After losing to the Saints, the Panthers can still make the playoffs. Here’s how
If there was one overarching sentiment in the Carolina Panthers’ locker room on Monday afternoon — less than 24 hours removed from their 20-17 loss to the Saints — you could find it at Mike Jackson’s locker.
What the starting cornerback said was pretty simple:
Yes, the Panthers’ path to the playoffs is a bit more complicated now than it could’ve been.
But also?
“Even if we won the game, we still would’ve had to beat Tampa,” Jackson said.
That is true.
The Panthers (7-7) are now tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (also 7-7) for first place in the NFC South. Carolina had a chance to take that lead outright with a win over the Saints on the road on Sunday — after the Bucs lost on Thursday Night Football to the Falcons — but instead they arrived back home in Charlotte still in control of their own destiny, technically, but with little room for error.
Still, as Jackson and others in the locker room made clear, the Panthers always knew they’d have to win the division by defeating the Bucs. Tampa Bay, after all, has won the NFC South four years in a row — which included a Super Bowl win at the end of the 2020 season, as well.
“We just gotta beat them twice now,” Jackson said of the Bucs. He added, “Life in the NFL is a week-by-week thing. So you can’t get too high, don’t get too low. You just gotta come ready to play.”
The 2 scenarios in which the Carolina Panthers make the playoffs
Here’s a handy reminder of how this NFC South postseason race could shake out. (It’s only a battle between the Panthers and the Bucs as the Falcons and Saints have been eliminated from playoff contention.)
The Panthers make the playoffs if:
- They win out.
- They sweep the Bucs, who they play Week 16 and Week 18.
- Or they beat the Bucs once, then beat the Seahawks in Week 17 with the Dolphins also beating the Bucs in Week 17.
The Bucs make the playoffs if:
- They win out.
- They win any two of their final three games, so one win against the Panthers at minimum. (The Bucs face the Panthers on the road, the Dolphins on the road and then the Panthers at home.)
The Bucs are no slouch
For what it’s worth, the Bucs are no slouch.
Prognosticators might point to the fact that they’re reeling at the moment. They lost their last two contests to the Saints and the Falcons — the latter of which spawned a passionate postgame press conference from head coach Todd Bowles. His words, in part, when talking about his players: “Until they start holding each other accountable and doing the little things right — and that’s not everybody, you know, we’re talking about a small, select few. But the small, select few is what’s getting us beat. And until that happens, it’s not going to get right.”
Still, the Bucs can be dangerous. They boast one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Baker Mayfield, who hasn’t been coy about his love for defeating his former employers. They have seen the recent returns of WR Mike Evans and RB Bucky Irving as well as the sustained emergence of rookie Emeka Egbuka, who is now outpacing Panthers rookie Tetairoa McMillan in most categories.
And as a defense, they are decent against the run (10th in opposing rushing yards per game with 101.4) and vulnerable against the pass (30th in opposing passing yards per game with 246.9). Panthers quarterback Bryce Young’s play will loom large in their final three weeks.
‘All we can do is try’
All this could make Panthers players think such a loss to the Saints is dire.
But ask around the locker room, and others see it a similar way to Jackson. His defensive backfield-mate Jaycee Horn focused on the future instead of the past, saying “we got a tough slate ahead of us, but all we can do is try to get it done.” Head coach Dave Canales was more focused on his team — on forcing another team to beat the Panthers instead of the Panthers beating themselves.
“Those things happen,” Canales said, referencing a team outplaying another. “And you have to live with those individual wins and losses across the league. On the field, play to play. But the more that we can minimize the things that are given because we have poor technique, or the things that are given because we miss an assignment, we have to get that out of our game.”
So the road to the NFC South runs through the Bucs. Again. Just as it has the past five years. It was true a week ago, even if the Panthers could’ve afforded some insurance.
And as this Panthers locker room doesn’t need to be reminded: It’s true again now.
