John Fox’s team improved to 7-2 and sits in first place in the NFC South.

OAKLAND – When hundreds of seagulls began to encircle Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum during the second half Sunday, it seemed as though they were hovering over the Panthers’ offense as much as the stadium itself.

The Panthers couldn’t move. They had more interceptions in the third quarter than first downs, and their solitary first down came via an Oakland penalty. The offense was trapped beneath an angry, energized tidal wave of Raiders defenders who were hell-bent on proving that they were not the defense the Atlanta Falcons had mauled just seven days earlier.

But Carolina’s defense was equal to the task. The two third-quarter interceptions off quarterback Jake Delhomme’s arm only resulted in field goals, both of which followed three-and-outs. The Raiders had 16 possessions but only had six points and 11 punts to show for them.

That, plus some crucial plays by the special teams, was enough to propel Carolina to a 17-6 win in front of 47,888 onlookers on Sunday.

“Defense and special teams — it was very simple,” Delhomme said. “I’m so glad we won, because you want to talk about a long plane ride home (if the Panthers had lost). We just didn’t get anything going.”

But with a spirited defense that stymied the Raiders on third down — stopping them on 15 of 17 attempts — and a special teams that forced and recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff, the offense only had to do enough to win.

By converting that game-starting fumble into a three-yard Delhomme touchdown pass to wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad, the Panthers gained a lead that would be threatened in the second half but never relinquished.

“It wasn’t a good day offensively,” said Delhomme, who completed just seven of 27 passes for 72 yards and went zero-for-nine after halftime. “But the great thing about it is we won. The defense and special teams bailed us out.”

Added head coach John Fox: “A ‘W’ is a ‘W.’ I learned a long time ago there’s no such thing as an ugly win. That’s why you call it a team game. We’re going to lean on each other the rest of the year. We have up to this point this year. I thought our defense had a tremendous effort. We made enough plays offensively when we needed to.”

None were bigger than DeAngelo Williams’ 69-yard touchdown romp through Oakland’s defense three minutes before halftime.

“It was just a simple stretch play,” Williams explained. “(Jeff) Otah stretched his man out there and then the linebackers overran the play,” Williams explained.  “The (offensive) line did a great job of blocking on that play, and then I just followed Hoov, went up inside, broke a couple of tackles and eventually went in and scored.  It was a total team effort, with the O-line blocking and the wide receivers blocking downfield.”

And it was one receiver in particular – Steve Smith — who helped Williams know where and when to cut and sprint.   He barked out directions and guidance as Williams headed towards the goal line, letting him know that Thomas Howard and Nnamdi Asomugha were stalking him.

“I was looking up at the JumboTron, and I saw him and I was zigging and zagging, and then Smitty was giving me directions,” Williams said. “He was my navigation system back there.”

But Smith wouldn’t have had the chance to serve as GPS had Williams not spun out of Rashad Baker’s tackling attempt – a powerful move that had such grace that it seemed snatched from figure skating or ballet.  That, more than anything, turned a nice 10-yard gain into a gamebreaker.

“It wasn’t natural – trust me,” Williams demurred.  “It was just how hard (Baker) hit me.  I just kept my balance and kept running.  It was just one of those plays where I kept my feet (going).”

The touchdown not only gave the Panthers a 14-0 lead, but would prove decisive.  But the offense could not build on that in the third quarter, as two interceptions set up the Raiders’ only scores of the day on a pair of Sebastian Janikowski field goals.

As the offense floundered and his passes went astray, Delhomme was contrite.

“One thing I told a lot of defensive players (was) ‘Thanks a lot.’  I apologized,” he said. “I put them in some bad situations.  That’s what’s so great – every single one of them said, ‘Don’t worry about it – last game y’all (on the offense) bailed us out.’  That’s what you have to do as a team.”

Indeed, the defense had matters well in hand, only allowing Oakland to cross midfield three times after Williams’ touchdown run.  None of those drives resulted in scores, and on the two possessions that ended in Raiders scored, they mustered just five yards in three plays against a roused, angry defense that allowed Oakland scant breathing room for most of the afternoon.

The Panthers’ strengths Sunday were a virtual reverse of their previous game against the bye, when the defense had trouble muzzling the Cardinals in the fourth quarter.

“We thanked (Delhomme) for bailing us out against Arizona,” said defensive end Julius Peppers. “It’s like that some days.   Some days you can’t get it going.  We couldn’t stop anybody last week and they bailed us out.  Today they couldn’t do anything and we had to carry the load.”

Peppers did more than his share of heavy lifting, leading the way with seven tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles and a pass breakup.  He and his fellow defensive linemen seemed to camp out in Oakland’s backfield for lengthy stretches, helping the Panthers keep the Raiders from mounting a sustained drive.

“I thought we had pretty steady pressure around the corner by everybody,” Fox said. “But Julius is special.  He did cause some havoc.”

Peppers’ efforts helped the Panthers maintain a 14-6 lead through most of the second half.  But it took Mark Jones’ 55-yard return of Shane Lechler’s 11th and final punt of the day for the Panthers to be in position for the score that sealed the game. 

Jones’ jaunt up the left sideline to the Oakland 35-yard-line with 3:33 remaining in the game gave the Panthers their best drive-starting field position since their opening series. Williams took care of business from there, carrying four times for 27 yards – and overcoming a 10-yard holding penalty against Jordan Gross in the process.

Williams’ runs set up a 32-yard John Kasay field goal that gave the Panthers a 7-2 record, another week atop the NFC South and a pleasant, if lengthy, trip home.

“We won.  That’s the bottom line,” offensive lineman Geoff Hangartner said. “We won on the road.  It was not a pretty win, but we’ll take it.  We’re not going to give it back to them.”

-Anthony Mason; carolinapanthers.com

Photo: Getty Images