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The game was drab and the opponent was worse.
But if you want to know how beating Washington feels, watch Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme.
After rallying from a 17-2 third-quarter deficit to win 20-17, Delhomme exchanges hugs, handshakes and head-butts with teammates. He even head-butts the linemen. It's as if he head-butts only the linemen. Unless you weigh 300 or more pounds Delhomme won't head-butt you. This way, he doesn't have to hold back.
Delhomme tries to slap hands with right end Dante Rosario. But even though Rosario is 6-foot-4, Delhomme whacks him in the face. Rosario reels backward across the Bank of America turf as if tagged by Wladimir Klitschko.
"He gets awkward when he gets his emotion going," says lineman Jordan Gross. "But it's not for show. It's not for anybody's benefit. And that's why I love playing with him. He doesn't do this for a paycheck."
When Delhomme runs out of teammates to crash into, he takes what feels like a victory lap. He runs by himself down the field, holding the ball high and waving it up and down. Before he disappears into the tunnel, he flips the ball underhand at least 25 yards to a fan in a black shirt two rows behind the "Welcome Home Moose" sign.
And, yes, the man did appear to be Delhomme's intended target.
One of the best qualities about sport is that, no matter how old you are, it allows you to be a kid. You don't have to hold back. You, too, can experience unrestrained child-like joy.
We adults don't create nearly enough opportunities for such feelings – especially the adults who play for the Panthers. They had lost their first three games. Until Sunday, they hadn't won a game since December.
"That's what it's about," Delhomme says when I ask him about his victory lap. "It's about coming in a locker room after a game and it's just the coaches and players and the trainers and the equipment managers and the support group."
He adds: "This why you do anything and everything you can during the week. You want to feel like this on Sunday afternoon."
When the afternoon began, the Panthers were one of only six teams without a victory. Even Oakland and Detroit had one.
For most of three quarters the Panthers played as if they would remain winless. They played as if they couldn't score if they were on the field by themselves. When the league's highlight package appeared on the big screen in the third quarter, other teams were shown scoring touchdowns. When it was Carolina's turn for an offensive highlight, the screen showed a safety.
But late in the third quarter, the Panthers remembered who they are. Better, they remembered who they want to be. This is how they ended their final five drives: touchdown, field goal, punt, touchdown and run out the clock.
On those drives Delhomme was 5-6 for 75 yards. He also was 1-1 on a successful two-point conversion.
Delhomme's signature play, however, was a run with two minutes remaining. Some of you can't stand the way the man plays. But if you understand how football works, you love this play.
It was third and eight and the Redskins, as bad teams do, had squandered their timeouts. If the Panthers pick up eight yards, they keep the ball and the game ends.
The play is a handoff to running back Jonathan Stewart. But wait. That's what the offensive line thinks.
"They keep us in the dark a lot," Gross says.
While the linemen block for Stewart, Delhomme fakes the handoff and hangs onto the ball. He tries to go outside and has only one man to beat.
Alas, the man is DeAngelo Hall. Hall is 25 and one of the fastest players in the league. Delhomme is 34 and a good person.
Delhomme doesn't remember what happens next. Teammates tell him he put on a move. But he doesn't remember it.
He cut inside Hall, but Hall grabbed him short of the first down. Delhomme kept pushing and churning and when Hall finally dragged him down, Delhomme had picked up nine yards and the first down.
"I just pray to God it's not in slow motion when I watch it," he says. "I hope it's in regular motion."
Slow motion works. The play made official Carolina's first victory of the season, and neither the players nor the fans are in a hurry to let it go.
