Run Over: Panthers Take NFC South Lead With 38-23 Romp Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 9 December 2008 Every team in the league has one of these in them – a game where all their strengths suddenly become weaknesses and all their weaknesses suddenly become strengths. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had theirs Monday at Bank of America Stadium, where one of their best offensive showings of the season was overshadowed by one of their worst defensive efforts ever. The result was a 38-23 loss to the Carolina Panthers, who knocked the Bucs back into the fight for an NFC wild card berth and wrested away sole possession of first place in the NFC South. With three games to play the Bucs still have a chance to win their second-straight division title, but won't if they play even one more game the way they did this one. Looking nothing like the unit that had allowed just one rushing touchdown and one 100-yard rusher this season, the Bucs allowed Carolina's runners to run for 299 yards and four touchdowns. Most of those yards came as a result of missed tackles, which were plentiful on a night when DeAngelo Williams (19 carries, 186 yards) and rookie Jonathan Stewart (15 carries, 115 yards) combined for 301 yards and four touchdowns. "This was embarrassing,'' Barrett Ruud said. "We know we're not that team that was out there tonight, but it is what it is.'' It was an uncharacteristic defensive showing and overshadowed a career night for Bucs receiver Antonio Bryant, who caught nine passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns. Bryant also set up a couple of critical scores, but every time the Bucs closed the gap or tied the game, the Panthers came back and gouged them for big yards and big plays. "Yes, this hurts a lot,'' said Bryant, who came to the Bucs as a free-agent after missing all of last year following his release by the 49ers. "We've seen a couple of teams take some big wins this weekend. I think we just need to focus on winning every game and approaching them as if they are playoff games and we'll be all right.'' The Bucs no doubt approached this one as a playoff game. But so did the Panthers. And rightfully so. After all, the lead in the NFC South was at stake. The Bucs were quick to point out, though, that the title is still undecided. "Nobody's clinched anything; nobody's out of it yet,'' Cato June said. "It's a loss and we put ourselves in a bad position with it. We need some help now, but we still have three games left.'' So do the Panthers, who arguably have the tougher schedule, with games against Denver, at the Giants and at New Orleans remaining. The Bucs, meanwhile, have games at Atlanta and at home against San Diego and Oakland remaining. There's plenty of opportunity, then, for the Bucs to reclaim a share or even sole possession of first place in their division, but they'll have to play a lot better than they did against Carolina. The Panthers averaged 6 yards per carry in the first half alone and poured it on during an 18-minute span of the second half, gaining 170 yards on 15 carries. And it wasn't just on the ground that the Panthers succeeded in gouging the Bucs defense. They also completed 14 of their 20 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown and converted eight of 10 third downs. "They came in tonight with an excellent plan,'' Jon Gruden said of the Panthers. "They did a nice job cracking our support defense. These guys are that good. These guys are going to make guys miss. I knew that coming in.'' The Bucs also came in knowing they had to put an end to their penchant for slow starts and for spotting their opponents sizeable leads. Once again, however, they failed to do that. Unlike a lot of their previous slow starts, though, this one fell largely on the special teams units, which got a poor punt from Josh Bidwell at the end of the first offensive series and a missed field goal at the end of the second. In between the Panthers moved the ball 30 yards in eight plays to take a 3-0 lead on a 33-yard John Kasay field goal. The score was set up not only by Bidwell's punt – a line drive that was brought back 12 yards to the Carolina 46 – but by throws of 12 and 19 yards to Muhsin Muhammad, the last of which left the Panthers at the Bucs 11. The Bucs, whose offense has not scored a first-quarter touchdown since the Seattle game, got their offense in gear on their next series, but its drive stalled out near the red-zone. A 10-yard tripping penalty on left tackle Donald Penn ignited the slowdown, which culminated with kicker Matt Bryant rifling a 40-yard field goal attempt off the left upright. The Panthers continued to move the ball, driving deep into Bucs territory, but Ronde Barber's interception of a Delhomme pass ended that threat and set up the Bucs first score. That came on a 20-yard field goal that was set up largely by a 52-yard pass from Jeff Garcia to Antonio Bryant, who blew past Ken Lucas and Richard Marshall on a fly pattern down the left sideline. That play gave the Bucs the ball at the Panthers 2-yard line, but three plays netted Tampa Bay just one more yard. The Bucs, who rank next-to-last in the league in red-zone offense, settled for yet another field goal. The tie that Matt Bryant's field goal produced didn't last long as the Panthers came up with a big play of their own, a 40-yard run by Williams that set up a 2-yard Stewart touchdown run. Like Williams 40-yard run, one in which he sprung loose by breaking tackle attempts by Chris Hovan and Tanard Jackson, Stewart's touchdown came off a run through the middle of the Bucs defensive line. The Panthers targeted the middle of the Bucs line 14 times, gaining 84 yards in the first half, and continued to target it early in the second before Jermaine Phillips ended the Panthers first drive with an interception. That takeaway set up the Bucs' second score, a touchdown that came on a 50-yard pass play to Antonio Bryant, who beat a fallen Lucas to grab Garcia's throw and carry it into the end zone, tying the game at 10-10. The comeback was typical of the Bucs. They've fallen behind in seven games so far this year, but they've bounced back to win in each of the last six. Bouncing back against the Panthers proved a little more difficult, however. After getting the ball back, the Panthers ran it up the middle until they reached Bucs territory. They then went to the air, with Delhomme hitting Steve Smith for a 38-yard touchdown pass that regained the lead. The Garcia-Bryant connection hooked up again on Tampa Bay's next drive, this time gaining 39 yards to the Carolina 8. Two players later, Cadillac Williams ran in from 4 yards out to tie the game at 17-17. Panthers rookie Jonathan Stewart mirrored that run 10 plays later, pushing Carolina into a 24-17 lead at the end of yet another drive punctuated by missed tackles. The third of their four rushing scores came as the Panthers built a 31-17 lead that the Bucs cut to 31-23. Carolina closed out the scoring with Williams 36-yard exclamation point of a touchdown run, making it 38-23. "I'd rather us be humbled now than later in the year or in the playoffs,'' Derrick Brooks said. "We'll take our medicine and learn from it.''