GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jake Delhomme left Arizona a winner, even if he had to take a trip to the hospital before he left town.

The embattled Carolina quarterback, whose downward spiral began with a playoff loss at home against Arizona last season, threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Steve Smith before leaving with a chest injury he termed "a contusion" in the Panthers' 34-21 victory over the Cardinals.

The Panthers, in a turnover-free performance, rolled up 270 yards on the ground against what had been the No. 1 rushing defense in the NFL. It was a measure of revenge after Arizona defeated the Panthers 33-13 at Carolina in last season's playoffs.

"There was a special interest on this game," Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams said.

Arizona's Kurt Warner was intercepted five times. Julius Peppers returned one 13 yards for a touchdown. He also lost a fumble but two of his interceptions were on tipped balls.

"It just seemed like every time the ball was bouncing somewhere, it went into their hands," he said. "It's to their credit. They were hustling. They were running all over the football field."

But he did reach a milestone, He threw for 242 yards and two touchdowns and now has 14,004 passing yards with the Cardinals to become the first NFL player to surpass 14,000 with two teams. He had 14,447 with the Rams.

The Cardinals (4-3) remained in first in the NFC West because San Francisco lost, but the ugly performance often drew boos from the capacity crowd. Delhomme is used to boos, too. After throwing three interceptions in last week's home loss to Buffalo, he had to wait until Wednesday to find out if he still was the starter.

"To say it was the lowest point I ever had as a Panther, probably," he said. "So after a ton of self-searching and soul searching, I was looking forward to going back out there and play, just play."

His passing statistics weren't impressive (seven of 14 for 90 yards), but he made no big mistakes and the Panthers' ground game did the rest. Williams ran for 158 yards, including a 77-yarder to set up Jonathan Stewart Stewart's 10-yard TD run that put Carolina up for good 14-7.