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CHARLOTTE -- Rematch.

The rain fell hard on the practice field, and clouds hung heavily overhead as the Panthers went through a full-pads workout Tuesday morning. The first home playoff game in five years was five days away, and no one was feeling under the weather, no one was feeling the pressure, no one was feeling like taking off the pads and taking a knee.

Under normal circumstances, the players would do just that. With the Arizona Cardinals coming to town for the second time this season, nothing was normal Tuesday.

With the entire week pushed up one day because of the Saturday night kickoff, urgency replaced routine and John Fox went back to basics. No one was injured, the Panthers' coach said. No one was dinged up or sore or bruised. And if they were, he wasn't saying.

The players walked off the field with their pads still on, the young players doing it because the veterans were doing it and the veterans doing it because, in the playoffs, that is how you roll.

"You'd better buckle up!" veteran wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad told his teammates. "This is going to be a great ride. A great ride!"

The locker room was loud and echoing as the tape was peeled and cleats were slammed to the floor to loosen the caked-on mud and grass, and players faced the cameras with their eye-black still smeared in with the mud.

The 10th game in Panthers playoff history won't be like the others. This is rematch game, and Carolina is wary of its opponent.

While the oddsmakers and the starmakers agree that the Panthers are prohibitive favorites, no one in a muddy Carolina uniform was accepting that role. While those same experts point to the previous Panthers win and the fact that Carolina is the only NFL team that hasn't lost a home game all year, the Cardinals aren't listening, either.

"They feel like they should've won the last one," Muhammad said.

Carolina came back from a 14-point deficit in the second half to win 27-23 on Oct. 26, light years ago in the half-life of an NFL season. Kurt Warner carved up the Panthers' defense, and only a controversial and dramatic play by Steve Smith saved Carolina from what would've been a demoralizing loss going into the bye week.

A season of games decided by huge plays has come to this. A win by the Panthers will send them to their fourth NFC championship game, their third in six seasons. A loss would be the most demoralizing in team history.

No one mentioned that Tuesday. No one talked about the possibility of losing or the inevitability of winning. The way the Panthers have won this year has been no cause for confidence in anything except the wild nature of winning in the NFL.

From the very first game in San Diego to the dramatic field goal by John Kasay to clinch the NFC South title Dec. 28, Carolina has been on a wild ride. Based on the previous meeting between the Panthers and the Cardinals, no one expects anything different this time.

The main differences will be the Carolina offensive line, which was without two starters in the October game, and the emergence of running back DeAngelo Williams, who was hardly having a career year at that point. And of course, the energy will be at another level.

Anyone who was in the stadium in 1996 the day the Cowboys came to town remembers the buzz that evening. Muhammad said he most remembered outside linebacker Lamar Lathon wreaking havoc.

"I remember him digging a hole in the middle of the field and putting Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin in it," Muhammad said.

After the 2003 season Dallas came here again, and Muhammad mentioned other big games, such as the New York and Philly games, Super Bowl XXXVIII and the NFC divisional game two weeks earlier.

"When we played the Rams in St. Louis, I think that was the loudest game I've ever played in my life," he said. "It went to double overtime, and I don't think any game could compare to the intensity of that game. A lot of guys on this team played in that game."

He said the noise will seem louder than it really is Saturday night, and the lights will seem brighter. The game will take on a life of its own, and the big-game Panthers will have to draw on experience.

"Guys know how to stay in the moment," Muhammad said. "I don't think the game becomes bigger than it's supposed to be. I think it's huge on the outside. There's a lot of hype. To us, it's a rematch of a game we played earlier this year."

They've been through it before, and they know exactly how big this game is. And they knew exactly how big Tuesday's practice was.

"We went out with pads today," Muhammad said. "We had a good, sharp practice in the rain. Normally, halfway through practice you take the pads off. The guys wanted to keep them on today."

The rain poured down Tuesday as the Panthers got ready for the lights and the noise and the hype of the NFL playoffs. But mainly, they were getting ready to play the Arizona Cardinals again.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com