Anyone who knows Jake Delhomme knows about his legendary intensity in football.
When he quarterbacked the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl after the 2003 season, finally getting his chance to lead an NFL team after years as a New Orleans Saints backup, he passed the Panthers to within an Adam Vinatieri field goal of an upset in a 32-29 loss to the New England Patriots.
At game's end, he was the last Carolina player to leave the field because he wanted to remember the gut-wrenching feeling of being so close to fulfilling a dream.
So, when injuries and uneven play doomed the Panthers' 2004 season almost before it began, Delhomme was miserable. And he bore much of the weight on his own shoulders.
"You can blame injuries (to Stephen Davis and Steve Smith, for example) for our 1-7 start and our lack of continuity, but we just needed to play good football," said Delhomme, who is wrapping up loose ends in the Acadiana area before Carolina's July 29 start of camp.
"We just weren't playing well, and after a few losses, you try to do too much instead of trusting what you've been doing all your life."
The Panthers roared back in the second half of the season but fell short of the playoffs with a 7-9 finish.
"The guys did not complain or point fingers, and a lot of the young guys got a chance to play and develop," Delhomme said. "It was a growing experience for me."
Delhomme freely admits he's one of those who tried to do too much as the Panthers struggled out of the gate. Davis had been the chief running force in the 2003 Super Bowl season, and Smith was Delhomme's go-to deep threat, so with both sidelined the former Louisiana Ragin' Cajun began pressing.
"It's extremely hard when you're the quarterback," Delhomme said. "Everybody wants to win. You have that burning desire to succeed. But last year I didn't have some of the guys I'd had the year before.
"Last year, I was searching. I would sit down with (veteran QB) Rodney Peete and say, 'Tell me the truth. What am I doing that I should be doing differently?'
"I got calls from (quarterback and ex-Saints teammate) Billy Joe Tolliver and (All-Pro linebacker) Bryan Cox, encouraging me. They would tell me that my feet were all over the place and that I was throwing the ball all over the field. They told me to just relax and play, and that's what I started to do."
Delhomme compiled the best statistical season of his NFL career in 2004, hitting 58.2 percent of his passes for 3,886 yards and 29 touchdowns with just 15 interceptions and an 87.3 passer rating. But the only numbers he saw were 7-and-9.
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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com