Panthers catch on early

Carolina begins season with decisive victory over St. Louis / Using a stifling run defense and an all-around productive and balanced offense, Carolina dominates St. Louis on the road

ST. LOUIS -- For almost the entire exhibition season, the Carolina Panthers looked like a football team in trouble.

"I know there were people out there thinking we wouldn't win a game just because we lost three games in the preseason," defensive tackle Kris Jenkins said.

Using the kind of offensive balance and defensive firepower that didn't exist a year ago, the Panthers defeated the St. Louis Rams 27-13 at the Edward Jones Dome on Sunday.

"I don't know if people understand how huge it is to start the season fast with a win," defensive end Mike Rucker said.

The team that didn't look like much in exhibition games looked like a completely different one in the regular-season opener.

Reality might be somewhere in the middle.

"We didn't just win the Super Bowl," Jenkins said. "We just won the first game."

The victory silences, at least for a week, the whispers that quarterback Jake Delhomme might be on his way out of the starting lineup, that coach John Fox might be on the hot seat and that linebacker Dan Morgan's career might be over.

Delhomme, Fox and Morgan are just fine.

"We had a good team game," Fox said.

Carolina's defense, complete with two safeties who have worked with the first team for only a couple of weeks, went into one of the league's most hostile environments and shut down what was supposed to be one of the NFL's most explosive offenses.

With Morgan returning at middle linebacker after sitting out nearly a year with concussion problems, the Panthers held Steven Jackson, who didn't play much at all during the exhibitions, to 58 yards rushing (on 18 carries) and quarterback Marc Bulger to 167 passing yards.

Early in the fourth quarter, the St. Louis fans were booing their team. By the end of the game, they were silent.

Bulger was sacked once but constantly hurried, and Jackson lost two fumbles, the most significant coming with the Panthers trailing 13-7 early in the third quarter.

Safety Chris Harris, acquired in a trade with the Chicago Bears in early August, came up to make a hit as Jackson turned the corner.

"I hit him pretty solid," Harris said. "I didn't even know he fumbled it. The next thing I knew I saw everybody scrambling around me for the ball."

Defensive end Julius Peppers, only a month removed from a challenge to be a leader by owner Jerry Richardson, already had the ball. Two plays later, Delhomme hit Steve Smith for a 68-yard touchdown and a lead the Panthers never let go.

St. Louis finished with 238 yards of total offense, including 112 in the second half. That might have been because Morgan played his first full game since the 2005 season and made a major impact.

Morgan played all but the final two snaps and led the Panthers with seven tackles. He suffered a concussion in last season's opener, setting a disappointing tone, and a Panthers team many thought was headed to the Super Bowl wound up 8-8.

"It's a big difference from the opener last year," Morgan said. "We made it a point this week that we weren't going to start off like that again."

At least for one day, there weren't many similarities to last season.

The offense, with new coordinator Jeff Davidson, was balanced and efficient and much more adventurous than it was in the preseason.

Delhomme silenced the David Carr fan club by completing 18 of 27 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns, finishing with a 125.7 quarterback rating.

Unlike last season, the running game gave Delhomme lots of help. The Panthers finished with 186 yards on the ground, and DeShaun Foster carried 17 times for 94 yards.

The Panthers were impressive and effective in just about every way. That's a whole lot better (and more important) than the preseason and last season.