7-all at halftime and starting to rain

New England tied the game at 7-all late in the second quarter on a 3-yard Kevin Faulk touchdown run. It has started to rain here in Foxboro, Mass., too, which will make ballhandling tricky the rest of the game.

The Panthers weren't able to do anything afte the Pats' score in their two-minute drill -- a hook-and-lateral with Muhsin Muhammad and Steve Smith looked pretty but didn't net enough on the half's final play -- so the teams have gone to the locker room all tied up. (John Fox ended up with two timeouts in his pocket at halftime that he will never be able to use, as he disdained using them during the final drive).

Carolina had a chance to take a 10-0 lead earlier but John Kasay was short on a 53-yard field goal attempt late in the second quarter. New England got favorable field position out of that, but the Panthers' defense had been in similar situations all day and gotten out of them.

Not this time. First, the Pats drew a huge penalty on Carolina with 2:43 left in the second quarter when LB James Anderson was called for a 30-yard pass interference penalty against tight end Benjamin Watson (Rock Hill Northwestern) on a deep route. That pushed New England to a first-and-10 at the Carolina 21.

New England moved it down to just outside Carolina's 10 with a pass to Wes Welker with 1:58 to go. A running play and a defensive holding on Captain Munnerlyn got New England to the 3. From there, Kevin Faulk ran it in standing up to tie the game at 7-all.