From the Charlotte Observer , The Charlotte Observer, published 10 November 2003 You win one of the biggest games in franchise history. You beat a team with a big reputation and bigger mouths. Your fans are screaming and your teammates are running around like kids or running to the sidelines to pick their kids out of the bleachers and carry them onto the field. If you're a Carolina Panther, and you have just beaten the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-24 in a we-won, no-we-lost, wait-we-really-did-win victory, you don't hurry. You stand there on the Ericsson Stadium grass and draw it all in. These were the reigning Super Bowl champions you beat Sunday. And you beat them with a 95-second, 78-yard touchdown drive on which quarterback Jake Delhomme completed five passes to five different receivers, including the game-winning score to Steve Smith. And when Tampa Bay tried to make one late run for a tying field goal, you stopped them. The last hit, the one that jarred the ball loose from Tampa Bay's Keenan McCardell, came from safety Mike Minter, who with a running start separated McCardell from the ball and probably a few of his senses. "I tell you what, I can't describe it," Minter said later about the play, the afternoon and life in general. "You can't put it into words. The simple fact is I don't even think there are words in our vocabulary to explain this game." Victory is still new enough for the Panthers that none of the players acts as if this was just another game in a one-game-at-a-time league. Watch cornerback Reggie Howard leave the field. Was that a run or a walk? "It's a run, walk, skip, jump, give everybody a high five, everything," Howard said. "I'm telling you, man, lots of folks are losing their hair. We make these games close and we make them interesting." Last week, the Panthers lost a close game to Houston, a team they were supposed to beat. They let the game slip away. In the wake of the loss was the fear that the Panthers would suddenly remember who they were, a team that has not had a winning season since 1996, and that the Bucs would remember who they were, the team that two months ago was favored to return to the Super Bowl. Guess what? The teams did remember who they were. The Panthers were the team that figured out late last season that they had something special and have spent the past two months proving it. The Bucs were a loud, brash, .500 team that had guaranteed a victory against Carolina. Simeon Rice, the Bucs defensive end who had made the guarantee, says he'll guarantee a victory for next week, too. Between guarantees, Simeon, there's a question I want to ask: Are the Panthers better than you are? "Yeah," Rice says. "Right now they are." The most offensive Buc was Kenyatta Walker, a 302-pound tackle who spent the first game against the Panthers with one hand all but implanted inside the face mask of Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers. Walker did it again Sunday, three times being called for personal fouls. After the game, he looked as if he wanted to hit somebody or cry. With a big hand he waved off the first groups of reporters. If we had worn face masks, he would have nailed us, too. The cockiest Buc is tackle Warren Sapp, who once was famous for being a great football player and now is famous for being famous. Let's listen to his postgame interview: "Next question," is his first answer. "Next question," is his second. For a written transcript, send me a self-addressed envelope in care of this newspaper. Sapp talked as if he was in a hurry to get out of the locker room and get on the flight home, a flight that was, to use Rice's word, guaranteed to be one of the longest 90-minute flights he will ever make. Minter's drive home had to go too fast -- replaying the touchdown he scored, the game-ending tackle he made and the afternoon when the power structure in the NFC South and the NFL changed, and realizing that he helped change it. "I will never forget this game," Minter said. "I'm going to remember every play we made and everything we did. When I'm 50 and 60, and hopefully still alive, you can ask me anything about it. I'll tell you."