure his fantasy football owners have long since given up on him, but Panthers receiver Steve Smith proved he can still find the end zone occasionally. Smith had a pair of touchdown catches against the Falcons, tripling his season total in that department. When Carolina runs the ball like it did with Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams, Smith catches touchdowns and Delhomme stays away from interceptions … it’s easy to remember how the Panthers won 12 games last year.
holy shi....
Damn flat tire and a string of ridiculous related events caused me to miss this game, but oh my the sweet sweet sight of the big cats smashing the falcons made my week.
Not going over play the optimism track, but god I love when this team wins like this and gets me fired up for next sunday(thursday). I’ll be damned if i leave the house more then 12 hours before kickoff!
Man what a great game and great day....
We (wife, 2 kids & I) planned on the game being on our regular local Philly Fox broadcast, but at the last minute our local Fox affiliate decided to go with the Minn Vs Det game which left us scrambling to our local sports bar (PJ Whelihans) to watch the game… It was awesome… we were in full Panthers garb, had our lucky D-Will autographed ball with us …and it was cool, most of the pre Eagles 4:00pm game crowd joined us in rooting for the Panthers. My son & I can’t wait till Thurs.. ..another nationally televised game & another day to flaunt our Panther Pride here in Igglesland.
Great Win! Go Panthers!!!
Why are we passing in the RedZone?
Last week we drive all the way to the 1 yard line, and then let Jake botch a snap and lose 6 yards. Today on one drive we got in of close to the RedZone and pass 3 times
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
Delhomme didn't "botch a snap."
On a RUN PLAY, Bernardeau went the wrong way.
Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt
by MichaelProcton on Nov 16, 2009 12:52 AM EST up reply actions
I hit post by accident on this one, and then couldn't find a way to delete it
I knew that wasn’t going to make sense.
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
by southtunnel on Nov 16, 2009 10:13 AM EST up reply actions
I wonder...
if the Panthers woud have any interest in Jon Runyan.
The guy is an older veteran and is coming off surgery, but is one tough SOB and is waiting for a mid-season call from someone. Could be a perfect fit.
I hope not.
An old guy coming off a microfracture who didn’t get signed by his team when they were desperate for OL help should probably not be at the top of the list.
Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt
by MichaelProcton on Nov 16, 2009 12:52 AM EST up reply actions
He may be running for Congress, but expressed interest in playing again
http://www.nfl.com/players/jonrunyan/profile?id=RUN804626
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/11/jon-runyan-for-congress-r_n_353729.html
(Keep in mind his rep was a dirty player)
Yes he has that rep but.....
it was based on his mean and nasty attitude as oppossed to being a cheap shot artist.
He’s the kind of guy that wants to kick his opponents ass man to man straight up.
He & Michael Strahan had some legendary battles.
Very happy for Delhomme
His burst of confidence is making the whole offense better. Also helps that our running games been very good
The same place the receivers who can actually get open have been.
Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt
by MichaelProcton on Nov 17, 2009 2:49 PM EST up reply actions
Nobody but Moose was getting open including Smith
Both of his TDs he was well covered. I imagine it’s hard to get open when you rarely run anything but 2 WR sets.
on behalf of tha dirty south: soul food, carolina blue, southern hospitality, and tha queen city
Yeah.
It’s only the base offensive formation for most of the teams in the league, but yeah, what a weird offensive set.
Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt
by MichaelProcton on Nov 18, 2009 12:16 AM EST up reply actions
What a FUN game......
It was NICE to see the passing game again. Thank You JAKE. Kudos. and props to Moose! Passing game trending upwards…. reasonable room for optimism now….
One game does not warrant the trumpets and herald that our passing game is finally on track… but is sure was sweet.
Our next 3 games are equally winnable. This one was the most difficult, IMHO.
Great Job Panthers!
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