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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Carolina's offense was not merely bad Sunday. It was unwatchable.
After the Panthers' touchdown-free 17-6 loss to the slumping New York Jets, I ask fullback Brad Hoover if he has ever been as frustrated by an offense as he is by this one.
Hoover, a Panther for 10 seasons, pauses and thinks and finally says, "It is hard to remember."
Every New York blitz seemed a surprise. Hey, the Jets sent extra guys. No fair.
To say every Carolina forward pass was an adventure would be inaccurate because adventures are interesting.
Quarterback Jake Delhomme was so bad that even I can't defend him. He threw 34 passes, completed 14, was intercepted four times and sacked three.
I ask him the same question I ask Hoover.
"Not close," Jake says about the frustration. "Not even close. Not even on the same planet."
The obvious move is to dump Delhomme and replace him with a Young Quarterback of the Future.
But if the Panthers had a Young Quarterback of the Future, he would have played a month ago.
Although Carolina coach John Fox might start 25-year-old Matt Moore at home Sunday against Tampa Bay, it won't be to showcase Moore's skills. It will be to save Jake from Jake.
Watching him was like watching a little kid crash his bike. Delhomme would fall and get up, fall and get up, fall and get up and fall again.
He's fallen and he can get up. There comes a point where removing a player from harm is humane.
Unless Moore is stellar, the move probably will be temporary. Nothing Moore has done implies that he is Jake's heir. Jake doesn't have an heir.
Where the Panthers find one depends heavily on who coaches them next season.
But here's what I think happens.
Delhomme returns. The Panthers have invested too much money in him to simply send him on his way.
There's another reason to keep him. Although I know you don't want to hear this, he has been good for this team. He was been good until this season, anyway. But when it comes to sports, it's as if we're all in high school. The thing that just happened is the thing that we remember.
The Panthers will bring in a quarterback such as Jason Campbell of the Washington Redskins to challenge Delhomme.
They'll also draft a quarterback perhaps to prove that they can. The Panthers have drafted one quarterback the last seven years. They took Stefan Lefors of Louisville in the fourth round in 2005.
I know quarterbacks don't come easily after the first round (the Panthers traded their first-round pick). But other teams find them.
Another quarterback wasn't required Sunday on Carolina's opening drive. Four times the Panthers faced a third down. They needed 17 yards and then 10 yards and then seven yards to get it. They succeeded.
On third and nine from the New York 39, the Panthers were in their no-huddle offense, which means Delhomme calls the play at the line. He thought Steve Smith was running a slant. Smith thought he was running something else.
Delhomme's pass hit Smith in a bad place – the foot. It bounced into the hands of New York's excellent young cornerback Darrelle Revis, and Revis brought it into the end zone.
"I think that was a miscommunication by the receiver," Fox says. "He ran the wrong route."
What a rare burst of candor from Fox. Every other day Fox would say that he needed to see the tape first. On this day he parlayed a question about the play into a defense of his quarterback.
There is no defense.
Think about it. The Jets, a superior defensive team with a toothless offense, lead 7-0. So what? More than eight minutes remain in the first quarter. The entire second, third and fourth quarters have yet to be played.
Yet seven points are too many to overcome. After opening the game by converting three straight third-downs, the Panthers covert only one on their remaining nine.
Of course they had opportunities. Smith is one of the league's premiere playmakers. Yet his feet got as much action as his hands. He caught two passes for two yards.
He did beat Revis by two steps down the right sideline in the second quarter. But Jake's pass was three steps underthrown, and all Revis had to do was turn around and catch it.
During a late timeout, I walked to the back of the stadium. The view is almost panoramic. After what I had been watching, the swamp land outside The Meadowlands looked good.
