The Carolina Panthers are 0-3 after suffering defeat to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football.  It's almost comical how message boards and pundits have reacted.  Those who hate the quarterback blame Jake Delhomme and his two interceptions for the loss.  Those who are disappointed with Ron Meeks blame the defense.  It's easy to point fingers at Julius Peppers, who earned his million dollars with a single tackle.  But what really went wrong?

The first half reflected a game plan to beat the Cowboys.  Carolina ran nine rushing plays and 17 passing, surrendering a sack.  That's not exactly Panther football, but in the end they got a touchdown lead over the Cowboys.  Dallas, incidentally, ran 14 times and passed 20 in the first half in a more balanced attack that was in keeping with their offensive style.

By the end of the game the Panthers had run 14 rushing plays and 38 passing plays.  That means that after the half Carolina attempted just five rushes against 21 passes.  Dallas, on the other hand, finished with 27 designed rushing plays and 40 passing plays.  After the half they ran 13 times and rushed 20.  They stayed consistent with their game plan, while Carolina panicked.

To be fair, 11 of Carolina's passes came after Dallas took a 21-7 lead.  But take those away and from the time the score was 7-0 Panthers through 7-3 and 7-10 and 7-13, Carolina ran five times and passed 10.  That's an unexpected ratio for the Panthers.

Jake Delhomme played well.  Detractors will point to his two interceptions on the stat line, but losing a bomb where your receiver doesn't fight for it and getting picked on a quick slant where the receiver changes his route at the last second doesn't necessarily reflect poorly on the quarterback.  He completed 66 percent of his passes and made some good decisions out there.  He made bad ones as well, but on balance he played as well as he has in a ton of previous Panther victories against better opponents.

The offensive line did a mediocre job opening holes in the running game, but they did ok in protection.  Given the number of times Carolina passed, Dallas was bound to break through a couple of times and did.  But overall the line did it's job giving Delhomme time to throw.  The Panthers seemed to be ok in run blocking, but they really didn't run enough to find out.

DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart both played well, both in the running game and in protection.

The wide receivers had a rather poor game, Muhsin Muhammad in particular.  He blocked well, but drew a costly penalty on his touchdown run that was called back.  It can be argued that he allowed the long interception—he was bodied up against the cornerback and could have fought for the ball.  He also let several passes go through his fingers.  Steve Smith had a stupid mistake late on the interception thrown his way, but to be fair he was double-covered the entire game.  That's when you expect the other receiver to step up, and it didn't happen.

Dante Rosario was the only visible tight end in the game, and he was just as noticeable for his poor blocking as his catching.  He also let a few well thrown balls slip through his fingers, notably the first pass attempt of the second half on a short route in the flat.  That led direc

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