Carolina Panthers Notes, Quotes
by Sports Xchange
The 51- and 45-yarders came in the fourth quarter of a tight game, the latter leading to a winning touchdown run by DeAngelo Williams with 1:30 left.
"Those were key," coach John Fox said. "At times of need, when we needed good field position and we were slumping offensively, I think that electrified our offense and gave us good field position on a couple of very critical drives."
Jones averaged 38.8 yards per kickoff return and 11.5 yards per punt return against the Packers.
--Travelle Wharton was a bit of a hero among his fellow offensive linemen for his role in recovering a fumble from by running back Jonathan Stewart on Sunday 40 yards away from the line of scrimmage. Wharton, who helped spring Stewart on the run, was following the play and saw the ball come out and jumped on it at the 3. A couple of plays later the Panthers scored a touchdown.
"When I saw him break, I just followed him. I wanted to be the first one down there to watch him celebrate," Wharton said. "And if I did see guys get up on him, I wanted to be able to give a lick if there was someone there to tackle him.
"Seeing the ball come out, I saw somebody dive for it and I was still right there. So I just jumped out and was trying to hold on tight. I got bombarded by a bunch of tacklers and I was just holding on. Fortunately I was able to hold onto it and we were able to score on that drive."
--When asked if Carolina's 27-3 loss earlier in the season to Tampa Bay leaves the team with something to prove Monday night, safety Chris Harris said, "Whether that happened last game or not, we're both 9-3 and on Monday night.
"Twelve games into the season, you can't ask for much better than 9-3, to play another 9-3 team. This is a playoff atmosphere and has playoff implications. The winner of our division will (probably) get a first-round bye in the playoffs, so that's what we're playing for."
Harris simply refused to use the revenge card as motivation.
"Like I said, whether we lost 30-3 or 31-30, that has nothing to do with anything," Harris said. "This is a division game, and it's on Monday night and we're both 9-3 and it'll give us the lead in the division. Guys will be jacked up regardless how we got beat."
--The Panthers have an extra day to prepare for Tampa Bay, so the coaches only installed a portion of the team's game plan on Wednesday.
The Panthers went through a light practice but will really step up preparations on Thursday.
"It's a fine line whatever we do," Fox said. "You could use the whole day for extra preparation. The risk you take there is they get stale by the end of the week. We didn't do a whole lot today, a little bit but not much. We'll attack tomorrow like it's a Wednesday."
BY THE NUMBERS: 22-2 -- The combined record of the four NFC South teams at home this year. "I think last year there was a problem at quarterback in our division," coach John Fox said. "I don't think we were probably quite as strong as we had been. But I think since this division's inception in 2002, we've represented the NFC pretty well. So it doesn't surprise me at all."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Just about everything." - John Fox on what the Panthers need to do differently this time around against Tampa Bay.
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