GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The loneliest man in the NFL pulled his black leather bag over his shoulder put his head down and marched out of the Carolina locker room and away from Lambeau Field. Walking by himself, Panthers kicker Shayne Graham looked up at team bus No. 1, which was quickly filling with players, and made a bee-line for bus No. 2. Moments earlier Graham had pushed a potential game-tying chip shot from the 14-yard line wide right as the Pack prevailed 17-14 and the Panthers missed their first real shot at league-wide respect.

Now Graham was bracing for the worst trip of his life.

"I'm not sure there's a tougher situation to be in the NFL," said Packers backup quarterback and holder Doug Pederson. "He's in for the longest, loneliest plane ride of his life."

	Shayne Grahan reacts after missing a 24-yard field goal that would have tied the game.

On Friday, Graham, 24, was at home in Dublin, Virginia, "just relaxing and waiting to do something with the rest of my day," he says -- when his phone rang. Not satisfied with Jon Hilbert who had replaced the injury prone John Kasay (injured reserve, hernia) and approaching a full-blown personnel panic, the Panthers worked Graham out on Friday, signed him on Saturday and canned Hilbert. It was done so late, in fact, that Hilbert still appeared on the team's roster flip card at Lambeau.

At first it looked like a solid move. Graham graduated from Virginia Tech in 1999 as the all-time leading scorer in the Big East. He kicked in six games for Buffalo last year and was in training camp in Seattle before the Hawks cut him loose. But nothing could have prepared him for the situation he was unfairly flung into 24 hours after signing with Carolina. "That's a lot of pressure to put on one guy," said Carolina linebacker Mark Fields. "It's like, on the winning drive, saying you've got to go one-on-one with (Green Bay running back) Ahman Green in the open field to save the day. It's tough but it's what we get paid for."

The snap came at :16 in the fourth quarter. It was clean. The hold good. The line did it's part. Graham was just guilty of the oldest tendency in a kicker's long list of no-no's. Excited and eager to watch his kick float through the uprights at Lambeau he over-swung and jerked his head up, pushing the ball to the right. He's certainly not the first. Out of eight attempts so far in 2002 the Panthers have converted only two field goals.

Still, Graham put responsibility for the loss squarely on his shoulders. (He's a straight shooter if not a straight booter.) "A miss is never more disappointing," said Graham, rubbing his closely cropped red hair. "I can handle it. There were a lot of negative feelings after the game, but I won't let it get to my head."

Actually, the person who needs to have his head examined is John Fox. In juggling his kickers so close to game time, the Panthers new coach made the first blunder in an otherwise stellar start to his career in Carolina. Fox's plan has always been a carbon copy of the 2000 Ravens: play a mistake-free ball-control offense, set the tempo with a dominate defense -- which he has, the Panther's front seven is one of the best in the NFL -- and squeak out as many close games as you can.

Fox just forgot one little detail.

Most close games are won -- or lost -- by kickers.

And the Panthers still don't have one.

David Fleming is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.