"Since the moment I forgave him he has done everything a man could ever do from a forgiving standpoint," Lucas said. "My hat is off to him.

"I am surprised but I'm not surprised because the adversity we had at first has strengthened our friendship that we didn't have so much in the beginning. Now we are friends. There is good that comes out of everything. It brought the team closer and created a friendship between me and Steve."

Smith did not talk to the media after the game.

--The Panthers used the pass to set up the run on Sunday, which was the game plan going in. The Panthers had 401 total yards on Sunday, all but 107 of those coming through the air.

"That kind of opened up our running game once we got a couple play-action passes in there early in the game," Fox said. "Muhsin and Steve both did an outstanding job with some pretty tight coverage. Jake did a nice job placing the ball on those plays."

Still, Muhammad said there was room for improvement.

"I wish I would have blocked a little bit better today," Muhammad said. "I had some good blocks down the field, but there were a couple that I just kind of pushed the guy and he was able to run away from me and make a couple of tackles. Knowing my game plan and knowing the way that they play now, the next time we play I'm going to change my philosophy on how I'm going to do some of those things down the field."

--Referee Ed Hochuli was back on the field Sunday and he had another controversial call.

Hochuli, who may have cost the San Diego Chargers a game earlier this year with a terrible call late in the game, flagged defensive end Julius Peppers on Sunday for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Matt Ryan nullifying an interception return for a touchdown by Richard Marshall on the opening drive.

Replays showed Peppers barely grazed Ryan's helmet and the call appeared to be a little, well, ticky-tacky. It appeared Peppers actually led with his shoulder, not his helmet.

"Ed came over and explained to me, he said that I hit him with my helmet," Peppers said. "He said I hit him with my helmet in his head and that's what he called. It wasn't really roughing, late hit. It was just my helmet hit his helmet, so it was just one of those calls that, you know, player safety is what that was about.

"I'm not trying to hit him with my helmet. I'm not trying to hurt him, but you know, it's football so I'm going for the tackle so helmets are going to get hit sometimes."

Fans booed loudly when the play was shown on the video boards at Bank of America Stadium.

Said coach John Fox: "I can't comment, No. 1. But No. 2, I didn't really see it. I saw the replay, and I wasn't real fond of it then."

--The Panthers just can't seem to win on field goals blocks.

Last week Fox called a timeout when thinking the team had 12 men on the field, thus nullifying a blocked field goal.

On Sunday, the Panthers failed to call timeout when they did have 12 men on the field. Jason Elam missed the initial field goal attempt from 49 yards, but converted from 44 yards after the 5-yard penalty.

It appeared that rookie Hilee Taylor, who was active for the first time, was the extra man on the field and cost the Panthers three points.

Of course, the Panthers won, so it didn't matter. Fox, who was in a good mood after the game, even poked fun at himself over the issue

"One of these days, I'm going to get this right. I'll vow that," he joked.

--Jake Delhomme injured his quad in the first quarter and said the injury nagged him throughout the game. Still, he managed to play through the pain and turned in a pretty good day.

"As the game went on it got tight," Delhomme said. "We wrapped it at half. Maybe we wrapped it a little too tight. I couldn't bend it a lot."

Outside of Gross and Otah, the only other injury was to defensive tackle Maake Kemoeatu, who injured his elbow.

--For the second time this season, Jason Baker had a punt blocked, only this time he can't blame Nick Goings.

In the second quarter, Baker inexplicably dropped the snap from Jason Kyle, picked it up and then tried to get the ball off. By then John Abraham had stormed in to block the punt.

The Falcons took over at the Panther 25-yard line, but Carolina's defense held and forced an Elam field goal.