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CHARLOTTE -- There was a chill in the air Sunday, and it wasn't just that the Panthers had fallen behind early, and it wasn't just that the temperature had fallen into the 40s and it wasn't just that the team on the other side of the field was winless.

But those things combined, and the fact that Carolina's best-laid plans were suddenly in jeopardy, convinced even the most confident of Panthers that things weren't going to be easy. The coaches, to their credit, didn't blink. They turned to the two young running backs and told them it was their game to win.

Then the youngsters turned to Brad Hoover.

Carolina defeated the Detroit Lions 31-22 behind the running backs tandem of DeAngelo Williams and rookie Jonathan Stewart, who combined for 250 yards, as the Panthers set a franchise rushing record and moved to 8-2 on the season.

Williams, the second-year back who now has three straight 100-yard games, said his game plan was simple.

"I followed Brad Hoover all day," he said.

Stewart, who had his first 100-yard game as a pro, said he keyed on only one thing.

"No. 45," he said. "Brad Hoover."

There's nothing glamorous about being a fullback in the NFL, and while the side-by-side lockers of Williams and Stewart were crowded beyond belief after the game, Hoover took his time changing into his street clothes, wincing a bit as he leaned over to pick up a bag and head home. The ninth-year player from Thomasville won't be the NFL offensive player of the week because they just don't give those awards to fullbacks, and he wasn't being rushed out to do national radio interviews, and he wasn't even in demand in his own locker room.

But almost to player, the Carolina Panthers paid homage to the guy whom Sunday's game plan was built around -- No. 45, Brad Hoover.

Carolina fell behind 10-0 but didn't start flinging it this time. Instead, the Panthers started calling isolation plays and stretch runs that called for the running backs to follow their fullback into gaps and holes that didn't necessarily exist until Hoover plowed a player out of the way and created space for the superstars.

"I just try to do my job," he said.

That means he sometimes just has to run into the first man he gets to, and sometimes he has to blow up somebody else's man but in the end, when he does his job perfectly, the crowd cheers and the fireworks go off and the loud speaker cracks with praise.

For someone else.

Hoover set up every Carolina touchdown, either with a block on the scoring play itself or a block on the key play of the drive.

"Sometimes it's a linebacker, sometimes it's a safety and sometimes it's even a corner coming in there," he said. "It just depends."

None of those players got a hand on the fleet backs Sunday. Stewart gained 130 and his sixth touchdown of the season. Williams gained 120 yards and scored two touchdowns, the first on a 56-yard run that looked like it sprang from a playbook exactly as it was designed.

"Hoover took out his man, and that was it," Williams said. "I always follow Brad Hoover. He always gets his man."

That was the theme of the afternoon as winless Detroit stacked eight and nine men in the defensive box up front, designed to stop the running game and force Jake Delhomme to beat the Lions with his arm. Hoover, knowing the Carolina game plan was going to clash with Detroit's, said he figured early on it would be a day only a fullback could appreciate.

"Especially when I saw they were stacking the box," he said. "We knew we had to come in and run the ball against these guys. They were throwing all kinds of guys up front, but we knew we had to keep running."

Williams and Stewart kept getting the calls, and Hoover kept leading them into walls that kept coming down at the point of attack. The yards piled up, and the fireworks kept going off and the loudspeakers echoed the names of the heroes.

Of all the guys in the backfield Sunday, only Delhomme and Hoover didn't get 100 yards. On the day Carolina set a franchise record for yards rushing, the fleet-footed runners got the praise. On a chilly day made for fullbacks, the halfbacks got all the credit.

Just another day at the office for No. 45, Brad Hoover.

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