Peppers had a remarkable game with seven tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles and tipped pass.

"It feels good. It's a great honor," Peppers said. "It was a good week for me individually, but it speaks to what we're doing as a team. I was the one getting the sacks and the (big) plays, but it came off the other guys working and helping too."

As a team, the Panthers sacked the Raiders five times.

"We knew it was going to be a situation where we wanted to get most of our pressure with our front four - particularly our ends," head coach John Fox said. "I thought we had pretty steady pressure around the corner by everybody, but Julius is special."

Peppers, however, wasn't altogether pleased with the defense's effort.

"It was a good day production-wise for me individually," Peppers said. "As a team, I don't know - we gave up a lot of yards rushing and passing. We didn't give up a lot of points, and that's the main thing that counts, but as far as yards and getting off the field, we gave up a little bit more than we should."

The game was Peppers' first three-sack effort since Nov. 13, 2006 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when he had three sacks in a 24-10 win on Monday Night Football.

Peppers is the second Panthers defensive player to earn an honor from the league in the last 10 days. Linebacker and fellow defensive captain Jon Beason was selected as NFC Defensive Player of the Month for October.

--Middle linebacker Jon Beason is fourth in the league in tackles with 79 and Peppers called him a "lock" for the Pro Bowl.

"Just from an assignment standpoint, I'm making a lot less mistakes than last year," Beason said. "That's one good thing about it. For me, I just try to go out and play hard every down. I think as a unit we're doing that. We've got guys giving great effort."

--Mark Jones was originally signed by the Panthers as a stopgap at returner until Ryne Robinson returned from a knee injury.

But when Robinson wound up on injured reserve, Jones suddenly became permanent.

He's made the Panthers look like geniuses for picking him up off the scrap heap after he was cut by San Diego. Jones is now sixth in the NFL in punt return average (12.3) and would be third in kickoff return average (27.8) but he doesn't yet have enough attempts.

"That's what I like for it to be," Jones said. "Coming into this I was just returning punts and unfortunately Jon (Stewart) got hurt and allowed me to come in and I was just here to help out. That's how I came in, and I was told once you get your hand on the steering wheel, don't let go. That's my mentality right now."

--Coach John Fox is determined his team won't take the Lions lightly.

"As I'd remind everybody we don't look at records; we look at the tape and watch the matchups," Fox said. "Each week takes on its own different matchups and personalities, so we're going to have to play well to win just like last week we had to play well enough to win and we did. It wasn't in all three phases. This week is going to take on a whole different personality. Hopefully, we're just getting better as a football team and at the end of the day that's what we're concerned about."

BY THE NUMBERS: 5-0 - Panthers record at home this season.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "You don't want to fall into that trap of looking at that 0-9 record. If you look at the tape, they've been in most of the games. They're playing good football, they're just not getting the wins. You've got to take them seriously and prepare for them like you would for anyone else." -- Panthers DE Julius Peppers on facing 0-9 Detroit.