Dark days return for Panthers

Carolina stumbles to seventh straight home loss

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CORRECTION

A story Sunday on the Sports section front incorrectly reported when the Carolina Panthers last won a game in Charlotte. It was Nov. 19, 2006.

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CHARLOTTE -- They once lost 15 straight games in a season and played in a near-empty stadium.

But the survivors, the ones who thought they had seen it all back in 2001, say this is worse than that.

"I've never seen anything like it," Carolina Panthers fullback Brad Hoover said. "It's weird. It makes me want to throw up, as bad as we're playing at this point."

At Bank of America Stadium, where things have been bad all year, they got worse Sunday. With a small crowd -- 53,493 at the start and a lot less as the game went on -- fans booed quarterback David Carr, and the Panthers couldn't silence them. With an offense that didn't come close to the end zone, the Panthers lost 31-6 to the New Orleans Saints.

It marked the fifth consecutive loss for the Panthers (4-7) and their seventh straight loss at home. Their last victory in Charlotte was Nov. 19, 2007 and a frustrated fan base showed their emotion by chanting for undrafted rookie quarterback Matt Moore, or simply by leaving as rain began falling early in the second half.

Shades of George Seifert and 2001? It's at least approaching that with the Panthers on their longest losing streak since a six-game slide in 2004 and few tangible signs of hope.

"Honestly, you don't even want to go there because those were dismal times," defensive end Mike Rucker said. "When you've been down that road once, you don't want to go down it again. You want to learn from it. I know that we don't want to go down that road."

But the road might be getting dangerous for coach John Fox and general manager Marty Hurney as speculation about their future grows with every loss.

"Right now, we're not playing well as a football team," Fox said. "The buck stops here."

Fox did lose starting quarterback Jake Delhomme to an elbow injury in Week 3, but the plan he and Hurney concocted for just that situation hasn't worked out.

And neither has their backup plan.

Carr, who was signed as a free agent to be a replacement/alternative to Delhomme, already had been relegated to the backup role after struggling earlier this season. Vinny Testaverde, the 44-year-old coaxed out of retirement in mid-October, was supposed to get his third straight start after Fox declared last week he gives the Panthers "the best chance to win." But Testaverde couldn't even get on the field.

Testaverde began experiencing back soreness on Saturday and wasn't any better Sunday morning. That forced the Panthers to put the ball back in Carr's hands and the results weren't any better than in the past.

Carr completed 10 of 22 passes for 95 yards with two interceptions. He finished with a 20.1 quarterback rating and that led to cries for Moore.

"You just go out and try to make a play," Carr said. "It's not like we want to go out there and do what we were doing. I wasn't purposely not scoring points. They were chanting 'Moore,' I thought they wanted more points, so we were trying to give it to them."

Carr gave them something less and the Saints put the game away with three third-quarter touchdowns on a day when the Panthers were held to 195 yards of total offense. Carr, who heard plenty of boos in his five seasons in Houston, said he wasn't bothered by the fans.

"If I paid that much money to come see a football game, I'd want our team to win at least one home game," Carr said.

But Fox said the blame for the offensive woes shouldn't all be placed on Carr (the ground game only gained 43 yards) and several Panthers said they were disappointed by the crowd's treatment of Carr, who was yanked for Moore (8-of-14 for 66 yards with an interception) in the fourth quarter.

"We're out there together," Rucker said. "He's pouring his heart into this thing. To single out one guy like that, I was hurt by that. We've got to stick together. This is not a happy time for anybody. Definitely, the fans deserve better. They deserve wins. They deserve to leave the game happy and have enjoyment. But I was hurt about that with David. He's a teammate. He's fighting."

Carr might not be the only one fighting. With their playoff hopes just about gone, the Panthers have the next five weeks to fight for job security on the coaching staff, in the front office and on the playing field.

"We're just not real good right now and we've got to get better," Fox said. "We've got to coach better, we've got to play better and we've got to execute better on game day. We haven't done that consistently in the last month and a half."