That's why his teammates were quick to poke fun at him on the flight home from Oakland after last week's clunker against the Raiders in which Delhomme threw four interceptions and completed just 7-of-27 passes for 72 yards.

Some teammates joked that Delhomme should earn "AFC Defensive Player of the Week" after throwing four balls to the Raiders.

"It seemed like I could have won that award," Delhomme said matter-of-factly while poking fun at himself. "Hey, they're not afraid to tease me."

What made his performance a little easier to swallow - and allowed for the jokes to roll - is the Panthers managed to win pretty handily 17-6 behind a strong defensive effort led by defensive end Julius Peppers, the NFC Defensive Player of the Week.

"After you get a win it's easy to joke about stuff like that," Peppers said with a wide smile. "We can laugh about it now. Jake had a great day today (in practice). He's looking good, so we expect him back."

And, as tight end Jeff King said of Delhomme, who has a reputation as quite a chop-buster in the locker room, "He dishes it out a lot more than he takes it, so he can take it a little bit."

Delhomme isn't too concerned about what he calls "a rough day."

Nor is his head coach John Fox.

When Fox was told some fans are calling for Delhomme to be benched with the Panthers at 7-2 and on a three-game winning streak, he just smiled and said, "It never ceases to amaze me - all aspects. I think we are a much better team with Jake than without Jake at quarterback."

How soon people forget that Delhomme has won 49 of the 79 games he's started for the Panthers, including a 5-2 mark in the playoffs.

What's nice for Delhomme is this week the Panthers host the 0-9 Detroit Lions, a team that ranks 29th in the league in pass defense and is giving up nearly 31 points per game. Obviously he needs to play better than he did last week if the Panthers are to make any noise in the playoffs - and nobody knows that better than Delhomme.

He said the problem in the Raiders game wasn't a matter of poor decision-making on his part, but rather poor execution.

Of his four interceptions, he would have looked a different way on only one of those passes, a second-quarter interception where he missed tight end Dante Rosario coming free.

"There is one decision I wish I had back. One. The rest, I just didn't make good throws," said Delhomme. "If I felt like I was making some awful decisions, I would be like, 'What are you doing?'"

The bottom line is this: Delhomme had a bad day at the office, just like we all do from time to time.

The reason he's still starting is a testament to how well he's responded to those hiccups.

"Certainly it wasn't a good day," Delhomme said. "I can laugh about it now because we were able to win. But certainly you have to learn from it. And then you have to move on. There are other days when you feel like you can do a lot right -- and those are the days when you better not feel like you've arrived because you're going to get humbled."

And humbled he was last Sunday.

"I have been in a situation where I have played some bad games and you have to move on," Delhomme said. "You want to get back out there and play as quickly as possible. You want to get back out there and play ball and get a better taste in your mouth."

SERIES HISTORY: 5th regular-season meeting. Panthers lead series 3-1. In the last meeting on Oct. 16, 2005 at Ford Field, Chris Weinke came in for Jake Delhomme and threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Ricky Proehl with 32 seconds left to give the Panthers a 21-20 win.