Well, it certainly wasn’t the Panther’s best performance of the season, managing to hold on against the Oakland Raiders despite one of the worst games of Jake Delhomme’s career.  But hey, a win is a win is a win, and this win puts Carolina at 7-2 with a full game lead over Tampa Bay.

You could make the case that Carolina’s performance on offense wasn’t entirely due to the play of Jake Delhomme, there were some dropped balls, poor protection at times, and bad penalties, but overall Jake just stunk.  Delhomme was 7 for 27 on pass attempts, with one touchdown and four interceptions.  Delhomme just flat out couldn’t hit anybody.  But before people get to talking about how bad Delhomme played, let’s not forget how the team played without Delhomme last season.  Yeah Delhomme is going to have some bad games, but he is one of the main reasons why they are sitting at 7-2 right now.

Outside of Delhomme’s play there really isn’t much to complain about.  DeAngelo Williams had another great game, racking up 140 yards and a touchdown, 69 of those yards coming on an incredible run in which Williams refused to go down, helping give Carolina a 14-0 lead going into the half.  For me, Williams completely lost his image of a slash back who can’t really run in between the tackles.  Williams showed incredible strength and elusiveness, breaking tackles and avoiding defenders, reminiscent of the DeSean Foster of 2003.

Though Williams had a phenomenal game, Julius Peppers deserves the game ball.  This was probably one of Peppers’ best games in two seasons, racking up three sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and a handful of hurries.  Peppers was all over the field,  dominating Raiders linemen, dropping into coverage, and making plays all over the field.  The pressure applied by Peppers, and the rest of the defensive line is what kept Andrew Walker from getting comfortable and moving the ball.  With the kind of defense that Carolina has, the Panthers can afford to have a sub-par game from the offense, because the defense will always keep them in the game.

Special teams wise the Panthers were solid as well, Mark Jones in particular.  Jones had a number of big returns, one setting up the John Kasay field goal that would ice the game.  For the first time since Rod Smart the Panthers have a legitimate return man, and the field position game has greatly benefited from this.

So the win wasn’t very convincing.  It was sloppy, but it’s the kind of game you have to win, and the Panthers did.  Besides, this was not the same Oakland team that got embarassed by Atlanta last week.  They were clearly playing with a lot more motivation, drive, and desire than they did the week before. You have to be happy with this win.

Tags: delhomme, panthers, tampa bay