Considering the Panthers’ all-or-nothing history, it’s only fitting that this season could play out that way for Carolina, too.
The NFC playoff race is so tight with just two games left in the regular season that the Panthers could end up earning the conference’s No. 1 seed … or missing the postseason entirely.
As a result, Carolina’s NFC South matchup Sunday against the Saints at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium — a rematch of a game New Orleans won 31-13 just two weeks ago at the Superdome — is looming as the star-crossed Panthers’ most important contest in years.
If the possibility of missing out on the playoffs altogether sounds strange, considering Carolina already has won 10 games, well, that pretty much describes the Panthers’ entire season.
After all, coach Ron Rivera’s team started out 1-3 and appeared headed for another bottom-feeding finish at the expense of Rivera’s job. Then Carolina suddenly put it all together with an eight-game winning streak thanks to a resurgent Cam Newton and smothering defense.
The loss in New Orleans stung, but the Panthers bounced back with a 30-20 victory over the Jets last week to pull into a 10-4 draw with the Saints atop the division heading into Sunday’s showdown.
Though the NFC East and North both could end up with 8-8 champions, it’s white-knuckle time for 10-win Carolina because their own division and the especially the NFC West are so stacked.
The Panthers still could claim the conference’s top playoff seed with a victory Sunday and in Week 17 on the road over the lowly Falcons, combined with the 49ers — whom Carolina beat in San Francisco in November — overtaking the Seahawks for the NFC West crown.
But what has the folks in Charlotte sweating is a Carolina collapse all the way out of the playoffs is no less plausible. If the Panthers lose out and both the 49ers and Cardinals win just once each, Carolina would be eliminated.
Yikes.
Of course, a flameout like that would be in keeping for a franchise with one of the most bizarre track records in NFL history. Carolina reached the NFC Championship game in just its second season in existence in 1996 but has made the playoffs just three more times since and is trying to break a postseason drought that extends back to 2008.
Yet despite that paltry playoff mark, the Panthers made the Super Bowl — something the Lions, Browns, Texans and Jaguars (Carolina’s expansion partner) — 10 years ago and nearly toppled the Patriots in the middle of their dynasty run before falling 32-29 in the final seconds of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
So the Panthers and their fans are used to the unusual and disappointing. Even so, it doesn’t seem fair that three teams in the NFC have 10 victories with two games to play but only the 12-2 Seahawks have clinched a playoff berth.
“It’s crazy, but that’s part of it,” Rivera told reporters this week. “It most certainly does give you heartburn, but it’s exciting. I don’t know if the schedule makers could have asked for a better situation as far as we’re concerned. It’s coming down for a real big weekend.”
Fortunately for Rivera and the Panthers, they won’t have to wait until Week 17 to find out their playoff fate. Not with the Saints having to play them outside the Superdome — New Orleans is 7-0 at home but just 3-4 away, including an ugly loss at the Rams last week).
The playoffs won’t be time for golf reservations for the Panthers this year.
PICK: Panthers, 27-13.