Injury news is mixed, but Saints’ loss to Atlanta opens NFC South door for Panthers

Veteran linebacker Thomas Davis did some scoreboard-watching Thursday night and likes how the Panthers improved their position in the NFC South without doing a thing.

The Falcons’ 20-17 victory over the New Orleans Saints in Atlanta kept the Panthers’ hopes for a division title alive heading into the final four-game stretch, which begins Sunday against the NFC North-leading Vikings.

But because the Panthers (8-4) would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker with New Orleans (9-4), there’s still a lot of work to be done if Carolina is to capture its fourth division title in the past five years.

“It keeps the door open for us a little bit moving forward to win the NFC South,” Davis said Friday. “Had the Saints won that game it would have been a lot harder. But we still have an opportunity – a small one, but we have one.”

First, there is the matter of figuring out a way to end Minnesota’s eight-game winning streak.

The matchup with the Vikings (10-2) starts a three-game homestand for the Panthers, who close the regular season with a Dec. 31 trip to Atlanta (8-5).

Davis, who has been bothered by a hamstring injury the past couple of weeks, says he feels much better headed into the Vikings game. But the Panthers will be without outside linebacker and part-time nickel back Shaq Thompson, who’s been ruled out with a foot injury.

David Mayo is expected to take Thompson’s spot in the linebacker rotation, while the Panthers figure to use more traditional nickel packages with Captain Munnerlyn lined up against the Vikings’ slot receivers.

“We’re going to utilize all of our guys,” Davis said. “Captain is definitely going to get a lot more reps. I think Mayo is going to see a lot more action.”

The Panthers have five players listed as questionable – tight end Greg Olsen (foot), centers Ryan Kalil (neck) and Tyler Larsen (foot), and receivers Devin Funchess and Kaelin Clay, both of whom have sore shoulders.

But only Larsen’s status seems in doubt among that group.

The Panthers have taken a cautious approach with Olsen and Kalil, hoping they could get the two Pro Bowlers back for their stretch run. Head coach Ron Rivera is excited about the prospects of having both back in the lineup Sunday.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” Rivera said. “They both had good weeks of practice.”

Like Davis, Rivera also watched the Saints-Falcons game with interest Thursday night. He said this year’s division race reminds him of 2014, when no one ran away with it, allowing the Panthers to capture the South with a 7-8-1 record after they won their final four regular-season games.

“We’re all staying bunched up,” Rivera said. “You just go through it and you play to the end.”

Most observers are still slotting the Panthers as one of the two likely wild cards in the NFC.

But Davis, who says his reps won’t be limited this week like they were vs. the Saints, isn’t ready to concede anything.

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over. The games still got to be played. We still have an opportunity to control what we can control. And that’s the mindset of this football team,” Davis said.

“Obviously, we can’t control anything else that goes on outside of this building. But we have a say-so in what we do.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 2:43 PM with the headline "Injury news is mixed, but Saints’ loss to Atlanta opens NFC South door for Panthers."