Branded for success Jake Delhomme threw for 273 yards and a TD, Stephen Davis ran for 104 yards and a score and the Carolina Panthers ended the Bill Parcells-led turnaround in Dallas with a 29-10 victory against the Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs. Click here for full story.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Carolina Panthers will not earn a lot of football style points. Stephen Davis is not, say, Marshall Faulk. He's not Edgerrin James. Jake Delhomme is not Brett Favre. He's not Peyton Manning.

Heck, Delhomme isn't even Marc Bulger.

But Carolina, a franchise so steeped in stumbling in the past few years that it's almost embarrassing, will play next week in an NFC divisional game against the super-stylistic St. Louis Rams because the Panthers can do this: They can beat teams in a couple of ways.

They can run the ball, with the muscle of Davis, who has found a new home in his old one, Carolina. They can pass, with Delhomme throwing to Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad, like he did in Saturday's wipeout of the Dallas Cowboys in an NFC Wild Card game.

They have a Top 10 defense, and wonderful special teams, and they can outcoach the best of them. That's what Carolina's John Fox did against Dallas' Bill Parcells in Ericsson Stadium on Saturday night. Outcoached him from the start. Believe it.

"We didn't think that they were going to come out and do the exact same thing that they did before," receiver Smith said, "but they actually did."

The Panthers were not the favorites in a lot of people's minds, and they sure won't be when they face the Rams next weekend in St. Louis. But if a team takes them too lightly, as a lot of teams have this season, they will 29-10 you in a heartbeat. Just like they did to the Cowboys.

"You know what? We're the only team in our division in the playoffs now," Smith said. "That should tell you something."

What Saturday's win should have told folks is that the Panthers can score, even against the top-ranked defense in the league. The Rams, and everybody else, maybe ought to be aware of that next weekend.

The offense starts, of course, with Davis, the longtime Washington running back that came back to the Carolinas (he was born in Spartanburg, S.C.) after seven years with the Redskins and ran for more than 1,400 yards. A steady dose of Davis helped the Panthers win 11 games this season.

One they didn't win, though, was a November game in Texas against the Cowboys in which Davis had 26 carries for only 59 yards. It shouldn't have been all that surprising, then, that the Panthers were looking for a little redemption. It should not have been surprising that the Panthers' first two plays from scrimmage Saturday were Davis right for four yards and Davis left for three more.

Or that, this time, he ended up with 104 yards against a team that was allowing slightly more than 89 rushing yards a game.

"We want to run the ball," Delhomme explained. "I think that is our blueprint for success. And we do that pretty well."

But the Panthers can throw it, too, even with a guy throwing it who doesn't rank with Favre or Manning or Donovan McNabb or Bulger in headline appeal. Delhomme threw a perfect 32-yard fade to Smith in the third quarter for a touchdown that would have made Favre proud.

The longtime backup, who had all of two starts entering this season, has the arm strength to pump it to the sidelines with authority. He has the smarts, most of the time, to keep it away from the other guys. He was 18-for-29 against the Cowboys for a big 273 yards, with the one touchdown, another couple that could have been TDs and no interceptions.

"It was by far," Delhomme said, "the biggest game of my life and my career."

It was a huge game, really, for the entire Carolina franchise, which two years ago suffered through the ignominy of a 1-15 season. This, of course, is the same franchise that produced Rae Carruth and Kerry Collins, who once declared Carolina a dynasty in the making.

That, of course, was before he told his coach he really didn't want to play anymore. And before the 1-15.

But that's ancient history now, and you could see the Panthers shucking it in their victory lap around Ericsson Stadium after their thrashing of the Cowboys. The Panthers have been bad in the past, for sure. They have been a laughingstock. They have been pathetic.

They are no longer.

"Twelve and five," Smith said. "That's a big difference. You can say what you want about us, but we can play."

Ask the Cowboys. Ask the Rams. The Panthers may not be the most stylish team in the playoffs.

But, right now, they're looking pretty darn good.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.