Who would have thought that the Carolina Panthers would start the 2009 football season with an 0-2 record? This is the team that finished last year 13-3 and looked better and better with each passing week.

The Carolina Panthers were a dangerous football team in 2008. Armed with one of the best wide receivers in the game (Steve Smith), a great quarterback (Jake Delhomme) and arguably the best running back in football in 2008 (DeAngelo Williams) , the Panthers were dangerous. Add a potent defense to the mix that no team wanted to face, and Carolina had the makings of a team with legitimate Super Bowl potential.

Hopes were equally high for the team entering the 2009 season. Almost all of them had returned from the previous year, and things seemed to pick up exactly where they left off in 2008.

For whatever reason, things haven’t worked out this way so far. In Week 1, the Carolina Panthers were embarrassed by the Eagles on their own field. They lost this game by a score of 38-10. His defense was pitiful, and Jake Delhomme looked just as terrible at quarterback.

Week 2 looked a little better, but as they say, a loss is a loss. The team traveled to Atlanta for a matchup against the Falcons and lost this game 28-20. While they looked a bit better than they did in Week 1, Delhomme was still less effective than usual, and the team failed to show the defensive dominance that it exhibited week after week in 2008.

The Panthers travel to Dallas for a week 3 Monday Night Football game. Is an 0-3 start on the cards?