Carolina's cardiac kids

Fox builds something special with 5-0 Panthers

INDIANAPOLIS -- The rest of the NFL should consider itself forewarned: If you want to beat the John Fox-coached Carolina Panthers, you'd better knock them out early. You'd better run by them before they catch their breath, build a huge lead and bury their hopes before they begin to take shape.

Because if you don't, and you find yourself having to hazard a backward glance at them at some point in the game, this much can be counted on: They'll be back there all right, still playing, still plugging and almost assuredly gaining ground on you by the minute.

The heretofore high-flying Indianapolis Colts are the latest team to learn that lesson, which was painfully driven home by Carolina's resilient 23-20 overtime victory before a stunned and sold-out RCA Dome.

As magical as the Colts have been this season, with their Peyton Manning-led comebacks and offensive extravaganzas, it is the tough-till-the-end Panthers (5-0) who remain one of the NFL's three undefeated teams after six weeks of the regular season -- thanks to John Kasay's 47-yard game-winning field goal at the 5:39 mark of overtime.

Score one for mentality over magic, with tenacity trumping pyrotechnics.

"That's what John Fox has done for this team,'' Panthers veteran offensive tackle Todd Steussie said. "It's a mentality that comes down from the top. Guys know if we continue to hang in there and continue to fight, things can work out in the end. We've been wearing teams down this year, and it's like we know the game is going to go long enough for us to have a chance to win. We just have a lot of fortitude.''

In less than a season and a half in Carolina, Fox has developed quite the winning formula, and it was all wonderfully on display against the Colts. The Panthers are going to beat you with their special teams, with Todd Sauerbrun's deft punting touch and big returns from Steve Smith and Rod Smart. They'll beat you with a swarming defense that pounds on you for four quarters and creates turnovers (three by the Colts). And now, praise be, they can beat you with a suddenly two-headed power running game that wears opposing defenses down to a little bitty nub.

Most of all, the Panthers just find a way to beat you, like they did on Sunday, when they scored 20 of the game's final 27 points to shock the confident first-place Colts, who slipped to 5-1. Indianapolis dominated the first half statistically, but led only 13-3 at the break, which is all the life opportunistic Carolina needed.

"We're going to be there until the whistle blows and the game is over,'' Panthers strong safety Mike Minter said. "That's what John Fox has meant to this football team. He brought to this team a mentality to go out and make plays and keep fighting, no matter what. We will be around until the end, because it's hard to knock us out early. We're going to take some blows, we're going to take some shots, but we're going to come back after that.

"I look at our football team like we're Muhammad Ali. He might get hit early. He might get knocked down. But I tell you what, after 15 rounds, he's going to be standing strong, and he's going to look at that scorecard and be winning. And in this league, that's the bottom line. It's not about how you start; it's how you finish. And we know how to finish.''

Boy, do they. Carolina had 14 of its 17 first downs and 20 of its 23 points after the half. The Panthers rushed for 189 yards on 41 carries, but 31 of those attempts and 169 of those yards came after the break, when Carolina bent the Colts to their will behind the combined efforts of second-year running back DeShaun Foster -- who had a game-high 85 yards on 16 carries, all in the second half -- and starter Stephen Davis, who totaled 76 yards on 15 attempts before leaving the game for good in the third quarter with a right forearm injury.

Carolina, with Davis rushing for four consecutive 100-yard games to open his Panthers career, came in averaging 167.8 yards per game rushing, which ranked second in the league. Remarkably, the Panthers topped that production in the second half alone against the Colts. Foster, in his breakthrough game in the NFL, added two receptions for 54 yards.

"We have a formula and we don't give up on it,'' Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said. "We are very patient with the running game, and if it doesn't work right away, we don't give up on it. We just keep doing what we do and eventually that came around today. We got back to our tempo in the second half, after playing at their pace in the first half.

"Again, it goes back to the approach John takes. We have a very physical mentality, and we're going to keep fighting until the end. We have a resilience that comes from John and that coaching staff, and obviously it exists with our players.''

The Panthers, who lead Tampa Bay by two games in the NFC South, have something else that the rest of the league didn't know they had at the start of play on Sunday: a back in Foster who looks ready to push Davis for playing time. After missing all of last season following preseason microfracture surgery on his left knee, Foster had been used as the Panthers' third-down back. But when Davis bruised his forearm in the third quarter and later fumbled deep in Colts territory, it was Foster, the 2002 second-round pick out UCLA, who kept Carolina's offense churning.

"We've known about the two running backs,'' Fox said. "You guys [in the media] just found out about the one today. We just know that to run the ball, we need them both.''

Davis came into the game as the NFC's leading rusher with 565 yards, a pace that would see him top 2,200 yards. But he came away sounding as if he was prepared to share playing time with Foster from here on out.

"I'm very proud of him,'' Davis said. "He went in there and did what he had to do. He makes a lot of plays when given the opportunity, and he's going to make a lot more. A lot of people had better know they're in trouble now. We've got a two-headed monster.''

But the real horror show for the Colts, fresh off their historic comeback win at Tampa Bay, was how quickly everything turned around against Carolina. Up 13-3 at the break, with a 212-88 yard advantage in total offense, the Panthers started seizing control on an interception by rookie cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. -- he was in Manning-on-Manning coverage -- on the third play of the second half.

Davis rumbled 28 yards for the Colts' first touchdown on the ensuring snap, cutting the Indy lead to 13-10. In the first half, Davis didn't have a rush longer than 3 yards, and he finished with 10 yards on eight carries.

"That was so huge,'' Minter said of the two-play whammy that Carolina hit the Colts with. "Right there, that changed the tone of the game. Momentum is a monster, and if you get it on your side, you ride it, baby. And we rode it.''

The Panthers owned the game's momentum until the Colts' Manning (who finished 23-of-34 for 293 yards, with one touchdown and one interception) snatched it back with a brilliant game-tying touchdown drive in the final minutes. Completing seven consecutive passes starting with a fourth-and-4 at his own 15 with 2:27 remaining, Manning led the Colts to a 20-20 tie on a 25-yard scoring pass receiver Reggie Wayne with 45 seconds to play in regulation. Five of the Colts' nine second-half first downs came on that one drive.

But Manning's comeback mojo proved no match for the Panthers' moxie, and Carolina took the overtime kickoff and drove 43 yards in 10 plays, setting up Kasay's clutch 47-yard field goal.

"It feels so great, because we've been on the other side of this coin so many times,'' Panthers defensive end Mike Rucker said. "I really feel like we've been in this situation numerous times, and that helped us this time. Everybody was calm. Nobody panicked, and we just did what we had to do to win in overtime.

"That's what this team is all about. We're disciplined, down-to-earth guys. No one has got a big head. No one's bigger than the guy next to him. We're all just machinists working hard together right now.''

Something's building in Carolina all right, even though it's too early to tell what will come from the Panthers' labor. This much is clear: Whatever it is, it's going to have John Fox's name all over it.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.