Delhomme Just Runs Out of Time

At the beginning, Carolina Panther quarterback Jake Delhomme was fighting nerves. At the end, he was fighting tears.

At the beginning Delhomme seemed as skittish as a blindfolded colt in a barn on fire. At the end, he was in command of the biggest stage in sports.

For a quarter, Delhomme couldn’t find an open receiver, couldn’t avoid a rushing New England defender, couldn’t feel the movement of his line, couldn’t make his arm throw the football freely, couldn’t make his heart beat slower than a hummingbird’s, couldn’t catch his breath or will a receiver to catch a pass.

That was when Delhomme was one for nine for one yard passing, when he had been sacked three times and when it seemed the Panthers wouldn’t score until 2005 and might become the first team to have negative yardage in a Super Bowl game.

And then Delhomme took the Panthers on a 95-yard drive of creative thinking, gutsy play-calling and football-slinging bravado. It was when Delhomme found receiver Muhsin Muhammad for 23 yards, ageless Ricky Proehl for 15 yards and irrepressible Steve Smith for the 39-yard touchdown that seemed to free all the Panthers of their offensive sloppiness and mark the beginning of the ferocious competition that would mark the rest of Super Bowl XXXVIII.

“You were a tackle away from being MVP,” someone told Delhomme an hour after New England had won its second Super Bowl in three years with a 32-29 victory over the Panthers.

There was a moment of silence as a puddle of tears gathered in Delhomme’s eyes. “I don’t feel like that at all,” Delhomme said. “I feel like I want to keep playing because otherwise we’re the losers. And what not.”

“And what not.”

That’s the word crutch Carolina’s devastated quarterback grabbed to keep his emotions from bursting out.

When Delhomme, the undrafted quarterback from Breaux Bridge, La., who was once a backup quarterback in Amsterdam of NFL Europe, overthrew receivers, underthrew them and refused to throw to them until he was being sacked, it was not nerves. Absolutely not nerves.

“It was maybe adrenaline and excitement. And what not,” Delhomme said. “But I was never nervous.”

And when his adrenaline slowed and his excitement became determination, it was not his flawless execution that led the Panthers to score on their last three possessions. “It was,” Delhomme said, “my receivers finding clearance and our offensive game plan kicking in and our offensive line doing great. And what not.”

After his horrendous start, Delhomme finished by going 16 for 33 for 323 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions.

“If anything, Jake was just a little too pumped at the beginning,” Muhammad said. “I think for all of us, the game was going a little too much in fast-forward. It seemed like everything was speeded up. Jake needed to get a feel for their defense and just hit a couple of passes. When we scored that first touchdown, you could tell. It was all going to come out.”

In the fourth quarter, when every play could mean winning or losing, Delhomme led the Panthers on three touchdown drives. The first ended with the slippery 33-yard run by DeShaun Foster. Foster found freedom in large part because Delhomme had become as accurate as radar, completing three passes for 53 yards. It brought the Panthers from what seemed an insurmountable 21-10 deficit back into the game in a matter of two minutes.

The second drive had the spectacular finish of an 85-yard pass play from Delhomme to Muhammad, giving Carolina its first lead of the game, 22-21.

And the third drive tied the score, 29-29, with 1:08 left when Delhomme went five for six for 73 yards, including the 12-yard touchdown toss to Proehl.

“What Jake did during those last two minutes was the mark of a great quarterback,” Proehl said. “It must have been fun watching it.”

But the good part of the fourth quarter was forgotten in the matter of the 59 seconds it took the Patriots to get into game-winning field goal range.

“What I’ll remember from this is how I wanted to keep playing,” Delhomme said. “I was sure we’d play overtime. We’d win the coin toss and we’d score. And what not.”

Those tears were threatening Delhomme’s composure again. It was time to walk away. To go home. And what not.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Picking Up the Pace

Jake Delhomme was approaching all-time marks for Super Bowl futility until he turned things around just before halftime:

*--* Game minutes Att Comp Yards TD First 27:57 9 1 1 0 Last 32:03 24 15 322 3

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*--* TEAM RECORDS FRANCHISE W L PTS OPP San Francisco 49ers 5 0 188 89 Baltimore Ravens 1 0 34 7 Chicago Bears 1 0 46 10 New York Jets 1 0 16 7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1 0 48 21 Pittsburgh Steelers 4 1 120 100 Green Bay Packers 3 1 127 76 New York Giants 2 1 66 73 Dallas Cowboys 5 3 221 132 Oakland/L.A. Raiders 3 2 132 114 Washington Redskins 3 2 122 103 New England Patriots 2 2 83 127 Baltimore Colts 1 1 23 29 Kansas City Chiefs 1 1 33 42 Miami Dolphins 2 3 74 103 Denver Broncos 2 4 115 206 St. Louis/L.A. Rams 1 2 59 67 Atlanta Falcons 0 1 19 34 Tennessee Titans 0 1 16 23 Philadelphia Eagles 0 1 10 27 Carolina Panthers 0 1 29 32 San Diego Chargers 0 1 26 49 Cincinnati Bengals 0 2 37 46 Buffalo Bills 0 4 73 139 Minnesota Vikings 0 4 34 95

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*--* LEADING COACHES Coaches with two or more Super Bowl wins: 4 Chuck Noll, Pittsburgh 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980 3 Joe Gibbs, Washington 1983, 1988, 1992 Bill Walsh, San Francisco 1982, 1985, 1989 2 Bill Belichick, New England 2002, 2004 Mike Shanahan, Denver 1998, 1999 George Seifert, San Francisco 1990, 1995 Jimmy Johnson, Dallas 1993, 1994 Bill Parcells, N.Y. Giants 1987, 1991 Tom Flores, Raiders 1981, 1984 Tom Landry, Dallas 1972, 1978 Don Shula, Miami 1973, 1974 Vince Lombardi, Green Bay 1967, 1968

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LEADING PASSERS

Top Super Bowl passing performances by yards:

* 414 KURT WARNER, Rams

St. Louis vs. Tennessee

Super Bowl XXXIV

* 365 KURT WARNER, Rams

St. Louis vs. New England

Super Bowl XXXVI

* 357 JOE MONTANA, 49ers

San Francisco vs. Cincinnati

Super Bowl XXIII

* 354 TOM BRADY, Patriots

New England vs. Carolina

Super Bowl XXXVIII

* 340 DOUG WILLIAMS, Redskins

Washington vs. Denver

Super Bowl XXII

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SLOW STARTS

Longest period with no scoring to start a Super Bowl and combined points for game in parentheses:

* 26:55 -- New England vs. Carolina, 2004 (61).

* 22:49 -- Pittsburgh vs. Minnesota, 1975 (22).

* 20:57 -- N.Y. Jets vs. Baltimore 1969 (23).

* 16:58 -- Washington vs. Buffalo, 1992 (61).

* 15:48 -- Oakland vs. Minnesota, 1977 (46).

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TEAM LOGS

*--* CAROLINA (14-6) 24 Jacksonville 23 12 at Tampa Bay (ot) 9 23 Atlanta 3 19 New Orleans 13 23 at Indian. (ot) 20 17 Tennessee 37 23 at New Orl. (ot) 20 10 at Houston 14 27 Tampa Bay 24 20 Washington 17 20 at Dallas 24 16 Philadelphia 25 14 at Atlanta (ot) 20 20 at Arizona 17 20 Detroit 14 37 at N.Y. Giants 24 PLAYOFFS 29 Dallas 10 29 at St. Louis (ot) 23 14 at Philadelphia 3 29 New England 32

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*--* NEW ENGLAND (17-2) 0 at Buffalo 31 31 at Philadelphia 10 23 N.Y. Jets 16 17 at Washington 20 38 Tennessee 30 17 N.Y. Giants 6 19 at Miami (ot) 13 9 Cleveland 3 30 at Denver 26 12 Dallas 0 23 at Houston (ot) 20 38 at Indianapolis 34 12 Miami 0 27 Jacksonville 13 21 at N.Y. Jets 16 31 Buffalo 0 PLAYOFFS 17 Tennessee 14 24 Indianapolis 14 32 Carolina 29

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