CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Dick Vermeil doled out bear hugs by the dozens. Georgia Frontiere wrote a special poem. Kurt Warner tried on his commemorative T-shirt and found it to be a perfect fit.

	Rams cornerback Dre Bly coasts into the end zone with an interception return that sealed the victory.

The St. Louis Rams capped their unlikely rise from NFC West doormats to division champions with a 34-21 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

"I came here thinking we could get it done," said an emotional Vermeil, hired as Rams coach in 1997 after a 14-year coaching hiatus.

Frontiere, the team owner who took a chance on Vermeil, went to the locker room after the game to give him a poem she wrote especially for the occasion.

"Except for my children and my grandchildren, this is my life," she said. "I knew that if he had enough time, he could handle it."

Off in a corner of the locker room, Warner, the Arena Football League refugee, soaked in the celebration scene, holding his NFC West champions baseball cap and T-shirt as he tried to gather his thoughts.

With four regular-season games left, Warner has 32 scoring passes, one more than Jim Everett's team-record 31 in 1988.

"The records are nice," he said, "but we want something that can never be taken away from us. We want that little ring."

Warner threw for 351 yards and three touchdowns Sunday, including a pair to Az-Zahir Hakim.

GAME NOTES

St. Louis lost cornerback Todd Lyght to a groin strain and defensive end Kevin Carter to a hyperextended left knee in the third quarter. The Rams said both should be available for Sunday's game in New Orleans. Carolina defensive tackle Esera Tuaolo left in the second quarter with what the team thinks might be a torn groin muscle. Further tests were scheduled for Monday. The Panthers are 0-6 when trailing after three quarters; the Rams are 10-0 when leading after three. The Rams' victory was their first on the road in the month of December since 1997, also against the Panthers.

"We felt we were good enough to do this," Warner said. "There were no questions in our minds. Now we've gone out and shown everybody."

St. Louis, which improved to 10-2 for the first time since 1978, had not been to the playoffs since 1989.

After winning their first six division games by an average of 25 points, the Rams wrapped up the crown by weathering the Panthers' second-half rally.

The Rams defense had shut out their last three opponents in the second half, but Carolina scored 14 points to make it close before Dre' Bly's 56-yard interception return put St. Louis up by 10 with 9:48 left.

"You just felt the air going out of your sails," Carolina tight end Wesley Walls said. "You feel bad. You're embarrassed. You lose the game, and they clinch the division at your home field."

Carolina (5-7) hurt itself all day with penalties, breakdowns in the secondary and missed tackles. The Panthers, who intercepted Warner twice but were unable to convert either one into points, missed a chance to reach the .500 mark for the first time in two years.

"We kind of dug ourselves in a coma and couldn't come out of it," said center Frank Garcia, who had one of the Panthers' personal-foul penalties.

Steve Beuerlein threw two second-half touchdown passes in an attempt to keep alive Carolina's bid for its first three-game winning streak since 1997.

Beuerlein linked up with Donald Hayes on a 36-yard scoring play in the third quarter and Patrick Jeffers on a 71-yarder with 14:31 left in the game, making it 24-21.

But Beuerlein's third interception, on an underthrown pass to Muhsin Muhammad, went directly to Bly, who ran untouched down the sideline for the score that sealed it.

Beuerlein wound up throwing for 266 yards and three scores.

The Rams converted their first two drives into touchdowns, with Warner completing seven of eight passes for 165 yards and a pair of scores.

The Panthers didn't help themselves by repeatedly allowing St. Louis receivers to get wide open in the secondary and missing two tackles on the Rams' second score, a 5-yard out pattern that Hakim turned into a 48-yard touchdown.

The Rams caught Carolina in an all-out blitz for their third score, a 49-yard play in the second quarter that started when Warner dumped off a short pass to Hakim, who found himself alone in the right flat.

The NFL's instant replay rule had a role in the touchdown that cut the Panthers' deficit to 21-14 with 5:13 left in the third quarter.

The Rams challenged a ruling that St. Louis linebacker Mike Jones had fumbled an interception return that was recovered by Carolina's Chris Terry. But the 90-second review clock expired without the officials reaching a decision, so the call stood, giving the Panthers the ball at the St. Louis 49.

Five plays later, Beuerlein found Hayes streaking down the right sideline for the score.