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The blowout didn’t blow in.
Instead, the Carolina Panthers had plenty of difficulty beating the winless Detroit Lions Sunday at Bank of America Stadium.
For the second straight game, the Panthers came precariously close to losing to one of the NFL’s worst teams.
Last week, it was Oakland (now 2-8). This week, Detroit (0-10).
An interception by rookie safety Charles Godfrey in the final five minutes when the Panthers were clinging to a two-point lead was the save-the-day play the team needed to secure a 31-22 win.
The victory improved the Panthers’ record to 8-2 and kept them in first place in the tightly-bunched NFC South. Tampa Bay also won Sunday to improve to 7-3. Atlanta, next week’s opponent, lost to fall to 6-4.
Despite struggling, there was no sense of shame or regret in the Carolina locker room.
Coach John Fox and the Panthers took a bottom-line approach to narrowly avoiding a scare from Detroit. Their message had nothing to do with style points or margin of victory.
“It’s never `a win, but’ in this league,” said quarterback Jake Delhomme. “It’s always `a win.’ ”
Fox said every loss is ugly and every win is beautiful in the NFL, where upsets hardly are rare.
“That’s why my hair is very gray and starting to go away,” he said.
“You see it every week. It’s not a shock. Turn on the scores every Monday, and you see it. The difference between the teams with winning records and losing records is they’ve lost some close games. … Always has been, always will be.”
Detroit has lost four games this season by 8 points or less, but also has lost the same number of games by 18 or more points.
From Fox’s perspective, winning Sunday was plenty lovely even though Carolina fell behind 10-0, was outgained 125 yards to 10 in the first quarter, and failed to gain a first down until early in the second period against a Lions team has won only one of its past 18 games dating back to last year.
The most aesthetically pleasing part of the Panthers’ performance was its record-setting rushing performance. Carolina ran for a team record 262 yards, with all but 6 coming in the final three periods.
DeAngelo Williams (120 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries) and rookie Jonathan Stewart (130 yards and one TD on 15 attempts) became Carolina’s first backfield tandem to rush for 100 yards in the same game.
“Both of them had runs that inspired us today,” said Fox.
“I think they are both fine backs and hopefully they have a lot more fine days ahead.”
Delhomme said Detroit’s defensive essential dared the Panthers to run -- so run they did.
A 21-yard gain by Stewart with just over 11 minutes left in the first half, when Detroit led 10-0, seemed to be the spark the Panthers needed.
It gave them their second first down of the game and their first trip to the Lions’ side of midfield. Three plays later, Delhomme completed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jeff King.
Less than six minutes after that, Williams broke off a 56-yard touchdown run, followed 100 seconds later by Stewart’s 22-yarder for a TD.
Carolina led 21-16 at halftime and built the margin to 24-16 before the Lions and quarterback Daunte Culpepper again threatened to pull off what likely would have been the biggest upset of the NFL season.
Culpepper’s 1-yard dive for a touchdown with 6:05 remaining cut the lead to 24-22 and the Lions chose to go for a two-point conversion to try to tie the score.
Culpepper tried to run into the end zone, but was stopped inches short by middle linebacker Jon Beason and others.
Though television replays made it look like Beason may have gotten away without being penalized for pushing back Culpepper by the facemask, Beason didn’t consider it a foul.
“I don’t ever try to grab (a) facemask,” said Beason. “If he tries to duck underneath me and I’m tackling when it gets around his helmet, that’s his problem, not mine.”
The Lions got the ball back at its 14-yard line with 4:58 remaining and were about 50 yards away from getting into range for kicker Jason Hanson to try a field goal to take the lead. Hanson made a 56-yarder earlier in the game.
But Detroit’s comeback drive lasted only one play.
Culpepper tried to complete a short pass to wide receiver Calvin Johnson, but Godfrey, who was in man-to-man coverage on the Lions’ star, intercepted and returned the ball to the 4.
Godfrey said Johnson made a soft cut to the inside on the pass route and that he anticipated Johnson would try to go back to the outside.
“I just tried to hide behind him and pop out at the right time and (Culpepper) threw it right to me,” said Godfrey.
Williams scored a TD on the next play from the 4, improving Carolina’s lead to 9 and effectively ending the game.
The Panthers’ schedule gets much tougher starting next week in Atlanta. None of their remaining six opponents has a losing record and all are contending for playoff berths.
At 8-2, Carolina has the third best record in the NFL behind 10-0 Tennessee and the 9-1 New York Giants, who host the Panthers Dec. 21.
“We’ve put ourselves in a good spot,” said Delhomme. “We’ll see if we can keep it going.”
Charles Chandler: (704) 358-5123.
