HOUSTON As the Carolina Panthers began to fritter away another double-digit lead in the second half Sunday, folks on their couches around the Carolinas were cringing.

Another avalanche was rumbling in the hills. The Panthers had been up 17 points by Detroit and 16 on Atlanta and had lost both of those games. Those memories were painful and fresh.

Now a 21-0 Carolina lead against the playoff-bound Texans had been sliced to 21-13. The third quarter had taken about three years to play.

Nearly 14 minutes remained in the fourth and the Panthers seemed like they were behind even though they were actually ahead by eight points and 80 yards away from the Houston end zone.

You remember how it felt if you were watching. Somebody in your house had to have said, "Here we go again," to somebody else.

But then Carolina did something different. Something grown-up. Something right.

The Panthers clinched a game with two gorgeous fourth-quarter drives on offense. The first went 80 yards in seven plays for a touchdown. The second ran the final 7:25 off the clock - five first downs worth of coffin nails hammered down in a hostile stadium against a team that had won seven games in a row.

This was a first in a couple of ways for the 2011 Panthers: The first win against a team that is actually very good. And the first win in which the Panthers (5-9) finished a game like a big-boy NFL team should.

"We had a lot of guys grit their teeth," quarterback Cam Newton said, "and say they're fed up and execute and make first downs and move the football ... We knew it couldn't happen again. So we just consistently kept fighting and kept fighting and had a successful drive and another one to finish the game off."

The Panthers had felt the momentum shift on the sideline, as their harvest from a near-perfect first half started to wither away.

"In the flow of a normal football game," offensive tackle Jordan Gross said, "there's going to be a stretch where maybe you're struggling on offense or defense. You've got to get through that. And that's what we haven't been able to do much this year - overcome a little lull in the action.

"I was going up and down the sideline telling everybody, 'Hey, we're still up eight,' or whatever it was. Because a lot of times you get that momentum change, even though you've got the lead, it doesn't feel like it. I said we've got to play like we're playing with a lead."

I thought the biggest play in the 80-yard, fourth-quarter TD drive was a 13-yard run by Newton. It didn't have the trickery of a 26-yard pass to Jeremy Shockey or the dazzle of DeAngelo Williams' 24-yard touchdown run up the middle, but it gave the Panthers their initial first down of the march. You should have heard how quiet Reliant Stadium got when Newton ran for those 13 yards.

That run broke the gate open. The Texans (10-4) - let's not forget, the NFL's No. 1-ranked defense entering the game - literally couldn't stop Carolina for the game's last 14 minutes. The Panthers had 148 yards and nine first downs on those last two drives, grinding out more than 11 minutes worth of clock.

"Some people may say we're not playing for anything," wide receiver Steve Smith said. "What's the point? Shut it down. But we're playing for the next three Sundays - the next two that we play and then the first Sunday in September (in 2012)."

The Panthers played those last two drives not to lose, but to win. They weren't afraid. The yardage was accomplished mostly on the ground. But offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski also called for Newton to throw a pass to Smith that worked for 22 yards on the final drive.

Said Houston head coach Gary Kubiak: "First off, congratulations to Carolina. They came in here and kicked our butts up and down the field."

Yes, they did. The Panthers' patched-together defense was superb given its capabilities - forcing three turnovers and giving up only 13 points. But the way the offense was able to right the ship in the fourth quarter - much of it by pounding the ball - was what won the game.

"We've thrown the ball a lot, we've run reverses and options and everything," Gross said. "And that fourth quarter was just downhill football that last drive. It felt great. We all were laughing because we were grass-covered and beat up and bruised. That's what you want to be doing at the end of a game."

The Panthers have been outscored 130-76 in the fourth quarter this season. Although they've led in 13 of their 14 games, they've won only five of them.

But a game like this gives any Panthers fan a dose of holiday hope. Wait until next year indeed - for a Sunday like this makes next September not seem very far away at all.