Closer Look

Whether by fortune or force, Panthers find ways to get to Super Bowl

By John Donovan, SI.com

DeShaun Foster broke at least five tackles -- and the Eagles' back -- with his 1-yard touchdown run. AP

PHILADELPHIA -- One touchdown was simply sheer effort, a piece of hard running that could go into the first chapter of an NFL how-to book. The other was a sheer piece of ... well, of something else altogether.

Together, they gave the Carolina Panthers a berth in their first Super Bowl and sent the no-luck Philadelphia Eagles to another heart-rending playoff loss. Together, they accounted for all of the Panthers' scoring in their 14-3 win over the Eagles on Sunday in the NFC Championship game.

"Lemme tell you about that run," Panthers running back Stephen Davis said of the second score. "That was desire. That was heart. That was want."

The run, in fact, was all of that rolled into one glorious rushing yard (though the play covered a lot more than that). DeShaun Foster, barely a backup anymore to the veteran Davis, was the one who carried it off, despite the efforts of at least five Eagles players who had a shot at him.

It was the best yard that Foster, a second-year running back out of UCLA, ever earned.

"It was big, it was big," Foster said, "especially being my first NFL touchdown."

The Panthers led 7-3 late in the third quarter when Carolina's Ricky Manning Jr. intercepted his third pass of the day, returning it to the Philadelphia 37. Four plays later, Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme lofted a pass into the end zone for Steve Smith, who was held by Eagles cornerback Lito Sheppard. The pass-interference penalty gave the Panthers first-and-goal on the Philly 1-yard line.

Foster, who shared duties with Davis for most of the game, took a pitch from Delhomme on the next play and started to head into the right side of the line. But Eagles safety Brian Dawkins came in and almost blew the entire play up by blowing past a block by fullback Brad Hoover.

Foster jumped out of that diving stab of a tackle, though, and bounced the play outside, where he broke another tackle before coming up against three Philadelphia tacklers at about the 2-yard line -- safety Michael Lewis and linebackers Mark Simoneau and Nate Wayne.

That's where the want took over.

"You just pick one," explained Foster, who finished with 60 yards on 14 carries, "and go at him."

Foster picked Wayne, who met him straight up, rather than trying to tackle him low. That was when Foster figured he could push it into the front corner of the end zone. Which is exactly what he did.

"He didn't quit on the play," Delhomme said. "I think that just kind of sums up our team."

As it turned out, the Foster touchdown wasn't even needed. The other touchdown the Panthers scored, a 24-yard pass from Delhomme to Muhsin Muhammad in the second quarter, would have done it. Yet that touchdown, too, was hardly your garden-variety score.

Muhammad ran the same route that Smith scored on against the St. Louis Rams last week, called "X Clown," on that play, pushing down the field against cornerback Bobby Taylor then curling to the middle under safety Dawkins. Delhomme came under a huge rush from his right side on the play and had to heave the ball up sooner than he would have liked. It was badly under thrown, the kind that quarterbacks get ripped for all the time.

But Muhammad beat Taylor, and Dawkins bit on a move to the corner, leaving him flat-footed when Muhammad curled to the post. Muhammad saw the pass was short, came back to it and caught it, untouched, for the touchdown.

"That's what happens in man-to-man coverage. They don't get a chance to see the ball, and I'm looking at the ball the whole time," Muhammad said. "[Delhomme] just put it in the spot where there was a void."

The Panthers hardly rolled over the Eagles in sending them to their third straight NFC Championship game defeat. The Panthers gained only 256 yards. They threw for only 101.

"I don't think they did too many spectacular things," Sheppard said.

Spectacular? Maybe not. But enough?

Yeah. Plenty enough.