Recently, they've been showing up a little late.

The Panthers have really been starting slow since a Week 6 loss to Tampa Bay.

Against the Bucs, the Panthers fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and lost 27-3. The following week against New Orleans, the Panthers trailed 7-3 in the second quarter before erupting for a 31-7 win.

A week later against Arizona, Carolina trailed 10-0 in the second quarter, but again came back to win.

Despite an early touchdown against Oakland off a turnover, the Panthers didn't get going on offense until late in the second quarter. And it wasn't until they fell behind 10-0 to Detroit that they woke up and hit back.

The comebacks have masked a big deficiency, which is starting slow.

This past Sunday it really caught up with them.

They spotted Atlanta 17 points and couldn't quite climb out of the hole. Although they did get to within three at one point, they lost 45-28.

"The biggest thing we're keying in on is our start," defensive tackle Damione Lewis said. "We've got to come out and get out of the gates on fire -- and we haven't done that in a while. We're going to really emphasize that."

In the past six games, the Panthers have been outscored 58-13 in the first 20 minutes. After that, they've outscored their opponents 88-31 in the final 40 minutes.

"We're not getting beat physically. It's just a lot of mistakes we're making," Lewis said. "We're not coming out fast. It's all mental. It's nothing physical. When they lined up and tried to knock us off the ball in the second and third quarters, they got absolutely nothing done."

Some teammates said quarterback Jake Delhomme was fired up Sunday after the team's slow start and was screaming at them about it on the sidelines, imploring them to play harder.

"That is one thing where some emotions were taking over," Delhomme said. "I was like, 'Let's not wait until we get hit in the mouth to react, let's get going early.' We responded well in the second half, but in my mind we wasted a quarter. That is the frustrating deal."

When asked what he feels is the cause of the slow starts, Delhomme pointed to a lack of execution.

"It's very simple. Do you execute better than the defense?," Delhomme said. "I don't think there's any magic formula. But you know what you can do. Just go out and call the play and see if you can run it. It's very simple."

SERIES MATCHUP: 10th regular season meeting. Packers lead series 6-3. In the last meeting the Packers defeated the Panthers 31-17 in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicated.