Smith catch rallies Panthers past Green Bay
By Charles Chandler
cchandler@charlotteobserver.com
GREEN BAY, Wis. – “Don’t stop running.”
Those were the words quarterback Jake Delhomme spoke to receiver Steve Smith in the huddle with one minute, 48 seconds remaining in Sunday’s scintillating Carolina-Green Bay game at Lambeau Field.
The Packers had just taken a three-point lead with a field goal, after which Carolina’s Mark Jones returned the kickoff to the Panthers’ 45.
When the Panthers exited the huddle, Delhomme got in shotgun formation planning first to throw a slant pass to Muhsin Muhammad.
A Green Bay linebacker was crowding the middle of the defense and it looked like there would be room to hit Muhammad with a quick pass.
But once the play began, Packers’ cornerback Al Harris walled off Muhammad, forcing Delhomme to look to his second option – Smith.
Delhomme turned his eyes downfield and saw Smith “with his head cocked down, running” and the defensive backs flat-footed, so he hurled the ball in Smith’s direction.
Smith and Green Bay’s star defensive back Charles Woodson were almost step for step, with linebacker Brandon Chillar alsodefending.
At just the right moment, Smith jumped up and reached over the back of his head to catch the ball as Woodson fell to the ground.
The 54-yard play silenced Green Bay’s home crowd of more than 70,000 and set up a 1-yard touchdown run by DeAngelo Williams – his fourth TD of the day -- on the next play to give the Panthers a dramatic 35-31 win.
“That’s the great Steve Smith,” Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers said of the catch. “He does those things. We see that all the time.”
Smith said because he’s not tall (5-9) he had to “attack the ball.”
He made the catch despite Green Bay’s double-coverage and blustery weather conditions -- a mixture of snow and rain falling steadily with temperatures near freezing and winds gusting to more than 20 mph.
Asked to describe the play’s degree of difficulty, Smith looked at the reporters assembled around him and said: “It’s probably a catch that none of you guys could make.”
The win assured the Panthers (9-3) of their third winning record in team history, kept them tied for first place in the NFC South with Tampa Bay and set up a Dec. 8 showdown in Charlotte with the Buccaneers, who beat New Orleans 23-20 Sunday.
The Packers fell to 5-7, two games out of first place in the NFC North and virtually out of contention for a wild card playoff berth.
Green Bay, like Carolina, desperately needed a win Sunday, which made the game a start-to-finish thriller.
Carolina led 21-10 at halftime, but fell behind after the Packers scored 18 unanswered points.
Smith had only two catches for 15 yards through three periods, but got hot in the final period.
Early in the fourth quarter, his 36-yard reception on third-and-11 set up a touchdown that allowed Carolina to tie the score 28-28.
The Packers got the ball back at their 20-yard line with 11 minutes, 10 seconds remaining in the game and put together a 16-play, 79-yard drive that lasted more than nine minutes. It ended at the 1-yard line with coach Mike McCarthy forced to make a critical decision.
Though Green Bay ran the ball effectively against the Panthers for most of the game (145 yards on 29 carries), their running plays on second- and third-and-goal from the 1 were stopped.
On fourth-and-goal, McCarthy at first looked set to pass on a field goal and try for a touchdown, like Atlanta did successfully against the Panthers one week earlier.
But then he opted to go for a field goal, which Mason Crosby made from 19 yards out to put the Packers ahead 31-28.
“To go up (three) points with two minutes left at home, I was confident in that position,” said McCarthy.
McCarthy’s strategy might have worked if Carolina’s Mark Jones hadn’t responded with his third kickoff return of more than 40 yards.
His 45-yarder gave the Panthers starting position at its 45. Smith struck quickly, getting the 54-yard gain to the Green Bay 1 on the first play of the possession.
Fullback Brad Hoover marveled at Smith’s catch, even though it’s the type of play he’s seen Smith make many times before.
“He’s one of the only guys I’ve ever seen who can go up and just make these unbelievable catches, and he does it in big-time situations,” said Hoover.
The play was reminiscent of Smith’s dramatic touchdown catch in overtime to beat the St. Louis Rams in the 2003 playoffs.
But Smith wasn’t interested in revisiting the past Sunday.
“No memories of ’03,” he said. “We lost.”
Even though the Panthers beat the Rams in the ’03 playoffs, they lost to New England in the Super Bowl. Their goal this season is to get back to the championship game and win it.
“We’re trying to make our own history in ’08,” he said.
Muhammad, Smith’s receiving mate, said Sunday’s victory was a huge step in that direction.
“I think at some point at the end of the season,” he said, “we’re going to look back and realize how big of a win this was for us. It was a test of will … and we had a lot of will and a lot of fight.”
