The first step to the Carolina Panthers winning the NFC South mentioned in this afternoon’s Week 15 playoff rooting guide was for the Atlanta Falcons to beat Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This was viewed as a long shot as the Bucs were finally healthy on offense and the Falcons were just eliminated last week from post season contention. Lo and behold, our dear neighbors did us a solid and beat Tampa 29-28 on a last second field goal by our old friend, Zane Gonzalez. With that result, the 7-6 Carolina Panthers are
now in sole possession of first place in the NFC South in Week 15. It has been ten years since that was true.
The Panthers have to beat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday to hold on to that position, but that is tomorrow’s problem. Tonight we can marvel at how vulnerable the Bucs looked against a Falcons team that had only won four games heading into this contest. Atlanta racked up a franchise-record 19 penalties for 125 yards, mostly against their offense, and still managed to pull out the win.
We’ll talk more about the division and what this win means for the Panthers if they beat the Saints on Sunday. For now, enjoy this graphic from NFL.com that shows Carolina as the number 4 seed in the NFC today.
Also, love the disrespect. The Panthers are in first place in their division, but still have a lower chance (47%) to make the playoffs than the Bucs (53%), who just dropped into second place. Sure thing.
