For all of the time the Carolina Panthers spend drawing up plays in meeting rooms and working on precision pass routes in practice, two of the biggest plays this season have come when Jake Delhomme has taken on the role of playground quarterback, chucking a ball downfield and letting 5-foot-9 wide receiver Steve Smith use his incredible athletic ability to make the catch.
For the second time in five weeks, a downfield heave from Delhomme to Smith with the game on the line led to a crucial, perhaps season-saving victory for the Carolina Panthers.
On Sunday at the Louisiana Superdome, Delhomme fired a pass off his back foot and let Smith go up and get it, culminating in a 39-yard gain that led to John Kasay's winning 42-yard field goal with one second left and an NFC South championship for the 12-4 Panthers.
It was reminiscent of last month's 54-yard completion against Green Bay in the closing seconds that led to DeAngelo Williams' winning touchdown run in a game that kept the Panthers within striking distance of Tampa Bay in the battle for the division title.
"I know it's not pretty when Jake and I hook up, but the results are what counts," Smith said. "He threw it up there and I made the play."
It wasn't as simple as that, but it sure looked that way.
Smith's big grab against Green Bay on Nov. 30 allowed then second-place Carolina to keep Tampa Bay in its sights in the race for the NFC South division title, but his catch Sunday helped the Panthers secure the division title and a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs.
"It was big," Delhomme said, though clearly not surprised that Smith out-leaped cornerback Roman Harper and came down with the ball. "That's him. He makes big plays. Him and I might be a little unorthodox in the way we do things, but I think we work well together and we're just going to try to keep it going."
Coach John Fox insisted Delhomme's throw was more than a veteran quarterback "chucking the ball" in the air and hoping for the best.
In his opinion, the pass was the result of years of work and timing developed between Delhomme and Smith, as well as a lot of other things going right, too.
"At the end of the day, it was a pretty good ball and an excellent catch, and those two guys have done that over time this season and in seasons past," Fox said. "I'm sure Drew Brees and his receivers have had situations like that over the course of the year. So has every quarterback-receiver combination. They do it pretty well."
Still, it was that type of throw that prompted Keyshawn Johnson, now an ESPN commentator, to rip his former teammate Delhomme in a pre-game show for throwing "hand grenades" down the field.
"I just don't trust their quarterback," Johnson said before Carolina lost to the New York Giants.
Of course, maybe that's why Johnson only lasted a year in Carolina while Smith is headed to another Pro Bowl.
The chemistry Delhomme and Smith share is unmistakable, and though not always aesthetically pleasing, certainly entertaining.
"It's like the Green Bay play. Was that just chucked up there?" Fox said. "There's still a lot of moving parts that have to happen. The quarterback has to get it off."
That didn't happen on the previous drive when Delhomme threw up a pass for Smith on third down he nearly snared out of the air with one hand.
"(Two plays before), he didn't even have a chance to do anything; (Delhomme) got whacked," Fox said. "It's not automatic. There's a lot of work that goes into getting Jake back there to get it out there."
Delhomme saw the play this way: "We had a slant-and-go to Moose (Muhsin Muhammad) on one side, Steve down the seam and then Dante Rosario on the hitch. I didn't really have Moose and I couldn't see Steve. Dante was open, but I saw the corner driving, and if the corner was driving then that means it's just one-on-one with Steve in the back. So I was trying to maneuver so I could kind of see him. And obviously from there he just made a great play, which doesn't surprise me."
As time passes, however, fans will only remember one thing -- Smith's athletic circus-like grab, one that helped clinch the franchise's third division title in 14 years and, perhaps, helped give the Panthers the boost needed to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
"You can say it time after time -- big players make big plays, and he definitely made another big play for us," said Williams. "It put me in the mindset of the play that he made for us to win the game a few weeks ago (at Green Bay). That's what he does."
