Steve Smith has been limited to just 259 yards receiving this season and has no touchdown catches. (AP Photo)

  TAMPA, Fla. – The Carolina Panthers want to get Steve Smith the football.
   Really.
   It’s just that the conventional way isn’t working, and that’s due in large part to the way the opposition is throwing double and sometimes triple coverage at Smith, thus limiting his ability to make big plays in the passing game.
   “Sometimes it's dictated to you,” coach John Fox said of what the Panthers do on offense. “It's no different than any other sport. If some guy is triple-covering somebody, then you can try to force the ball to him, but when you do that in basketball, that leaves some other things open…

 You can't dictate what the opponent does. I can't call the opponent up and ask them not to do that; they get to do what they want. That opens up other things for our football team and gives us an opportunity to win.”
   It certainly did on Sunday. While the Bucs were busy making Smith their primary focus, the Panthers ran for 267 yards and three scores in a 28-21 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
   After the game Smith was not thrilled with having only one reception for 4 yards and expressed some frustration when he told reporters he no longer feels like an asset to the team.
   So far this season Smith, who is regularly among the top 10 in the league in receptions, ranks tied for 42nd in the league with 21 catches and has only 259 receiving yards and no touchdowns.
   "I’m not surprised that a couple of guys are upset or feel like they’re not an asset,” linebacker Na’il Diggs said Monday. “I can kind of understand where Steve is coming from but he wears his heart on his sleeve, as everybody knows. He’s a very intense, emotional guy. When it comes to what he does he’s very adamant about it. I can’t say I disagree with him as far as his comments. Were they necessary? Probably not. But he’s a guy who has extremely high expectations, more than outsiders know. He holds himself accountable whether he has one catch for four yards or 10 for 200. He holds himself in high regard which has got him to the point where he’s at as a player."
   Coach John Fox said he hasn’t talked to Smith about his frustration level, but said it’s possible he could this week. The last thing the Panthers want to do is risk losing Smith's mental state of mind.
   In the meantime, Fox made it clear how valuable Smith is to the football team even when he doesn’t catch many passes.
   “I think the fact that they double (team) him every play is an asset,” Fox said. “That would be my impression (of the situation).”
   With Smith getting doubled so much, it would figure Carolina’s other receivers, particularly Mushin Muhammad and/or Dwayne Jarrett, would be thriving.
   But it hasn’t happened yet.
   “We have what we have,” Fox said of the roster. “We've adjusted to injuries; it's no different this year than what it was seven years ago. Everybody in the league deals with it. It's not a matter of, 'We've got this; we've got that." Not too many people have everything, and you just do the best with what you have. I think Moose has been productive; he's productive enough right now to be 2-3.”
   It’s certainly not the first time Smith has sounded off about not being a major player in the offense. He’s gone through statistical slumps before, only to rebound and earn his way on to four Pro Bowl teams, three as a receiver.
   After the game, Jake Delhomme tried to downplay talk of Smith not being a big part of the offense on Sunday. 
   “I talked to him and he told me, ‘As long as we win, it doesn't matter,'" Delhomme said. "So honestly, you can say he won't, but he's going to get that (bracket coverage), that's the way it is. He's going to get doubled.  He knows that, everybody knows that. That's the way it is. He was doubled last week and made some big plays. (It's) just today, they were really trying to take him away.”
   When Delhomme was asked if he thinks Smith is frustrated, he replied, “Absolutely not. Absolutely not. No.”
  Delhomme, like coach John Fox, doesn't seem worried about the struggles in the passing game after throwing for just 65 yards.
   “It doesn't bother me one ounce,” Delhomme said. “I know we scored a touchdown pass, that was pretty positive, I thought. And for a lot of the other things we did in the passing game today, for what they did, was somewhat positive. They were going to keep on dropping back, and we had to take a lot of underneath stuff. For me to lose confidence, I'm not even close. I'm not even remotely close. I know what's going on. Sure, would we like our numbers to be better? Probably so. But who cares, we won. The last two weeks, who cares?”