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Panthers get first home win, 49ers back to square one
By Pearl Allison Lo December 2, 2007 |
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A week after the San Francisco 49ers broke their eight game losing streak, the Carolina Panthers broke their 7-game home losing streak and 5-game losing streak in a 31-14 victory Sunday. It was their first Carolina home win since November 19, 2006. Meanwhile, San Francisco went back to their old ways, unable to reduplicate last week’s success, as Trent Dilfer was sacked 6 times and tied a career high with 4 interceptions. Carolina had just 10 sacks prior to this game. The Niners had 6 turnovers this game compared to none last week and that made the difference as the Panthers scored 17 points off the turnovers. A special teams mistake at 7:09 in the 3rd also turned the tide against SF. The scoring started at the end of the 1st quarter when the 49ers prevented the Panthers from scoring a touchdown and kicker John Kasay made a field goal at 1:32 for a 3-0 lead. The Panthers also scored on their next possession as an offsides penalty to SF’s Roderick Green on 3rd and 8, was followed by a 29 yard Vinny Testaverde completion to Steve Smith, who caught the ball over his shoulder. Smith also had a 16-yard reception on the 10-play drive as Dante Rosario had his 1st career TD reception at 10:07 in the 2nd quarter. It was a 5 yard pass to the wide open Rosario which increased Carolina’s lead to 9-0. The Panthers used up all 3 of their timeouts on this drive. The first 49er turnover occurred when Richard Marshall had a 67 yard interception return for a TD off Trent Dilfer at 6:44, which pushed the score to 17-0. Near the end of the half, the Panthers’ lack of timeouts and Nate Clements 3rd interception of the season prevented them from scoring on a drive. After halftime, SF had a surge as they also had a score off an interception as Michael Lewis’s interception ended ultimately with a 20 yard TD pass to a wide open Arnaz Battle at 11:19 in the 3rd. This put the Niners on board for a score of 6 to 17. SF then followed up that TD with another tally when Clements started out the next drive with a 41 yard punt return. Another offsides penalty, this one against Carolina, preceded a nice 21 yard catch by Delanie Walker at 8:36, which brought the score to 14-17. It was soon after that the 49ers shot themselves in the foot when Lewis muffed the catch during the punt return and the ball Michael Lewis was picked up by Rosario at SF’s 11. Before long, DeShaun Foster ended up with the 1 yard score at 4:55 to have the scoreboard read 23-14 and it was all Panthers from then on. They scored again after that as the 49ers missed sacking Testaverde before he threw a completion to Jeff King for 1 yard. This made the final score a 2 possession difference again, 30-14. Game notes: Patrick Willis, playing with a hand injury, had 17.5 tackles. SF was held to 59 yards rushing. Frank Gore had 58 yards rushing and 53 yards receiving. Testaverde moved up the career picks list with 2. Smith had 21 yards rushing and 64 yards receiving. |
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