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CHARLOTTE — Not much happens between the first and second quarters of a NFL game. The players take a short breather, and the coaches give a short lecture and the fans in the stands don't even have time to make a beer run.

A lot happens between the first and second quarters of a NFL season, however. The owners get restless, people get fired and fans at home have time to become experts from their easy chairs.

Through four games of a 16-game schedule, the Carolina Panthers are having a good week. At 3-1 and with the 1-3 Kansas City Chiefs coming to town, the Panthers could be excused for being confident. The breezy atmosphere in and around Bank of America Stadium on a balmy Wednesday between quarters suggested a seamless transition from Week 4 to Week 5 for the Panthers.

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, but the team went to great lengths to stay relaxed in the face of mounting pressure.

John Fox talked politics with reporters, DeAngelo Williams talked about hairstyles and Jake Delhomme talked about anything thrown his way. They all talked about the possibility of playing this week without their starting offensive tackles, and they all talked about the Kansas City Chiefs, and to a person they seemed positive and upbeat and confident that 3-1 will lead to 4-1 if they work hard, study hard and take time to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Several players took time Wednesday to look around at the blue skies and listen to the birds singing in the trees and smile. Fox had gathered the team around him on the field at the end of their practice to make sure they all laughed as a team, all bonded as a team and all took the opportunity to congratulate and rib Delhomme for being named NFL Offensive Player of the Week.

Then they all ran off the field to sign autographs and do league-required activities and take part in interviews and generally bask in the glow of being 3-1 with a 1-3 team coming in Sunday.

Of course, they also took the time to point out that they knew people were out to get them, chief among those people being the Chiefs.

"I think we play Tampa next week?" Delhomme asked when someone suggested Kansas City might be a "trap game" squeezed between two division games. "I have no idea who we play the following week. You go one game at a time. We have to worry about one week and try to do what it takes to get to 4-1."

All the talk about the first quarter of the season ending last Sunday and the next quarter starting is over for now. The next segment of the season we'll hear about is the halfway point, and no one on the team is looking that far ahead.

The focus this week will be on the running attack of Kansas City and the health of tackles Jordan Gross and Jeff Otah, both of whom left Sunday's game against Atlanta with injuries. Gross, who suffered a concussion, is assumed by his teammates to be out all week, though Fox wouldn't go that far.

And while the team was all about assessing the first quarter of its season after Sunday's win, only three days later almost no one was looking back and no one was looking to the next four games as another segment. NFL teams simply don't look ahead.

In their first four games, the Panthers were hardly a second-quarter team anyway, scoring 26 points and giving up the same number, winning twice with fourth-quarter rallies (one a miracle), one in a blowout and losing soundly to the Minnesota Vikings.

So 3-1 sounds good now, but players are already talking about getting to 4-1 with NFC South Division rival Tampa Bay next week and division rival New Orleans after that. That's really what the 3-1 first quarter is all about. The "second" quarter really doesn't exist. At least not yet.

Carolina will go into the next game with injury questions and as the most penalized team in the league. Delhomme said the offense is a "work in progress," and safety Chris Harris said the defense still has plenty of room for improvement. The underlying message is that things are nowhere near as good as they seem, but in the NFL they never are.

Of course, you didn't hear too much of that Wednesday. The 3-1 Panthers will have to get past yet another rushing leader in Larry Johnson this week and then their two main NFC South rivals and then high-flying Arizona before a Week 9 bye.

That will be halftime for the Panthers, another time for reflection and evaluation -- from the front office to the huddle to the fans at home. That seemed as far away as you could imagine Wednesday, what with the Panthers flying pretty high themselves and league honors raining down on them on a perfect fall day at the end of the first quarter of a season that's been pretty good so far.

Going into the second quarter, Carolina feels pretty good about itself.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com