After removing themselves from the ranks of the winless a week ago, the San Francisco 49ers hope to prevent the Carolina Panthers from doing the same when the teams square off Sunday at Bank of America Stadium.
The 49ers (1-5) picked up their first victory last week, beating Oakland 17-9 behind two second-half touchdown passes from Alex Smith.
Smith's struggles - particularly his nine interceptions - contributed to the 49ers' worst start since 1979. San Francisco has a minus-8 turnover margin through six games, though they trimmed that number by two last week, forcing a pair of turnovers while not committing any for the first game this season.
San Francisco's defense had its best game of the season against the Raiders, allowing a season-low 179 yards, and the 49ers might be able to expect more of the same against a Carolina offense that ranks last in the league in scoring at 10.4 points per game.
Coming off a bye week following a 23-6 loss to Chicago, the Panthers (0-5) are off to their worst start since 1998 and are one of only two winless teams left in the league along with Buffalo.
Carolina will start Matt Moore at quarterback after Moore took a back seat to rookie Jimmy Clausen the past three games.
Clausen was benched against the Bears after completing 9 of 22 passes for 61 yards with an interception and three fumbles. Clausen has completed 47.3 percent of his passes for 454 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions.
Moore hasn't been much better, if at all - he has a 42.4 percent completion rate for 342 yards with two touchdowns and six interceptions. But after the Panthers managed only 147 total yards against the Bears, their lowest total since 2002, things can't get much worse.
The only potential good news for Carolina's offense is leading receiver Steve Smith returned to practice this week and could play for the first time since suffering a high ankle sprain in Week 4 against New Orleans.
For all the Panthers' offensive woes, the 49ers have been nearly as bad. They rank 30th in the NFL with 15.5 points per game.
But Smith hooked up with Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree for touchdowns last week, and the 49ers still have a solid running presence with Frank Gore, who rushed for 149 yards last week and holds the franchise record with 22 100-yard games.
Gore is the team's leading rusher (471 yards) and leading receiver (33 catches, 284 yards). He leads the NFC with 755 scrimmage yards and leads all NFL running backs with 33 catches.
The Panthers have won six of the past eight meetings, including a 31-14 home victory the last time the teams played in December 2007.