Collins Makes the Right Call : NFC: Rookie’s 89-yard touchdown pass play completes Panther comeback in 21-17 victory over Falcons.

CLEMSON, S.C. — All season, the Carolina Panthers have tried to keep the wraps on Kerry Collins, saying it wasn’t as important for him to win games as it was for him to not lose them.

On Sunday, the 22-year-old rookie decided to get a little defiant. Collins changed a call in the huddle, and it produced the longest play in the expansion team’s history and its biggest comeback.

“Sometimes you just have to go for it,” Collins said after he hooked up with Willie Green on an 89-yard touchdown pass play with 7:06 left. The play completed the Panthers’ comeback from a two-touchdown deficit and gave them a 21-17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

Carolina (7-8) turned away a fourth-and-goal play with 1:07 seconds left.

The Panthers are 7-5 with Collins as the starter.

“He’s a tough guy to get down,” Coach Dom Capers said.

The Falcons (8-7) now probably have to beat San Francisco in their season finale for a chance to make the playoffs. Atlanta has lost its last three games to the 49ers by a combined 106 points.

“It’s pretty much over with, you would think,” said Atlanta quarterback Jeff George, who completed 29 of 53 passes for 310 yards. “We had a chance to control our own destiny, and we didn’t do that, so we just need a little luck now.”

Carolina, already assured of finishing as the winningest expansion team in NFL history, erased deficits of 14-0 and 17-7 on the way to winning for the fifth time in eight games at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, the Panthers’ first-year home away from home.

“Just too many mistakes,” said Atlanta Coach June Jones, whose team has lost its last four road games.

But this time, the difference was Collins, who completed 18 of 28 passes for 283 yards.

The Falcons were up, 17-14, when George drove them deep into Carolina territory midway through the fourth quarter for what appeared to be the score that put the game out of reach. But a short pass to Craig Heyward was tipped into the hands of linebacker Sam Mills, who returned it six yards to the Panthers’ 11.

After Collins threw an incompletion, the Carolina coaches called for a short slant pass.

But Collins, seeing the Atlanta defense set in a coverage that likely would isolate rookie cornerback Ron Davis, decided to try something else. Collins told Green to fake a slant route across the middle and then streak down the left sideline.

Davis bit on the fake, and by the time Collins delivered the ball to Green at the Carolina 42, the receiver was already several yards behind the defender. Green went untouched the rest of the way.

“We had to get a big play at some point,” Collins said.