Panthers Can Learn Many Lessons From This Loss

This was one of those times when it paid to have the last possession. And it was the New England Patriots who, until there were but four ticks left on the clock, had the ball.

On the last-minute drive that won it Sunday, New England quarterback Tom Brady completed just enough passes to position Adam Vinatieri for the decisive 41-yard field goal.

In a Super Bowl game that the Patriots won, 32-29, Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme had made it 29-29 with his last touchdown pass.

It was, in fact, Delhomme who made it a game. After the Panthers’ conservative coach, John Fox, finally gave him the green light to throw the ball, the Carolina quarterback had one of the great long-passing performances in the history of NFL championship football.

Delhomme’s immaturity had given New England the opportunity to break open the strangest of all Super Bowl games -- a game that was 0-0 with fewer than four minutes remaining in the first half -- when he tried too hard to make a play. It ended with the sack that opened the door for Brady’s first touchdown.

But Delhomme rebounded immediately with the first of two long touchdown passes, one that Steve Smith caught on a 39-yard play.

In the fourth quarter, Delhomme did it again, firing to Muhsin Muhammad on an 85-yard touchdown play.

But the Panthers aren’t accustomed to playing passball. The Patriots are. And it was with their more structured pass offense -- one they’ve practiced since training camp and have used all season -- that they held on to win.

The Patriots won doing what they do all the time, throwing, catching and scoring. The Panthers stayed in the game by connecting with a few long passes. And in the end New England won because the Panthers’ front four wore themselves out chasing Brady.

The Panthers were the better team with the better players. If they’d only had a better game plan, one focusing on Delhomme’s passes.

And next season they can be the league’s dominant team by making two changes:

* Fox will have to commit to a pass offense. No team can run its way to the NFL championship these days even if it has two running backs as good as DeShaun Foster, who sped to the best rushing touchdown of the game, and Stephen Davis. It was only when Fox realized he’d have to let Delhomme throw that he made it a game.

* The Panthers will have to teach Delhomme how to throw. His accuracy is unquestioned on long passes -- but no pro club has ever won titles on a diet of long balls. To make Carolina a consistent contender, Delhomme needs a passing teacher to coach him to throw midrange passes like Brady does.

Delhomme’s passing style -- the steps he needs to power the ball -- has been outdated by Brady’s style, which is based on Joe Namath’s.

It’s a short-pass motion ending in a quick throw that nullifies the defensive rush. Brady lets go of the ball so quickly that he’s hard to sack, by comparison with Delhomme, who was sacked repeatedly Sunday.

* The Panthers also need a more organized pass offense. They nearly won this game with what was closer to a sandlot pass offense than a sound pass offense. The sandlot stuff worked for Delhomme only because of his accuracy on long passes.

When rushed on midrange passes, he frequently let go of the ball sidearm. And all too often, his passes went wild. If he’d won, Delhomme might not have seen the need to change. This loss could help him.

So New England won -- Brady won -- by playing the passing game the Patriots have obviously rehearsed at length.

For example, the Patriots easily made their two-point conversion play -- with a direct snap to a running back on a play that had been long practiced -- whereas the Panthers misfired on Delhomme’s two two-point tries.

He missed the targets both times by much too much. Neither had the look of a practiced play.

By contrast, Brady is by now almost a machine. Although he threw an interception that hurt for a while, interceptions are part of what happens to passing teams.

This time he was throwing to an open receiver and misread the zone defense he hadn’t expected.

The important point about Brady’s passing is that he throws few interceptions.

The difference between him and Delhomme is that Brady can complete pass after pass going down the field -- the way you have to do it to win championships -- while Delhomme must throw long-range attempts.

At all ranges, Brady finds the open target. And he wins.

Bob Oates, a longtime staff writer for The Times, has attended every Super Bowl.