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NEW ORLEANS — A hole seemingly wider than the Mississippi River on the game's second play with a 66-yard touchdown run as a result.

A sack and fumble recovery to set up another touchdown.

An interception deep in your territory, timely penalties, forcing the NFL's best offense to settle for field goals and enough confidence in the running game to keep it on the ground.

It all seemed too good to be true for the Carolina Panthers.

And it was.

Failure to convert in two crucial situations and the seeming inevitability that the Saints would get themselves in gear when it counted left the Carolina Panthers 30-20 losers here Sunday in the Superdome.

"It felt great when we got out like that," said D'Angelo Williams, whose 149 rushing yards and two first-quarter touchdowns that gave the Carolina (3-5) a 14-0 lead with the game barely 8 minutes old went for naught. "But you've got to take the good with the bad. We didn't make enough plays out there today."

Two plays that the Panthers didn't make really hurt.

Up 17-13 in the third quarter after New Orleans (8-0) scored on its first possession of the half, Carolina drove from its 21 to first-and-goal at the Saints' 1, converting on four third-down situations along the way in a possession that would take 19 plays and consume 9 minutes, 47 seconds.

But at the 1, backup guard Mackenzy Bernadeau, playing fullback because the Panthers had no healthy ones on the roster, bumped into Jake Delhomme as he retreated to hand off to Jonathan Stewart and Delhomme was dropped for a 6-yard loss.

A 1-yard gain by Tyrell Sutton and a pass into the end zone that went off Williams' hands followed, and Carolina wound up with a 25-yard John Kasey field goal instead of the touchdown, which would have restored the lead to 11.

That field goal turned out to be Carolina's only points of the second half.

"We had three more downs after that, but it still hurt," said Delhomme.

Needing a touchdown to catch up, the Saints did so on Drew Brees' 54-yard touchdown pass to Robert Meachem on the final play of the third quarter.

With the game tied at 20, Carolina started another promising drive, but on third-and-three from the Saints' 44, Stewart was smothered for a 2-yard loss by Roland Harper, Jonathan Vilma and a half dozen black jerseys on a sweep right, forcing a punt.

"Obviously that was big situation for us," Panthers coach John Fox said. "We were playing a good football team and they made the play right there."

Jason Baker's punt was downed at the 2, but Brees got his team out of the hole with a 17-yard completion to running back Pierre Thomas.

New Orleans would drive from there to the Panthers' 12, where a holding call led to the Saints' first lead on John Carney's 40-yard field goal with 4:41 left.

The remaining Carolina possessions would end equally as disappointing — a sack of Delhomme by Will Smith on fourth down from the Saints' 43 and Williams' fumble at his 2, which Charles Grant picked up and ran in with 2:00 to widen the lead to 10 points.

"It's kinda rough to lose this one," Williams said. "Especially the manner in which we lost."

Carolina 14 3 3 0 — 20
New Orleans 0 6 14 10 — 30

Car—D.Williams 66 run (Kasay kick).
Car—D.Williams 7 run (Kasay kick).
NO—FG Carney 23.
Car—FG Kasay 32.
NO—FG Carney 25.
NO—P. Thomas 10 run (Carney kick).
Car—FG Kasay 25.
NO—Meachem 54 pass from Brees (Carney kick).
NO—FG Carney 40.
NO—Hargrove 1 fumble return (Carney kick).
A—70,011.

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs — Car 21, NO 18
Total Net Yards — Car 371, NO 414
Rushes-yards 3— Car 9-182, NO 23-84
Passing — Car 189, NO 330
Punt Returns — Car 0-0, NO 1-4
Kickoff Returns — Car 5-97, NO 3-65
Interceptions Ret. — Car 1-41, NO 0-0
Comp-Att-Int — Car 17-30-0, NO 24-35-1
Sacked-Yards Lost — Car 2-12, NO 1-0
Punts — Car 3-37.3, NO 3-38.7
Fumbles-Lost — Car 5-3, NO 2-1
Penalties-Yards — Car 6-37, NO 7-55
Time of Possession — Car 32:26, NO 27:34

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING
Carolina — D.Williams 21-149, Stewart 13-24, Sutton 3-15, Delhomme 2-(minus 6).
New Orleans — P.Thomas 13-50, Bell 5-17, Bush 2-16, Brees 2-4, Henderson 1-(minus 3).

PASSING
Carolina — Delhomme 17-30-0-201.
New Orleans — Brees 24-35-1-330.

RECEIVING
Carolina — Smith 4-64, Jarrett 4-30, Barnidge 3-46, D.Williams 2-12, K.Moore 1-22, Stewart 1-14, Sutton 1-11, Goodson 1-2.
New Orleans — Bush 7-37, Meachem 5-98, P.Thomas 5-31, Henderson 3-93, Shockey 3-26, Colston 1-45.