Linebacker Moise Fokou laughed at his positionmate Omar Gaither as he stood in front of his locker dressed in a shirt, tie and suspenders. It was the suspenders that drew the chuckle out of Fokou as he called Gaither, "The Professor."

But you could laugh all you want at Gaither and you couldn't ruin his mood. Not only did the Eagles come away with a 38-10 win over the Panthers, one in which the defense forced seven turnovers and scored a touchdown, but Gaither got to start at middle linebacker and he made his return to the starting lineup in his hometown of Charlotte.

"I couldn't have drawn it up any better. It's like a fairy tale," said Gaither, who had to get over 30 tickets for this game. "It was great. You come home and I don't know if you could ask for a better performance out of our defense, our team. We had a return on special teams (for a touchdown). I just think it was an all-around great day at home, in Charlotte. It was a great homecoming.""

Across the board, Gaither had a complete performance with four total tackles, a split-sack (with defensive tackle Mike Patterson) and a fumble recovery. Gaither entered training camp in a battle with Akeem Jordan for the weakside linebacker spot. But after Stewart Bradley injured his knee and Joe Mays wasn't able to seize the starting job, Gaither was tabbed to return to the position he handled on a full-time basis in the 2007 season.

The key to Sunday's success started with stopping Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams. The league's leader in touchdowns in 2008, Williams scored on an 11-yard run on the game's opening drive. However, Williams finished with just 37 yards on 14 carries. As a team, the Panthers rushed for just 86 yards. Gaither said that they knew how dangerous Williams was as an outside runner and it took that first drive to realize what he could do.

"That first drive he was bouncing a lot. We know he likes to bounce outside, but we didn't know how much he wanted to get out there," Gaither said. "We came back and regrouped for the second drive and we were able to get him stopped."

Gaither credited defensive coordinator Sean McDermott with making those changes.

"We did a few little tweaks that worked. A few of the things he did came up big for us," Gaither said. "A lot of those big plays were things that he changed."

The Eagles defense finished third in the league in yards allowed last season. With the loss of Bradley and the passing of longtime coordinator Jim Johnson, there were concerns that this year's defense couldn't reach that elite level. On Sunday, the turnovers and pressure put the Eagles on the right track.

"We've been saying that all off-season, all training camp. We want to get turnovers. We want to be a great defense," Gaither said. "I think today we're headed in the right direction."

-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 10:29 p.m., September 13