"Julius Peppers never got too down on himself after going without a sack in the Bears' previous five games. And the star defensive end didn't exactly celebrate his three-sack performance in Thursday night's 16-0 shutout of the Dolphins.

"It's still overrated,'' Peppers said of sacks. "It's nice to get them. It's nice to get a couple in the game. But it's even nicer to have that goose egg out there and get the win.''

Peppers entered the game with two sacks but more than doubled his season output against the banged-up Dolphins.

Israel Idonije also had a sack, pushing his team-leading total to six. The Bears finished the game with six sacks, with Brian Urlacher and Henry Melton each adding sacks.

No one can deny the impact Peppers has had on the defense this season. And now he has five sacks to show for it.

"I feel like maybe people's opinion might change,'' he said. "Or if people who haven't seen me play, they look at the numbers, they might feel like I'm playing well now or better than I was before. But that's not the story. The story is that I just happened to get a couple of sacks. But I feel like I played the way I've been playing all year.''"