If you think the Carolina Panthers are a team in major transition, you're absolutely right.

By the end of the season they are about to embark upon, they are going to win a couple of games thanks to players you've barely heard of and lose a couple of games because Julius Peppers and Jake Delhomme are no longer employed here.

They will also go 7-9 and miss the playoffs for the second year in a row and the sixth time in John Fox's nine-year coaching career here.

I know Panthers fans want to believe it will be better than that, and at times it will certainly seem that way. Some good times will come this fall. The Panthers' young, swarming defense will be the team's bedrock.

But as you might have noticed, the Panthers also own an offense that was just about unwatchable this preseason. The Panthers became the first team in at least 14 years - the stats apparently don't go back further than that - to not score a single offensive touchdown in four exhibitions.

They had 52 offensive possessions in the preseason, and they had zero touchdowns on those possessions.

What does that mean? It doesn't mean Carolina will get shut out against the New York Giants, of course - the Panthers might put up 30 in their opener Sunday.

But ultimately, I don't think those preseason touchdown blues were a mirage. I think it means the Panthers are too fragile when it comes to the way you win games - scoring points.

Yes, Jonathan Stewart and Steve Smith - two of the team's three best offensive playmakers - didn't play a down in preseason and are supposed to return for the real stuff starting Sunday against the Giants. That will help considerably.

But the offensive line that will start the season was in there, and running back DeAngelo Williams, and quarterback Matt Moore. I think this is an offense that won't score 20 points a game - that's kind of a magic number in the NFL - in at least half its games and won't control the ball the way Fox wants it to.

Now my friend and colleague, Tom "Where's My No.1 Panther Fan Finger?" Sorensen, is for the third year in a row predicting the team to win several more games than I am. I expect that he will join Catman in the stands soon with his own cape and big hair, although Tom's cape will be black.

This season Tom predicts the Panthers to go 9-7 and for Dwayne Jarrett - a subject of endless fascination for him - to go for 3,000 yards.

The two of us seem stuck in an endless prediction loop with the Panthers, incidentally. Tom also picked 9-7 last season, I chose 7-9 and Carolina won its final three games to finish 8-8. So we were dead even in 2009. And in our long history of writing these dueling prediction columns, we are almost dead even in how many games we are off per year.

So it's fine for you to believe Tom. I don't mind if it makes you feel better - hope springs eternal and all that.

But remember in December what I told you.

The Panthers are about to go 7-9 - and in 2011 will come even more far-reaching changes. And then in February, long after Carolina's season is over, Dallas will edge the New York Jets in the Super Bowl.