He also forced his fifth fumble of the season, repositioning himself for a fourth trip to Honolulu and the Pro Bowl in February.

Peppers had a sack on Detroit's first series and later stripped Daunte Culpepper in the fourth quarter, accounting for one of four takeaways by Carolina's defense.

But after Sunday's game Peppers was more concerned about the things the Panthers didn't do right on defense rather his personal accomplishments, saying there's plenty of room for improvement. Rookie Kevin Smith became only the second running back this season to run for more than 100 yards against the Panthers.

"We have to watch the tape and see what we can get better on. I feel like we have to get better on our run gaps, for the past two weeks we have not been that good playing the run," Peppers said. "That's definitely a thing we have to look at. Other than that we have to see what went wrong."

Peppers also said the Panthers have to tackle better.

"That's another thing that sticks out from that game," Peppers said. "We have to do a better job of wrapping guys up and getting them down to the ground."

Coach John Fox said the Panthers need to start quicker on defense.

"We started a little slow defensively, more mentally than physically as far as where we fit," Fox said. "We did a couple of things movement wise where we didn't fit perfectly. But those are things we can fix. ... This defense is about fitting, whether you are fitting right in coverage or fitting right in the run. So we've done a little more defensively as far as moving the front and it only takes one guy out of the gap and it can cause a five or six-yard gain.

Still, he pointed out, "It's not like we have been awful. Two weeks ago (the Raiders) were under 300 yards and yesterday (the Lions) were just over 300. So we just have to come out and start faster against Atlanta. But overall I think that side of the ball has been pretty good. It's good that they have their bar raised pretty high."