Published: Monday, Sep. 28, 2009 / Updated: Monday, Sep. 28, 2009 07:58 PM

Shades of '04, '06: Panthers see tonight's game with Cowboys as must-win

CHARLOTTE -- The Carolina Panthers have been down this road before.

They just hope the car trouble is early enough in the season they can get it fixed before they end up on the same dead end.

If the early part of the 2009 season bears any resemblance to the past, it's to the injury-ravaged 2004 campaign or the 2006 mess which never really came together.

Either way, they hope they can get the season back on the road tonight in Dallas, so they can make this season what they planned.

Their 0-2 start follows an 0-4 preseason, which followed an offseason devoid of any additions of note, which followed a dispiriting loss in the playoffs last January. They haven't won anything since the 2008 regular season finale at New Orleans, a full 275 days ago, giving birth to the idea the snowball's already rolling downhill this season.

“No. absolutely not. It won't,” quarterback Jake Delhomme replied quickly when asked if the season could spiral out of control soon. “You just want these young guys to understand. Because when you have all these young guys, we've already had four preseason games, already had two regular season games. That's over half a year for some of these guys, and we haven't even gotten cranked up yet.”

In 2004, there was actually a win on the books by now, but it was lonely for a while.

That team turned 1-1 into 1-7, when early injuries decimated the team in every area.

It was hard to sustain any offense that year, with wide receiver Steve Smith breaking his ankle in the opener, followed by running backs Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster joining him on IR (and even replacements such as Rod Smart and Joey Harris ending up there). The defense wasn't quite as hobbled but lost defensive tackle Kris Jenkins and end Kavika Pittman and linebacker Jessie Armstead early.

All told, they ended up with 14 guys on injured reserve by the end of the year.

“We don't have as many on IR this year, so that's good,” left tackle Jordan Gross said. “(In 2004), you got to where nothing surprises you.

“We've been through a lot of players already this year, and knock on wood, hopefully that's coming to an end. But injuries are part of the game. It's unfortunate when they snowball like they do.”

There's that word again, snowball.

The Panthers have only placed six on season-ending injured reserve so far this year (safety Nate Salley was released with an injury settlement last week). While three are defensive tackles (Maake Kemoeatu, Corvey Irvin and Louis Leonard), it's only beginning to approach the ridiculousness of 2004's running back class.

In that way, Nick Hayden has the opportunity to be the Nick Goings of the bunch, the guy with lackluster skills who's counted on for more than he appears capable of, simply because there's no one else to do it. Hayden's yet to ascend to Goings' level of “in case of emergency, break glass” status, since Goings had five 100-yard rushing games down the stretch in 2004, when the team actually rebounded.

But like Goings, he's quiet and hard-working.

“You've just got to always be ready to step up,” Hayden said last week. “I've prepared myself last year being on the practice squad trying to get better every game. Then the last three games, you've just got to prepare yourself. You never know who's going to go down.”

Gross hesitates to draw the parallel to 2004 or 2006, because the makeup of the teams is so different.

In both years, it was an older roster, as the Panthers were still in their phase of spending big on free agents to fill in the blanks.

In 2004, they had 23 players with five years or more experience. In 2006, it was 25.

This year, it's down to 19, included in the number is many homegrown draft picks such as Gross, Travelle Wharton, Thomas Davis and Chris Gamble, giving this bunch a younger vibe.

“This is a young, talented team,” special-teamer Dante Wesley said. “Once we get these young guys to realize, to get a better understanding of how the league is and how we're supposed to perform every Sunday, that they will come out and play even harder. This team is very young, at every position. That's why the veteran leadership has to spread the word so we can turn this thing around.