Panthers Outduel Buccaneers

NFL News - October 18th, 2009 - Written by John

The battle for the NFC South's basement team is now settled. The Carolina Panthers overcame two late touchdowns by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers told hold on to a 28-21 win on Sunday. The Bucs fell way behind early, 21-7, but scored twice without needing any assistance from the offense.

Sammie Stroughter had a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to make it a one-score game late in the third quarter. Then Tanard Jackson stepped in front of a Jake Delhomme pass and housed it from 26-yards away. Both instance exposed the weak spots in Carolina's aresenal, but wasn't enough to maintain significant damage. The Panthers atoned for those mistakes by rushing for 267 yards on the day. Both DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Steward had 100 yards and a touchdown on the ground, the crushing blow coming with 29 seconds when Williams won it. After driving down the field 79 yards on 16 plays, running down the clock to near nothing, Williams punched it in from one-yard out to avoid overtime and preserve his team's second win of the season.

Jake Delhomme was a mere 9-of-17 passing for 65 yards and was picked off twice, but was able to direct that monster drive at the end of the game that wasted eight minutes before Williams finally pounded it home. His counterpart, Josh Johnson, threw for more yards but came woefully short of leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to any points. He fumbled five times, losing only one of them, and was intercepted by linebacker Thomas Davis. The Bucs never reached the red zone againt the Panthers, getting their only touchdown on a long scamper by Cadillac Williams.

Meanwhile, all four of the Panthers touchdowns came from deep inside Bucs' territory. Williams had the honors first, squirting through the line and dashing 20 yards to make it 7-7 following. That's the way it remained until the second half, when Carolina quickly made it a two-touchdown lead. On their first drive after halftime, Delhomme hit Jeff King from a yard out, to get to 14-7. Stewart then pitched in his only score on a long whinding 26-yard dash.

The Bucs are now one of the lone teams still without a win, and will possibly be ushering in the Josh Freeman era now.

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