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Defense leads Panthers over rival Saints

Oct 19, 2008 - 9:50 PM By Brian Joura PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Ticker) -- The Carolina Panthers' defense proved to be better than the New Orleans Saints' offense.

Julius Peppers and the rest of the third-ranked defense held New Orleans' high-powered offense to its fewest points of the season, while Jake Delhomme tossed two touchdown passes to lead the Panthers to a 30-7 win Sunday.

With the Saints leading, 7-3, and driving early in the second quarter, Peppers came up with a key strip of tight end Jeremy Shockey. Four plays later, Jonathan Stewart scored on an 18-yard run to put the Panthers up for good.

"Julius makes his presence shown every week," Carolina coach John Fox said. "Some weeks it's more evident because teams are throwing it more and opening it up a little bit. Julius has played outstanding in his career here and as far as this season, I think he's been very good."

Delhomme tossed two third-quarter touchdown passes to break open a tight game. He hit Steve Smith on a play-action pass on which Smith made a tumbling catch in the end zone.

"That is something we put in this week," Delhomme said of the play. "We liked our chances and we hit it in practice this week and it was the same type of situations. When Steve runs and he's running, I'm looking at the safety's shoulders and his shoulders were square. They were looking right at me after the fake.

"So when Steve is running full speed and the safety's shoulders are looking at me, he's going to have trouble. I just try to throw it right over his head. Actually, if I throw it another yard or two further, it's easier to catch for Steve because he runs right through it."

Three plays following an interception and 31-yard return by cornerback Ken Lucas, Delhomme threw a swing pass to DeAngelo Williams for a 4-yard score to give Carolina a commanding 27-7 bulge.

Delhomme finished 14-for-22 for 195 yards and a 122.3 quarterback rating.

The Saints (3-4) were handicapped in the second half by the loss of Reggie Bush, who injured his left knee on a punt return at the end of the second quarter. Bush, who gained 55 yards rushing in the opening 30 minutes, did not play at all after intermission.

"The plan is to scope it," New Orleans coach Sean Payton said of Bush's injured knee. "We'll have this week and then the bye week and we'll see where he's at. I'll probably know something tomorrow. Right now, we're going to have it evaluated and go from there."

With New Orleans behind and with its top rushing threat on the sidelines, Carolina (5-2) was able to contain the normally potent Saints passing attack.

The Panthers made a pair of critical stops on fourth-down rushing attempts. Peppers tackled Aaron Stecker on a 4th-and-short at the two-yard line to end the last threat by the Saints.

"We didn't make enough plays consistently," Payton said. "We didn't do enough things right to keep ourselves in the game. Really about the time we got to the fourth quarter, it was pretty much over. We weren't able to stay off the field and we couldn't get them off the field."

Carolina then embarked on a 16-play, 88-yard drive that took 9:29 off the clock and ended in the third field goal of the game by John Kasay.

Kasay, who will turn 39 later this month, has made all 14 of his field goal attempts this season.

The Saints came in averaging over 412 yards and 28 points per game but were held to 343 and seven in this one. New Orleans had just one play over 20 yards until late in the third quarter, when it was trailing by 20 points.

"We didn't want to give up too many explosive plays," Panthers safety Chris Harris said. "Drew Brees has been phenomenal. He's been throwing the ball wherever he wants to. We wanted to come in here and shut that down. To hold a high power offense like that to seven points, it was big for us."

The Panthers improved to 4-0 at home this season. The Saints dropped to 0-3 on the road and head to London next week to take on the San Diego Chargers.