FanHouse Jake Delhomme

Sorting the Sunday Pile looks back at the NFL weekend that was. It's also an unofficial Mittens blog.

Six weeks ago, the 2008 Chargers were effectively done. They were 4-8 after having lost at home to the Falcons, and worse, division rival Denver held a three-game lead with four games to play. Well, we know how the final month of the regular season played out: the Power of Norval Eugene compelled San Diego. The Chargers won out, finished 8-8, and the cherry on top: they smacked around the Broncos in what amounted to a Week 17 play-in game.

The Chargers, not content to just get to the postseason, kept hope alive against the Colts, many people's favorite to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl next month. And while the records suggested that Indianapolis would come into Qualcomm Stadium long enough to hang 30-plus on a suspect San Diego defense before making its way to Tennessee, it didn't happen. Never got close, really. Sure, the Colts had won their final nine games to finish 12-4, and the Chargers backed into the playoffs, but there are a couple things worth considering.

A few days ago, Sports Illustrated columnist (and notorious Carolina Panthers picker) Don Banks wrote about quarterback situations to watch in 2007. Most of the teams you'd expect on this list are here -- Minnesota, Atlanta, Miami, Kansas City, etc.

One team not on this list? Carolina. You would think that the arrival of David Carr from Houston would mean that Jake Delhomme's job might not be quite as secure as it was last season, but it didn't even merit a mention from Banks here. Even his "Teams in Transition" section puts Jacksonville, where Byron Leftwich is working hard to re-establish himself as starter, ahead of Carolina, where some think Carr's signing is insurance against Jake Delhomme's thumb injuries, which dogged him last season. Quarterbacks with busted thumbs on their throwing hands don't function well in the NFL. Just ask Kurt Warner.

Perhaps John Fox's commitment to Delhomme and Carr's struggles in Houston make pundits like Banks think this is a non-issue. To some extent, so do I, but that doesn't mean the QB position won't be worth watching in Charlotte next season. If Carr performs better in Jeff Davidson's new offense than Delhomme in the preseason, people will talk about it.

John Fox may have given Jake Delhomme a vote of confidence yesterday, but that doesn't change the fact that Jake has a nasty habit of throwing off his back foot, causing a lot of balls to sail high and away from receivers. It was clear from watching the last two games that Jake's accuracy has slipped in the last few weeks. These are the sort of mechanics that can usually be fixed by a decent quarterbacks coach.

Meet Mike McCoy. This former Calgary Stampeder has been the Carolina Panthers' quarterbacks coach since Delhomme arrived in Charlotte. In addition to relaying play calls from offensive coordinator Dan Henning (*groan*) to Delhomme during games, McCoy is the guy who works with Delhomme and Chris Weinke on their mechanics during the week.

So why does Jake still throw off his back foot? Why does his accuracy and decision making seem to suffer so much during critical periods in the game? I think these are perfectly valid questions for the QB coach, don't you think?

Last year during the Super Bowl, ESPN did a feature on former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Jim Zorn, who is now the team's QB coach and who has put Matt Hasselbeck through his paces to make sure his mechanics are as close to perfect as possible. Jake's mechanics haven't been so close to perfect these last few weeks, and this is far from the first time that's been the case. Perhaps QB coaches are more important than we all thought. Just ask New York Giants fans.

Maybe we should be looking more closely at what McCoy is doing to help Delhomme with his game. Right now, it sure doesn't seem like much.

Carolina Panthers head coach John Fox isn't the type of guy who will just call out a player in public for poor performance. So when he tells reporters that he's not even thinking about benching Jake Delhomme, we have to read between the lines to determine what he's really saying.

Quote: "I think he's proven he's the right guy. Until he proves otherwise, we'll stay the same."

Translation: Jake looks (and has always looked) much better in practice than Chris Weinke.

Quote: "When you drop back to pass the ball it's a team effort. Whenever you don't play well enough to win I'm not sure it's one guy. It's definitely not just Jake."

Translation: The offensive line is screwing the pooch. Big time.

I think it's that last part that's really defining the Panthers' inconsistent performance this year. Losing veteran Travelle Wharton and free agent acquisition Justin Hartwig has left the Panthers with a patchwork mess that seems unable to establish a consistent rushing attack, making the offense one-dimensional and exposing Delhomme's weaknesses as a quarterback.

Jake has proven more than once that he cannot function without a solid running game behind him, and when the run blockers get no push off the line, it doesn't matter who your running back is. By all accounts, DeAngelo Williams should have gotten more than 100 yards against the Redskins. Instead, he had one 23-yard run and averaged only 2.5 yards per carry beyond that. You cannot pin that on the quarterback.

Personally, I think the Panthers could do better than Delhomme, but Fox made it clear yesterday that upgrading the offensive line will be a much higher priority in the offseason than upgrading the quarterback. That won't make a lot of Panthers fans happy right now, but it might make more sense in the long run.

Well, this should disturb Panthers fans everywhere.

Remember on Sunday when Jake Delomme threw a touchdown pass to Steve Smith that was nullified by a penalty on guard Mike Wahle? Head coach John Fox admitted that Delhomme didn't actually mean to throw the ball to Smith.

Said Fox: "It was a screen. They covered it pretty well and Jake was trying to throw it away and it happened to fall into Steve's hands. It wasn't the O-line's fault."

So... our quarterback doesn't know how to throw the ball out of the end zone? Really? Maybe Ski's right about QBs named Jake...

Wahle was flagged for being an ineligible man downfield on that play. Of course, he would be downfield on a screen, busted or otherwise. Kind of a shame, though -- it was actually a nice pass, even if it was completely unintentional.

Speaking of Wahle, he injured his shoulder in Sunday's game and will be re-evaluated by doctors on Wednesday, as will DeShaun Foster, who hyperextended his elbow and had to leave the game in the first half. Wahle is one of the few linemen on the team who has remained healthy all season. Losing him now would be a big blow to an already struggling offense.

When Dr. Gregory House gets a stalker, it's an excruciatingly hot 17-year-old blonde. When Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme, who's a bit more real than Dr. House, gets a stalker... well, it's this woman, Deborah Lynn Voit, a 47-year-old woman who would probably make Peter King change the channel so quickly, he would never find out if she had the same spore infection in her brain that the blonde had.

I apologize if I spoiled that episode for you, by the way, and if I did, your TiVo backlog may be almost as bad as mine...

Anyway, Voit was arrested Sunday on multiple charges, including felony stalking and misdemeanor second-degree trespassing. She's alleged to have wandered onto Delhomme's property and called him at all hours to harass him. Apparently, Delhomme was not her first target, either. She's been convicted in the past of stalking, trespassing and violating restraining orders.

My guess is Ms. Voit didn't care so much about Jake's recent rash of interceptions. For all I know, she's been getting under Jake's skin enough to start causing them. Maybe Jon Gruden will post her bail next week. Of course, then she'll just move to Tampa and stalk him instead...

But seriously, kids, stalking is not cool. If you really want to harass a quarterback without legal repercussions, start a blog. It's not that hard to do.

Here's how you know the Carolina Panthers have not hit the panic button just yet. They started working on their comedy routines after their last-second win over Tampa Bay on Sunday.

Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer recorded this exchange between Carolina's main offensive weapons in the locker room...

Steve Smith: "Between (Keyshawn) and Jake, I don't know who ran the slowest. I mean that reverse was sl-o-o-w. And that scamper Jake had was pretty slow as well."

Jake Delhomme: "I was trying to take time off the clock."

Keyshawn Johnson: *shrug* "Didn't matter. Touchdown." *trademark big grin*

Sure, there's still plenty of concern among Panthers fans about the state of the team, especially with the 3-0 New Orleans Saints, the surprise of the season, coming to town after that thorough spanking of the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night. In spite of an ugly start, though, the locker room is still loose.

Why not? Carolina started 1-2 last season and still made it to the NFC Championship game. We've still got a long way to go. We might as well laugh about it along the way...

Is it time to start asking whether Jake Delhomme is the right quarterback for the Carolina Panthers?

So far this season, Jake has produced one touchdown and five turnovers, including four fumbles. Yes, you can blame some of that on a patchwork offensive line, but this is not a new trend. Last season, in Carolina's five losses, Jake had 8 fumbles and 7 interceptions. He also threw three interceptions in Detroit last season -- a game Carolina might have lost had Chris Weinke not come off the bench and led a last-minute scoring drive after Jake got his brains rattled.

Jake has a tendency to panic when pressured, he takes chances that often lead to turnovers, and he has real trouble functioning when Steve Smith is not in the lineup. Witness Jake's collapse against Dallas last year after Smith was ejected from the game. Do you really want a QB who can't lead a team without his primary target in the game?

Jake earned his starting job in Week 1 of 2003 after Rodney Peete proved to be too old to run an offense and Jake stepped in to lead Carolina to a big comeback win over Jacksonville. Take away a few very lucky passes that somehow landed in Muhsin Muhammad's hands, though, and there might be more people calling for Jake Delhomme to be benched right now than there are people calling for Jake Plummer to be benched.

At some point, the responsibility for this offense falls to the play of the quarterback. Delhomme's play has been pedestrian at best so far. If it stays that way as this season progresses, perhaps head coach John Fox and general manager Marty Hurney should start considering other options.

While the Atlanta Falcons stood up and boasted that they never believed the hype about the Carolina Panthers, everyone in Charlotte spent yesterday afternoon wondering how everyone's preseason pick to win the Super Bowl could have looked so terrible.

Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer thinks he knows why:

A buffet of blame can be laid out everywhere at Bank of America Stadium today for Sunday's offensive performance. The third-down conversion rate (2-for-12) was terrible. The offensive line was mediocre to start with and got worse when left tackle Travelle Wharton went out with an injury.

DeShaun Foster never broke a big play and rookie DeAngelo Williams never really got a chance. The wide receivers were average without Smith, who was inactive with a hamstring injury.

But the quarterback is in charge out there, and Delhomme must be better for Carolina to win.

Delhomme rarely has had two bad games in a row as the Panthers quarterback. Now he has, albeit with almost a nine-month separation between them.

It was enough to make you wonder if Jake has grown that reliant on Steve Smith after not even having him on the field in 2004, of if he still misses Muhsin Muhammad, whom the Panthers let go after a stellar performance in that dismal post-Super Bowl year. He needs better pass blocking, yes, but he certainly had time to find someone open out there, and he rarely ever did.

Fowler also noted that the Falcons, as dominant as their rushing attack was, only scored 20 points. Last season against Atlanta, the Panthers scored 24 and 44 points in two games. Yesterday, they needed two long field goals to avoid being shut out.

John Abraham isn't the last high-quality pass rusher this team will face in 2006. The line needs to give Jake more time to throw the ball, but at the same time, Jake needs to spend less time wondering who his next target will be, especially if Smith isn't out there. Maybe offensive coordinator Dan Henning should design some plays to get the ball out of Jake's hands faster -- three steps and boom, as Madden might say.