"The post-mortem of the Panthers' 30-23 loss to Green Bay Sunday will reveal a variety of elements that led to the eventual outcome, but wide receiver Steve Smith looked at only one thing.

Himself.

The Panthers were trailing 17-13 in the third quarter when Smith went rocketing down the sideline in front of the Carolina bench, having hauled in another Cam Newton pass for a 25-yard gain into Green Bay territory. Smith made the mistake of holding the football away from his body as he strained for more yardage, only to have it slapped loose by Green Bay's Morgan Burnett and recovered by the Packers' do-everything cornerback Charles Woodson at the 32.

"The fumble was a momentum shifter. A mo killer," Smith said. "For me, be accountable to my guys. Just unacceptable and one of those things. Playing a team like that you can't give them any advantages.

"That was a gift. A gift by me. I know people want to say a lot of things. A guy in the fans called me a (name) so I decided to (tell) him what I thought of his comment. I know they're going to call in the radio stations and say get him out of here. I'm going to line up next week and try to do what I do best - make plays and not make plays for the other team like I did today.""