Peppers, Panthers Barely Fall Short

You could have timed the play with a sundial.

Rumblin’, bumblin’, stumblin’, Julius Peppers looked up and saw nothing but 104 yards of thin, Mile High air between himself and the end zone. He only made it 101.

That pretty much defined the day for the Carolina Panthers, who came up just short Sunday, falling, 20-17, to the Denver Broncos in a wild game.

Reuben Droughns ran for 193 yards for Denver (4-1) and Jake Plummer made up for his fourth-and-goal interception to Peppers by throwing a 39-yard touchdown pass to Ashley Lelie for the winning points.

Lelie’s touchdown -- caught over the shoulder in the corner of the end zone, then upheld after Carolina asked for a review -- was one of the few things that went to script on an otherwise crazy day.

“I think of myself as someone who can put the bad things behind me,” Plummer said. “It was an emotional roller coaster. To go down there and throw that pick was bad, stupid.”

Despite the loss, Peppers will surely get a game ball -- maybe a bottle of oxygen too -- for his 101-yard trek that goes down as the longest interception return in NFL history to not result in a touchdown.

After picking off Plummer’s pass four yards deep in his end zone, the 283-pound Peppers took off down the sideline. He started running out of steam around the Denver 20 and, after cutting inside and looking behind him, was tackled by Rod Smith at the three.

Three plays later -- with both Smith and Peppers taking oxygen on the sidelines -- quarterback Jake Delhomme scored on a three-yard run to put Carolina (1-3) ahead, 17-13.