"This season just feels different," said cornerback Richard Marshall. "Us going to San Diego for that first game and pulling out a big victory and then coming back home and winning against Chicago, it just feels different as a whole season thus far. It's not the home games, it's just the season, period. How close our secondary is and how close our team is just feels a lot different than it was last year."

Tight end Jeff King had this take on the improved play at home: "I know there's not a difference preparing. Last year it meant as much to win a home game as it does this year. I don't think that changed. I think it's just a different year, a different team. I think we're playing a little bit better, and it helps to have your quarterback stay in the game the whole time and you're not rotating quarterbacks every week. I think that was a little bit of our problem. So I think it's a couple of different things. You can say we're a little more consistent here, a little more consistent there, and I can't say enough about the way our defense is playing. That certainly helps."

--Kicker John Kasay, now in his 14th season with the Panthers and 18th overall, is a perfect 14-for-14 on the season in field goal attempts.

Jake Delhomme said having Kasay ready for field goals is comparable to how a kid feels with his security blanket.

"It's a great feeling," Delhomme said.

"It's tremendous," coach John Fox said. "He's been very, very consistent in all the years I've been here going on seven. I can only remember one bad day, and that's a pretty good accomplishment at this high level of competition in a lot of the pressure situations you're in. He's been tremendous, whether it's been regular season games or playoff games; he's showed up big in most games."

Fox said Kasay is one of his best leaders in the locker room, which is rare for a kicker.

"John's a smart guy. He understands the business; he understands the game," Fox said. "I think he's got a lot of wisdom - not just football-wise, which he does - but also life skills and understanding the business part of the National Football League. He's been a player rep. He understands how the business works. The example he sets as far as his tenure in the league as well as the example he sets in his life as a man and as a player, he's got great wisdom for young players. Any time you have that I think it's good."

--The Panthers will be thrilled to have a bye week after Sunday.

"We're not focusing on it," King said. "We want to win this week if we have to play next week or not. That's our deal. Certainly looking back on it next week we want to win, but we're preparing just like any other week. We're not looking ahead, just like last week we weren't looking ahead to Arizona."

--After dropping two touchdown passes the previous two weeks, wide receiver Steve Smith sat down for a heart-to-heart with quarterback Jake Delhomme last weekend.

"Me and Jake had a big, huge talk this weekend - just me and him," Smith said. "(It was) really just the lack of focus that I've had. I haven't been consistent as far as keeping my focus. So this game was the opportunity to really get back in there."

Smith did drop a 30-yard pass late in Sunday's game.

However, he finished with six catches for 122 yards and a touchdown, an impressive 39-yarder he caught while falling down on his back.

"I expect him to get open every play and he knows that," Delhomme said. "If I didn't feel that way toward him, he'd be upset."

--A lot will be made this week of Jake Delhomme being Kurt Warner's backup with the NFL Europe's Amsterdam Admirals.

"When you think back to it, I was like 23 when I went out there and I'm thinking, 'Man, I'm backing up an Arena quarterback from the Iowa Barnstormers. How am I going to make it the NFL?' But watching Kurt, and I can remember my (family) asking me, 'How is the other guy?' And I would tell them, 'He isn't bad. He has a quick release of the football. But mentally he was ahead of me at that point. He was married and he and Brenda had two kids. This was it for him. If he didn't make it, it was back to the Arena League. I was just a young kid who didn't know any better."

--As for the report that former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre called the Detroit Lions earlier this season to give them some insight on how to stop his former team, coach John Fox didn't know much about it.

But Fox said it's common for players to share information about their former team, although he thinks that is overrated.

"Any time players change teams, they probably learned something while they were there -- at least, hopefully, they did," Fox said. "They probably share that information. I think that's all part of football or any sport. I think when players change (teams) they have some information probably from their past team, and usually that gets shared. Sometimes you put too much into that and you lose focus on what you should be focusing on, so I don't know that it's that huge of an advantage."

BY THE NUMBERS: 5-0 -- Panthers record this season when rushing for more than 100 yards. Obviously, that makes them 0-2 when they don't reach the century mark.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "Again, I think both our backs are averaging 4.0 (yards) a carry. Would I like to be better? Sure. But it's not all bad. I think we've been a little bit hampered by some of the musical chairs in the offensive line. I don't think that ever helps. It's not blaming anybody or using excuses; it's just the reality. But overall I'm pleased to be 5-2 and I'm pleased with our run game, more so this week than last week." --Coach John Fox on the team's rushing game which ranks 15th in the league in yards per game but only 26th in yards per carry (3.6).