Panthers pounce Saints: 33-31

The Panthers held off a 4 th Quarter Rampage by the Saints to win 33 to 31 on a field goal by John Kasey with 6 seconds left. Once again the Panthers seemed to let down after getting a lead, but did manage to rally and win to get the number 2 seed in the NFL Playoffs.

Drew Brees fell 16 yards short of the NFL single season passing yards record held by Dan Marino. But he still lit up Carolina for 386 yards and 4 touchdowns with one interception. The Panthers defense has been slipping of late which is not a good sign for the Carolina team.

DeAngelo Williams ran for 178 yards (most of them in the first half) on 25 carries. Stewart added 56 more rushing yards on 17 carries as the Panthers offense ran the ball often. Jake Delhomme put in one of his better games of the season. Jake completed 14 of 20 passes for 250 yards, one Touchdown and no Interceptions.

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Both Steve Smith (5-134-0) and old man Muhsin Muhammad (7-79-1) had big games for the Panthers passing game. Seldom used 3 rd receiver Hackett even added 2 for 37 yards for Carolina against the Saints.

Carolina’s defense did hold the Saints to 50 yards rushing but there were only 11 attempts by New Orleans. Julius Peppers had the only sack for Carolina against the Saints but had only 1 other tackle and was a non factor. Thomas Davis and Ken Lucas had 6 tackles each with Lucas also getting an assist. The Panthers time of possession lead of over 13 minutes was the deciding factor in their win over the Saints.

By Randy Inman
ProFootball-fans.com Carolina Panthers Correspondent

For more of Randy's work check out FootballDogz.com where he is the Chief Writer!