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Williams, Panthers trample Chiefs

Oct 5, 2008 - 9:29 PM By Brian Joura PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Running back DeAngelo Williams rewarded coach John Fox for maintaining faith in him.

Williams, part of a running back platoon with Jonathan Stewart, broke through with three touchdowns Sunday to lead the Carolina Panthers to a 34-0 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Williams scored on runs of 10 and 32 yards and also took a short pass 25 yards for a score - his first touchdowns of the season. He finished with 148 total yards, including 123 yards.

"What happens in football, offensively, is we try to establish the run," Fox said. "We made no bones about it. Sometimes the pass has to set up the run. We feel good about all of our running backs. I think the run game is a patient situation, where you just have to be patient with it. I think those guys have done a terrific job all year and I think it paid off today."

While Williams sparked the offense, the entire Carolina defense came up with a big effort. Facing their fifth straight star running back, the Panthers held Larry Johnson - who rushed for 198 yards last week - to just two yards on seven carries.

"That is something we thrive on," Panthers safety Chris Harris said of facing the league's top backs. "We love the challenge anytime we got the chance. We have had five straight. We thrive on that. That makes us better. We don't want to be that team that gave up 150 or 200 yards to a running back. It's motivation."

Carolina has now faced LaDainian Tomlinson, Matt Forte, Adrian Peterson, Michael Turner and now Johnson -four of the top six backs in rushing entering play Sunday - and have yet to allow a 100-yard rushing game.

The Panthers defense held the Chiefs (1-4) to just one first down and 28 net yards in the opening 30 minutes.

"They've been playing pretty good all year," said Fox of his defense. "I think we have an unusually good group of guys on that side of the ball in my opinion. They work very hard. They like playing together. I think they continue to get better and have a little more swagger each week.

"It doesn't matter who you're playing, to get a shutout in this league is very difficult."

On the Chiefs' first possession, the Panthers pushed them back 15 yards and forced a punt from Kansas City's own end zone.

Carolina (4-1) then went on a seven-play drive, culminated by back-to-back 10-yard rushes by Williams and a 7-0 lead.

Williams added two more first-half scores, and only a fumble deep in Kansas City territory by Jonathan Stewart kept Carolina from scoring on four straight possessions.

It was more of the same in the second half, as the Panthers came up with a fumble and two interceptions. They also held on 4th-and-inches late in the game to preserve the shutout, the first time the Chiefs have been held scoreless since December 2002.

"We should have played better," Kansas City coach Herm Edwards said. "We played well last week and then this week we played like this. Same players. Same coaches making the calls on the offenses and defenses.

"I don't know. It's puzzling and we've got to figure it out. I can't tell you exactly what happened because I haven't watched the tape. But it wasn't very good. It wasn't very good at all."

Overall, Carolina limited Kansas City to 127 yards of total offense, 50 of which came in the final period.

Kansas City's Tony Gonzalez became the all-time leader in receiving yards by a tight end when he caught a six-yard pass late in the first quarter. Gonzalez finished with three catches for 17 yards and now has 10,075 yards receiving in his career.

"It's bittersweet. I'm happy for it, don't get me wrong," Gonzalez said of the record. "It took a long time to get that and I have been fortunate to be around some good offensive coordinators. Great quarterbacks, too. It's been a long time. I'm very fortunate to have lasted that long.

"I'm going to take it in stride. I just wish it could have come in a different circumstance. It would have been a lot better."

Gonzalez broke the record of 10,060 previously held by Shannon Sharpe.