Panthers Pour It On to No Avail

Looking at the faces of the Carolina Panthers, it was hard to tell the club had just matched the record for the largest winning margin in franchise history.

“Even though we won the game, we came in the locker room and felt like we lost,” linebacker Micheal Barrow said after the Panthers’ 45-13 victory over New Orleans on Sunday wasn’t enough to secure a playoff berth.

Carolina (8-8) won six of nine to finish its first season under Coach George Seifert, but the Panthers still came up short of qualifying for an NFC wild-card spot. Carolina had to win by 18 points more than Green Bay’s winning margin over Arizona, then hope Dallas lost to the New York Giants.

The Packers won by 25, meaning the Panthers needed to win by 43 to have a chance.

Carolina threw on nearly every play in the fourth quarter, and New Orleans did the same, well aware of the Panthers’ need to win big.

Dallas won later in the day, so all that effort wouldn’t have helped even with a 43-point victory.

Steve Beuerlein threw a club-record five scoring passes, Michael Bates returned a kickoff 95 yards for another touchdown and the Panthers intercepted Delhomme four times and converted two into 10 points. Beuerlein, who completed 22 of 41 passes for 322 yards, connected with Wesley Walls and Patrick Jeffers for two scores each and Muhsin Muhammad for one.

New Orleans (3-13) fell to 15-33 under Coach Mike Ditka, whose future is to be reviewed soon.

One of Ditka’s biggest gambles was trading all the Saints’ 1999 picks for the right to draft Ricky Williams. Williams had an unproductive end to his rookie season, carrying 14 times for seven yards. He finished with 894 yards for the season.