by Sports Xchange

In what has become a reoccurring problem for the Panthers, they put up decent numbers (383 yards and 22 first downs) but couldn't find the end zone enough and lost a crucial game to the Miami Dolphins 24-17 in their first appearance ever on Thursday night.

Carolina has seven trips into Miami territory yet only came away with one touchdown and three field goals.

Although the Panthers managed a fourth-quarter touchdown by Steve Smith, it was missed opportunities in the red zone that would be their demise in this battle of 2008 division winners. Jake Delhomme was intercepted once in Miami territory and sacked twice in the red zone forcing the Panthers to settle for field goals.

"It came down to on their opportunities they scored touchdowns, and on some of our opportunities we scored field goals," coach John Fox said. "That is probably the difference in the game. I thought both sides played very hard. Our guys gave great effort. We just came up a little short in those areas."

"It's execution because we're not getting it in," Delhomme said of the team's red zone woes. "It's not play calling. They were doing a good, especially down in there on a couple of third downs with their four-man rush. They were dropping seven and those windows were really tight to try to find some guys in there. There's no pointing fingers. We just didn't get it done."

The loss leaves the Panthers all but out of the playoff hunt at 4-6 entering their next game a week from Sunday against the New York Jets.

"Our backs are against the wall," Delhomme said. "There is no doubt. Playoff talk is something that is not even brought up. It's one-game-at-a-time talk. That is how this team has looked at it and that is how we are going to keep looking at it."