 The Carolina Panthers won 12 games in 2008, but ended the season in the postseason in a disastrous game by Jake Delhomme on his birthday. He gave the Cardinals plenty of gifts with six turnovers. Delhomme began the 2009 NFL season schedule looking to make amends for his poor play, but continued his struggle with four picks and a fumble. The Panthers have played poorly on defense too, resulting in three ugly losses before their bye in the fourth wee. Carolina emerged victorious in Week 5, beating the Redskins 20-17 and hoping to forget the first three weeks of the season in which they helped sink to the bottom of the NFC South. The win against the Redskins helped give the Panthers a 1-3 record and set them apart from the division's winless wonder, the Tampa Bay Bucs. Still, the team has to figure out where that 2008 offense went. The running game that dominated team has been tamed, running the football for just 94.8 yards a game with running backs DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart sharing time and carries again. The lack of the running game has been detrimental to Delhomme, whose quarterback rating is a mere 60.3. He has just three touchdown passes, but has thrown eight interceptions. He is not getting much yardage on the throws, averaging a pitiful 6.74 yards a throw. Delhomme hopes his bootleg run on third and eight that helped keep the drive alive that led to the team's first victory will be the turning point for his and the team's awful season. The Panthers defense has been unable to force enough turnovers to keep up with the offenses 12 giveaways. Carolina's D has been getting incrementally better after giving up 38 points in the first game. The Redskins managed just 17 points in Week 5. For the season the Panthers are allowing 26 points a contest. The defensive woes seem to begin with the front seven. They are allowing other teams to run the football for 155.5 yards a game (third worst in the NFL). That is what the offense was running for last season. The passing defense seems to be pretty good, allowing 165.8 yards through the air a game and 6.4 yards a passing attempt (10th in the league). This stat and the win in Week 5 have to give the Carolina Panthers and the fans at Bank of America Stadium hope. The team is allowing fewer and fewer points and yards. There are still 12 games left and a 10-win run might be able to make them playoff relevant again. Carolina has three very winnable games before heading into New Orleans to try and contain the Saints nightmare offense. The next week they play the other team on top of the division, the Atlanta Falcons. After the Falcons the schedule has few breaks, so the team needs to be hitting their stride in the latter half for this football team to have any chance to make the postseason again.
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