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There was nothing normal about this Tuesday for the Panthers and wideout Muhsin Muhammad. (PHOTO: ANDREW MASON / PANTHERS.COM)

CHARLOTTE -- A short week is jarring enough. Facing an unfamiliar opponent with unusual strategies only exacerbates the issue. But in a season inundated with injuries and an unexpectedly sluggish start, it somehow seems appropriate that a foe whose formations and plays require additional study comes calling in the week where time is at its most scarce.

It is therefore no wonder that offensive lineman Travelle Wharton said that the "24-hour rule" to celebrate victory or stew over defeat was tossed out the window, sliced in half by the truncated schedule. A day later, numerous players were at the stadium beginning to study the Miami Dolphins, and some planned to take their work home with them Tuesday for a long night of watching the Dolphins' Wildcat-intensive offense and its 3-4 defense.

"All night. I'll probably be watching film from 7 to 11 (Tuesday) night, if not longer," said defensive tackle Damione Lewis, who estimated that he would watch twice as much video of the Dolphins as he usually does of his opponent.

"We've got DVDs and everything to (take) home. I'll go up in the media room and spend a lot of time there."

The issues posed by the Dolphins' use of the Wildcat formation could be exacerbated by the relative unknowns posed by running back Ronnie Brown's absence after he was injured Sunday. Brown was ruled out by the Dolphins on Tuesday, but that doesn't mean the Wildcat will vanish -- not with rookie backup quarterback Pat White, who flourished in the spread option at West Virginia, able to wreak havoc with his arm and feet.

"We've got to take it like (Brown) is playing," Lewis said. "If he's not playing, they'll go with White for some of the Wildcat stuff, but then you actually have a quarterback doing it, and that brings even more. We've just got to prepare with what they've shown us."

And then there's the 3-4 defense, which has been a rare alignment for Carolina's offense to face in recent years. Thursday's game will be just the fifth since 2007 and second this season against a team that runs the 3-4 on a full-time basis, although the Panthers also saw 3-4 looks from the Arizona Cardinals during a 34-21 win in Week 8.

"(The Dolphins) give you a ton of different looks," quarterback Jake Delhomme said. "They'll slide to four-down looks and bring in heavy personnel. They bring in a lot of guys and really do a good job, and they've got a bunch of veteran football players, so they can do that. So that's something that doesn't work in our favor bring a short week for practice and rep time.

"That's the hand we're dealt."

THEN THERE IS THE PHYSICAL TOLL ... which is equal for the Panthers and Dolphins, who won't have the chance to fully heal their wounds from Sunday's wins over Atlanta and Tampa Bay, respectively.

"Usually it takes a whole week for guys to start feeling real good going into a game," center Ryan Kalil said. "You don't always feel great at the end of a week, but I think we'll be all right. We've got this game that's coming up quickly, and we'll have a bunch of time to recover and get our bodies right.

"I think the guys in this locker room are tough enough to get going."

BUT ABOVE ALL ELSE ... NFL players and coaches are creatures of habit during the regular season. Each day of the week has its routines: Monday for meetings and reviewing the previous day's video, Tuesday for coaches to craft the game plan and players to rest, Wednesday to begin installing the game plan, et. al.

A Monday or Saturday game tweaks the schedule slightly, but only by 24 hours; that's a relatively painless adjustment. A Thursday game is another matter entirely, so they were at the stadium Tuesday, going through the motions of a typical Wednesday. Their practice time mirrored the usual Wednesday routine -- two hours -- but the pace was anything but, noted wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad.

"It was a get-loose kind of deal," he said. "It wasn't real intense. It was more of a mental day than anything else.

It is an alien experience for the Panthers, since Thursday's clash the first mid-week regular-season game in club history.

"The routine's weird," Kalil said. "(Wednesday) we'll be going to the hotel."

At least the Panthers don't have to board a plane beforehand. Home teams in NFL Network games played on Thursday have won two-thirds of the time (12 out of 18), including the San Francisco 49ers' 10-6 win over the Chicago Bears last week.  But that average has evened out; road teams have gone 4-5 in the last nine NFL Network Thursday night games after going 2-7 from 2006 through Dec. 13, 2007.

SPLIT SECONDS: Evidently, 3-4 defenses and NFL Network appearances go together for the Panthers. The Dolphins are the first team with a base 3-4 alignment to play in Bank of America Stadium since the Cowboys visited on Dec. 22, 2007, in a Saturday night tussle televised by the league's channel. Carolina lost that night, 20-13 ... Four Panthers did not practice Tuesday: defensive end Charles Johnson (pectoral muscle), safety Charles Godfrey (knee), fullback Brad Hoover (ankle) and running back Jonathan Stewart (Achilles tendon) ... During his question-and-answer session with local media in the locker room, Muhammad revealed that he'd played the last 13 seasons with a torn hamstring that he opted not to repair. "Obviously it hasn't hurt me too bad," said the man with 837 career receptions. It wouldn't be the first instance of an athlete going without a muscle or a ligament; Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway played much of his career without a left anterior cruciate ligament.