NFL: Delhomme, Panthers rally to beat Cardinals

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ten years ago, Jake Delhomme couldn't beat out some guy named Kurt Warner to win the starting job for the Amsterdam Admirals in NFL Europe.

On Sunday, as the league staged a game in London, the two former NFL castoffs held a quarterbacking clinic stateside — with Delhomme engineering a comeback that wiped out his ex-teammate's monster day.

Delhomme threw for 248 yards and two touchdowns, including a go-ahead 65-yard score to ex-Ute Steve Smith, and the Carolina Panthers held off Warner's Arizona Cardinals 27-23.

"Talked to him a good while before the game," Delhomme said of facing Warner for the first time. "Didn't get to talk to him after. I would have probably asked him for his autograph."

The Panthers (6-2) rallied from a 17-3 deficit to take over the top spot in the NFC South despite Warner's 381 yards passing — by far the most given up by Carolina this season — and two touchdowns to Anquan Boldin. But the Cardinals (4-3) continued their road woes in part because of a botched fake field goal, a missed extra point, key turnovers and sloppy tackling.

"We did a lot of good things," Warner said. "It's a good football team, but bottom line we made one too many mistakes."

Smith, the former University of Utah player, caught five passes for 117 yards and DeAngelo Williams rushed for 108 yards and a TD. The Panthers improved to 5-0 at home in a game that featured a second-half shootout led by two gunslinging quarterbacks.

"It was just an offensive explosion on both sides," Williams said.

The aging Warner and Delhomme have come a long way from their humbling beginnings in now-defunct NFL Europe.

Warner earned the starting job in Amsterdam ahead of Delhomme in 1998, a year before he became a rags-to-riches sensation in winning NFL and Super Bowl MVP honors and leading St. Louis to a championship.

Delhomme's feel-good story took longer to develop. But after years mired on the bench in New Orleans, he signed with Carolina and led the Panthers to a Super Bowl loss in the 2003 season.

Since then, they've combined for four Pro Bowl appearances and two comebacks from injuries to become the key cogs of division leaders looking to end playoff droughts.

Carolina got back in it by scoring two touchdowns in 44 seconds in the third quarter, aided by Edgerrin James' lost fumble.