If you are a Carolina Panthers fan, it has been a very disappointing preseason and there doesn’t appear to be much hope as the regular season kicks off next week.

The offense has struggled throughout the four games of the preseason, scoring 57 points, an average of just over 14 points a game. The first team offense has managed to score just one touchdown during the preseason.

Some of the offense’s woes can be directly related to Steve Smith’s injured shoulder. Smith suffered the injury during the early days of training camp in Spartanburg and watched from the sideline during most of the Panthers’ preseason games.

Even though DeAngelo Williams is the top running back for Carolina, his backup, Jonathan Stewart, has been out with for most of the summer with an Achilles’ tendon injury. Last year, the pair combined to run for more than 2,300 yards and vaulted themselves to be one best running back duos in the NFL.

What a difference a year makes. Even as the Panthers try to downplay their dismal showing in the preseason by reminding everyone the 2008 Detroit Lions went 4-0 in the preseason before losing all 16 regular season games, they still only produced one touchdown by the first team.

Once thought to be the team’s strength, the defense hasn’t been much better than their offensive counterparts. The defense allowed 89 points in the four games, an average of just over 22 points a contest.

Panther fans can say the loss of middle linebacker Jon Beason has been key for the last half of preseason for learning the strategies and schemes of new defensive coordinator Ron Meeks is to blame for the defense’s poor performance.

Actually, it’s been the poor play of Carolina’s top two defenders, Julius Peppers and Chris Gamble.

Peppers and Gamble were thought to be the cornerstones, along with Beason, of the Panthers’ defense for years to come. Gamble was handed a huge contract in the off-season, while the Panthers’ front office attempted to lockdown Peppers with a contract of his own.

Instead of signing Peppers long-term, the team will be forced to watch Peppers go through the 2009 season as he attempts to figure out if he wants to sign with Dallas, New England or another team not named the Carolina Panthers.

When Beason returns, the defense should play better with its leader in the middle, but in the meantime Gamble needs to stop being this generation’s version of Elvis “Toast” Patterson and Peppers has to play like he wants to be on the football field for the Panthers.

After being manhandled in the playoffs by Arizona, fans thought the Panthers were going to roar right out of the starting blocks in the preseason. Instead, Carolina has stumbled and bumbled through the preseason and into the regular season.

The first three games of the season, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Dallas, will define which Carolina Panthers team will show up for 2009. Will it be the one that went 12-4 in the regular season and was destined for the Super Bowl? Or will it be the team that let the Cardinals go into Bank of America Stadium and walk out with 33-13 victory?