Click here to see all recaps on a single page
| Other Week 1 Game Recaps | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARI at SF | CAR at SD | CHI at IND | CIN at BAL | DAL at CLE | DEN at OAK | DET at ATL | HOU at PIT |
| JAX at TEN | KC at NE | MIN at GB | NYJ at MIA | SEA at BUF | STL at PHI | TB at NO | WAS at NYG |
Week 1 Game Recap: Carolina Panthers 26, San Diego Chargers 24
What you need to know
| Carolina Panthers |
The Carolina offense is going to be extremely formidable once they get their playmaker, WR Steve Smith, back in uniform. Carolina showed an ability to move the football both on the ground and through the air against a very tough defense, and they appear to be a force.
DeAngelo Williams saw 18 of the team's 29 rushes, with rookie Jonathan Stewart getting ten. The prospects for both players took a bit of a scare when rookie OT Jeff Otah was slow to get up and diagnosed with a knee sprain, but he later returned to action.
TE Dante Rosario had a coming out party, hauling in a game high seven receptions for 96 yards to go along with the game winning touchdown as time expired. It's very clear that he is the pass catching tight end while Jeff King will be relegated to blocking duties.
QB Jake Delhomme appears to be all the way back from Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow. Delhomme engineered a game winning drive with just over two minutes remaining on the road, which was impressive. It culminated with a dramatic touchdown pass to TE Dante Rosario as time expired.
| San Diego Chargers |
QB Philip Rivers appears to be completely recovered from last season's knee injury, and moved around better than ever in the pocket. He appears poised for a big season with a lot of weapons.
RB LaDainian Tomlinson quietly put up 112 yards of total offense, but never really got into a good rhythm with the offense. His big gain went for 14 yards. Perhaps more importantly, he revealed after the game that he had suffered "turf toe" (his diagnosis, mind you) late in the contest. He quickly added that it was nothing to 'freak out' about, and HC Norv Turner didn't even mention Tomlinson in his postgame injury report.
TE Antonio Gates led the team in receiving and hauled in a touchdown, though he was in and out of the game for most of the afternoon, now adding a bruised hip to his injury ledger.
What you ought to know
| QB Jake Delhomme, Pass: 23 - 41 - 247 - 1 TD / 0 INT |
Delhomme's statistics look nice, though they were very pedestrian until the final drive. Delhomme was eight of 11 for 68 yards and a score on that possession, which means he was just 15-30 for 179 yards and no touchdowns prior to that. Still, fantasy owners probably won't mind how the numbers were compiled as long as they were in fact compiled. As he did in preseason, his throws looked crisp and he showed no ill effects from major elbow surgery last year. He didn't appear rusty, didn't lock in on one receiver all game long, and most importantly he didn't turn the ball over. It helped that he was given loads of time by his offensive line all afternoon. Early in the contest, he nearly connected with WR Muhsin Muhammad for a touchdown but the receiver was tackled at the one yard line. On the ensuing fourth down pass play, Delhomme ran a play-action fake to the running back and found FB Brad Hoover wide open in the end zone. Hoover couldn't hold on to the football, however, and the Panthers turned the ball over on downs.
| RB DeAngelo Williams, Rush: 18 - 86 - 0, Rec: 1 - 4 - 0 (1 targets) |
Williams started the game and got the great majority of the carries in the expected running back committee with Jonathan Stewart (Williams had 18 carries to Stewart's ten). Williams looked outstanding all game long, slashing by defenders, finding the edge to turn the ball upfield, and finding creases on the interior of the defense where there appeared to be none. With 48 first quarter yards, he really helped establish the way the rest of the game was going to be played at the line of scrimmage. He also showed a willingness to take on tacklers and tried running over them when he was eventually hit. He consistently gained positive yardage, and looks to be the Carolina back to start in the early portion of the season. His carries decreased in the second half, though it should be noted that the Panthers ran less in general after halftime.
| RB Jonathan Stewart, Rush: 10 - 53 - 0 |
Stewart's first career carry was a seven yard gain up the middle on a third and one situation to open the second quarter. He only saw ten carries to DeAngelo Williams' 17, but Stewart made the most of them by picking up 53 yards on the afternoon. He combined with Williams to form a terrific one two punch, and appears to be a load to bring down. It's tough to say if Stewart will have any sort of goal line role with the team. The only time the Panthers were at the goal line, they opted to throw the football on fourth down, so that doesn't answer any questions about the role of each player. Stewart wasn't a factor in the passing game at all.
| WR Muhsin Muhammad, Rec: 6 - 56 - 0 (15 targets) |
In the early part of this game, it appeared that Muhammad was going to be Delhomme's clear cut go to guy for the entire afternoon. Many fantasy owners recall several years ago when Steve Smith was out of action with the Panthers and Muhammad stepped in to put up career-best statistics. He actually finished the year as the number one ranked fantasy wide receiver that year, and his involvement in the first half of this game suggested he'd pick up where he left off. He was thrown to ten times in the first half, but caught only four of those passes. One of them resulted in a five yard reception right at the goal line, but he was unable to push it across for the score. In the second half, the looks dwindled to just five and he caught only two.
| WR D.J. Hackett, Rec: 5 - 48 - 0 (10 targets) |
Hackett was the second most targeted player on Carolina after Muhsin Muhammad, but most of his receptions were quite short. He had 48 yards receiving for the game, with 37 of those yards coming on his first catch of the game on a quick slant. His other four grabs went for a total of just nine yards, which shows how involved he was down the field (not very). In fact, his most noteworthy play after the slant was when he caught a huge third down conversion from Delhomme late in the fourth quarter and promptly fumbled the football away. The Chargers recovered, drove downfield, and put up what was at the time the go ahead touchdown.
| WR Dwayne Jarrett, Rec: 2 - 36 - 0 (4 targets) |
He wasn't a focal point of the offense by any means, but Dwayne Jarrett made a couple of plays in this game and contributed a key 25 yard reception on third down to extend a drive that eventually led to a field goal. Jarrett nearly scored a touchdown late in the first half, but DB Steve Gregory jarred the ball loose as Jarrett went up to get it. He didn't make a ton of plays or get a ton of chances, but he at least looked like he belonged on the field.
| TE Dante Rosario, Rec: 7 - 96 - 1 (8 targets) |
Rosario enjoyed quite the breakout performance in this game. He was very involved right from the outset, and topped it all off with the game winning touchdown as time expired. Some chuckled when FOX commentator Brian Baldinger referred to Rosario as "Carolina's version of Antonio Gates", but by the end of the game nobody was laughing. Rosario showed tremendous athleticism, even hurdling one defender en route to a 23 yard reception down the seam late in the first half. He displayed excellent hands on that same play, reaching behind him to snag the pass that was a bit behind him. Those excellent hands were on display once again on the team's final play of the game. Jake Delhomme fired a dart to the back of the end zone that somehow got between two San Diego defenders and found the hands of Rosario. Impressively, the young tight end was able to maintain his concentration despite hands flying all over the place in front of his face as he calmly hauled in the game winning score from 14 yards out.
| PK John Kasay 4 - 4 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 14 points |
Kasay was the entire Carolina offense for most of the afternoon, booting four field goals (44, 33, 30, 49) by the beginning of the fourth quarter. Each kick sailed through the uprights with ease, suggesting that the veteran Kasay should be a solid play once again in 2008.
| CAR Rush Defense |
Anytime you can hold arguably the league's best rushing attack to just 105 yards, you're clearly doing something right. At times, it seemed as if the San Diego run game would finally get going, but the Panthers did a great job of keeping contain on most plays. If on the odd chance LaDainian Tomlinson did happen to get to the second level of the defense, the sure-handed tacklers in the defensive backfield made certain that that's as far as he would get. Tomlinson had a bit more success after halftime as the Chargers consistently picked up yardage against the right side of the defensive line, but never so much that the Panthers were being blown off the line of scrimmage.
| CAR Pass Defense |
San Diego put up three scores through the air, and Philip Rivers was sacked only once -- and didn't turn the ball over. So obviously fantasy owners would like to see a bit more consistent production out of this unit going forward. There were a number of times when Carolina defenders appeared to have Rivers dead in the water only to watch him elude their grasp with some surprisingly nice footwork. The defense did, however, make a huge play on TE Antonio Gates. DB Chris Harris stripped the ball from Gates as he was being tackled, and Chris Gamble picked it up and took it the other way for a 31 yard score. The one big blunder of the afternoon came courtesy of Gamble and Charles Godfrey, who both lost track of Chris Chambers on what turned out to be a wide open 44 yard touchdown reception midway through the second quarter. Chambers didn't have another reception after that play, however, so the team recovered nicely.
| QB Philip Rivers, Pass: 17 - 27 - 217 - 3 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0 |
Rivers looked as good as he ever has, quite a testament to him since he's not even eight months removed from suffering a major knee injury in last year's postseason. The most surprising part of his performance was his awareness of the pocket around him. He always managed to avoid would-be tacklers from all angles and displayed an elusiveness rarely seen from him -- even before the injury. His passes hit receivers in stride all game long, even with Rivers on the run. Nowhere was that more evident than on the Antonio Gates touchdown. Rivers rolled left, fired a perfect pass across his body between two defenders, and hit Gates in the hands along the sideline. Last year, accuracy was an issue with Rivers, as many passes sailed high or behind his intended target, which slowed down their ability to gain yardage after the catch. That wasn't an issue today, and he was by and large the key reason the Chargers were even able to get back into this game.
| RB LaDainian Tomlinson, Rush: 21 - 97 - 0, Rec: 3 - 15 - 0 (4 targets) |
Tomlinson had what was for him a very average afternoon. He picked up 112 yards from scrimmage, but failed to score. After the game, he mentioned that he had suffered a very minor toe injury on his last carry of the game. He called it "turf toe", though he'll have it checked out later this week for an official diagnosis. It wasn't bad enough for Norv Turner to mention it in the postgame injury wrap, but it was painful enough for Tomlinson to take himself out of the game with San Diego at the six yard line after he was tackled. Prior to coming out, Tomlinson appeared ready to get into a groove running the ball. After being bottled up for much of the first half, he found some more room after halftime and was exploiting the right side of Carolina's defense. Still, Carolina's offense had so much success moving the ball that the Chargers weren't able to get a lead and pound out the clock like they normally do.
| RB Mike Tolbert, Rush: 3 - 6 - 0, Rec: 3 - 35 - 0 (3 targets) |
FB Mike Tolbert saw one short yardage carry (which he failed to convert) and was thrown to three times out of the backfield. He caught all three passes thrown his way, including one midway through the second quarter on which he displayed some nice moves after the catch.
| RB Darren Sproles, Rush: 2 - 3 - 0 |
Sproles' role in this game confirms what everyone has suspected for the last few weeks, and that's that he is the clear cut backup running back to LaDainian Tomlinson. Tomlinson didn't leave the game for very long stretches at all, but Sproles saw two carries out of the backfield, neither of which gained any significant yardage.
| RB Jacob Hester |
The rookie from LSU, drafted with the intention of becoming LaDainian Tomlinson's backup, didn't see a single touch in the game. When Tomlinson went out of the game, it was Darren Sproles who saw action.
| WR Vincent Jackson, Rec: 3 - 47 - 1 (5 targets) |
After an invisible first half, Jackson came alive in the second. Much like he did towards the end of 2007, Jackson has perfected the art of doing the most with his opportunities. While he only saw four passes thrown his way in the second half, he converted them into three receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown. The score would have been the game-winner if Carolina hadn't marched down the field for the actual game winner roughly two and a half minutes later.
| WR Chris Chambers, Rec: 1 - 44 - 1 (6 targets) |
Chambers had a very odd game. He was blanketed for much of the afternoon, and the passes from Rivers were typically knocked away just at the last moment before Chambers could get to them. But he did sneak by the defense once, and he made it count with a 44 yard touchdown reception in the first half. It didn't seem like a spectacular move; it basically just looked like the defense lost track of him. Unfortunately, that was the only high point to his performance as he didn't catch a single pass after halftime.
| TE Antonio Gates, Rec: 4 - 61 - 1 (6 targets) |
Despite 61 yards receiving and a touchdown, Gates had a very uneven performance. On the one hand, no one is going to complain about 61 yards and a score from their starting tight end. On the other hand, it's got to be a concern that Gates was in and out of the lineup all game. He added a bruised hip to his already injured toe. It's also a bit worrisome that he saw just six of the 27 passes Philip Rivers threw in this game. As long as he does a lot with his passing targets, no one will mind. But typically, players aren't able to put up 12.1 fantasy points on a regular basis when they're seeing such little action.
| TE Brandon Manumaleuna, Rec: 3 - 15 - 0 (3 targets) |
With Antonio Gates somewhat limited and going in and out of the lineup at times, Manumaleuna saw a bit of an increase in his role. It isn't enough to make him relevant for fantasy leagues unless you are in a 30 team league that starts two tight ends, but it's still important for Gates owners to know the other tight ends that have a role within the offense.
| PK Nate Kaeding 1 - 1 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 6 points |
Kaeding connected on his only field goal attempt of the game, a chip shot from 27 yards out.
| SD Rush Defense |
The Chargers probably won't be the last team to get gouged by the Panthers' one two punch of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, but it still doesn't help to sooth the pain of allowing 142 yards on the ground in the season opener. The Chargers, plagued by poor tackling all preseason, displayed more of the same in this game. Granted, LB Shawne Merriman and DT Jamaal Williams were obviously at less than 100% (both players left the game at various points due to injury), but they still allowed more than their fair share of yardage after contact. The rushing exploits of the Carolina running backs enabled them to establish the tempo early on and keep the San Diego offense off the field. That led to Carolina holding a 19-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter, a deficit that proved to be a bit too much for San Diego to overcome.
| SD Pass Defense |
While the run defense was the culprit in the early going, the pass defense was what really let the Chargers down late. There were numerous opportunities for the Chargers to take control of this game, but more often than not the Panthers were just able to make a play. The most glaring example of this came on the final play of the game. With just two seconds remaining on the clock, Jake Delhomme calmly pump faked several Chargers out of position before delivering a strike to TE Dante Rosario for the game winning score. Despite the play taking quite a long time to develop, there was very little pressure on Delhomme when he actually threw the ball, and defenders were very out of position in the defensive backfield. Eric Weddle and Matt Wilhelm both missed what would have been a game-saving tip on that pass by several inches, and the ball sailed between them and into the waiting hands of Rosario. The Chargers allowed Delhomme far too much time in the pocket all game long, and if Steve Smith was out there for Carolina the Chargers might have lost by 20. CB Antonio Cromartie didn't look like an all-pro, as he foolishly gambled several times while trying to make interceptions when a simple batted ball would have sufficed. All that being said, it wasn't ALL bad for the defense. Antoine Cason stripped the ball away from D.J. Hackett after a big third down reception, and LB Shaun Phillips quickly pounced on the loose ball. The Chargers were able to turn that turnover into a touchdown drive and a short-lived 24-19 lead.
