By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

ST. LOUIS - After 75 minutes of flip-flop football on the scoreboard and four excruciating hours on the clock, after five lead changes and eight field goals, Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme dropped back to pass.

It was a play called X Clown, and if it worked, receiver Steve Smith would cut out and slice back inside and be open in a seam between the St. Louis cornerback and safety. If it really worked, it could gain a lot. If it worked like a dream, it would go for a touchdown.

X Clown. The play that brought down the St. Louis Rams' 14-game home winning streak Saturday night. The play that put the Panthers on the doorstep of the Super Bowl. The play that settled a long day's battle into night, and gave Carolina a 29-23 victory on the first snap of the second overtime.

"We've been in so many like this, we just believe we find a way," said Delhomme, after he combined with Smith for a 69-yard touchdown to stun the Rams and send Carolina into next Sunday's NFC Championship Game.

"The finality is what hurts the most," said St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger, who had never lost a home start.

They have become the masters of near-disasters, these Panthers. It was their fifth overtime game of the season, and the fourth they have won. It was their 10th win by six points or less.

"When that happens, it's a rerun," Smith said of yet another Carolina close call. "We know just what to do."

This was a game that had to be won three times.

The Panthers blew a 23-12 lead in the last three minutes of regulation.

They had an apparent John Kasay game-winning field goal in overtime wiped out by a delay-of-game penalty, followed by Kasay missing wide right from 45 yards.

It was game won despite losing top rusher Stephen Davis to a leg injury in the second quarter, just after a 64-yard run. And despite 13 penalties, or 13 more than they had the week before in beating Dallas.

It was a game won in a place the Rams were thought to be unstoppable and unbeatable.

But not anymore.

"I've never seen a game quite like that," said Carolina coach John Fox. "As big a peaks and as big a valleys as you can have in a football game."

"It's a little history lesson," said Delhomme, who turned 29 Saturday. "Not all the time does the team win that's supposed to win."

Certainly, the Rams' mighty offense was supposed to produce more than one touchdown and five Jeff Wilkins field goals.

"One play here, one play there," said coach Mike Martz. "You've got to execute if you're going to be a championship team."

Where did the Rams go wrong? Maybe in the first half, when three different drives went to the Carolina 7, 8 and 9 - and all they could get each time was a field goal.

"That is not going to cut it in the playoffs," receiver Dane Looker said.

Maybe it was the feared Bulger-Torry Holt passing combination being held to two harmless receptions.

Maybe it was the two eccentric touchdowns the Panthers scored to help get their 23-12 lead. One was receiver Muhsin Muhammad recovering a fumble in the end zone after a Delhomme pitch was knocked down, another was a 7-yard run by fullback Brad Hoover, who had six carries all season.

Or was it late in the fourth quarter when the Rams scored a touchdown, recovered an onside kick - Wilkins getting his own - and drove to the Carolina 19, down 23-20? The Panthers were reeling and St. Louis had plenty of time left - 30 seconds - to go for the win. But Martz, fearful of an interception, sat on the ball and accepted a field goal to tie.

"I felt I owed it to the players to give them an opportunity to keep playing," Martz said later. "I just wanted to get this thing into overtime. I don't regret that decision."

Ah, the overtime. When two teams traded open doors.

Kasay's 40-yard field goal seemed to win it quickly - some of the Panthers were on the field celebrating before they noticed the yellow flag.

Soon after, he missed right from 45.

"You thought then," Bulger said, "everything was aligned for us."

But then Wilkins was short from 53 yards for St. Louis.

But then Carolina ran dry its next possession because of a sack and penalty.

But then the Rams, having marched to the Carolina 38, gave the ball back. Ricky Manning muscled in front of Holt to pick off Bulger, who had three interceptions and no touchdowns to go with his 332 passing yards.

But then ... but then ...

Three plays later, the Panthers, facing third and 14 and a thunderous Edward Jones Dome smelling blood, ran X Clown. And 66,165 never got so quiet so fast.

"Jake just threw up one of those pretty balls like he does," Smith said.

"Once he gets in the open," Carolina safety Mike Minter said of Smith, "ain't no catching him."

For sure. Smith, and his team, ran all the way to the NFC Championship Game.

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