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Delhomme, Panthers roll over Falcons

Sep 28, 2008 - 9:52 PM By Brian Joura PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Ticker) -- The Carolina Panthers' passing attack flourished in its second week with wide receiver Steve Smith.

Jake Delhomme completed 20-of-29 passes for 294 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Panthers to a 24-9 win over the Atlanta Falcons in an NFC South matchup Sunday at Bank of America Stadium.

Delhomme found Smith for a 56-yard touchdown pass and Muhsin Muhammad for a 36-yard scoring reception to help Carolina (3-1) bounce back from a 20-10 defeat at Minnesota last week.

"Muhsin and Steve both did an outstanding job with some pretty tight coverage," Panthers coach John Fox said. "Jake did a nice job placing the ball on those plays."

Delhomme's scoring pass to Smith with 2:31 remaining in the first half gave Carolina a 14-6 lead.

Smith, who was suspended for suspended for the first two games due to a preseason brawl with teammate Ken Lucas, ran a square route to the middle of the field and broke two tackles for his first touchdown of the season.

Carolina broke it open when Delhomme and Muhammad hooked up on a touchdown pass with 12:03 to play. Muhammad finished with eight catches for 147 yards while Smith caught six balls for 96 yards.

"We all knew there would be a challenge out there today," Muhammad said. "And the challenge was if they double-team Steve Smith, then other players have to step up. And that's what I came back here for, to try to be a playmaker on the other side to give him relief and take some of the stress off of him.

"He's a great athlete and he came up with some big plays today and we complemented each other well out there, as well as our running game. Jake did a great job of just finding us, and that's what you get when you have some guys that have been together for a while and have made plays with each other."

The Panthers held the Falcons to 276 yards of total offense and established their defensive dominance early. On the third play of the game, Richard Marshall returned an interception for a touchdown but the play was negated by a roughing-the-passer penalty.



Still, Carolina forced a punt and scored on the ensuing drive, as rookie Jonathan Stewart gave the Panthers a 7-0 lead with an 8-yard run.

Carolina also bottled up Atlanta running back Michael Turner, who came into the game leading the league with 366 yards rushing. The Panthers held Turner to just 56 yards on 18 carries.

"We just stuck to our fundamentals," Panthers linebacker Na'il Diggs said. "We came out and made a point to not get exotic or anything else and really just tackle this guy. He's a great after-the-hit runner and we knew that we basically had to get a lot of guys to the ball and get him down to the ground."

The Falcons gained just 105 yards rushing. Rookie quarterback Matt Ryan finished 21-for-41 for 158 yards.

"I thought they did a very nice job in their run defense," Atlanta coach Mike Smith said. "Up front, they've got some big, strong guys up front. They were in certain safety, so they were committing the eighth guy into the box to stop the run.

"There were some opportunities, I thought, where we were close to maybe busting one. But it just didn't work out. I thought they did a nice job in their run defense, especially with their front four."

Jason Elam kicked his third field goal of the game with 37 seconds remaining in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 14-9 but the Falcons (2-2) got no closer. Elam also connected from 33 and 44 yards.