The past two weeks in the NFL have been kind to the Carolina Panthers – OK WAIT before you throw something at the screen – obviously, aside from the heartbreaking losses on the road to the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Cleveland Browns.
Calm down.
What I mean by the league being kind is that everything that has had to happen to help propel the Carolina Panthers into the playoffs has happened, including in Week 14 when the Eagles, Vikings and Redskins all lost to keep the Panthers at only a half-game back of the final wild-card game with three games left to play – it stands to reason that the Panthers are realistically only battling the Vikings and Eagles for the final spot and there’s good news on that front – the Panthers own the tiebreaker over the Eagles and the Vikings find themselves mired in a slump of their own, losing three of their last four and two teams with winning records on the horizon in the final three weeks.
So if you’re hoping for the Panthers luck to continue around the league, that just might be the case – but, as I’m sure you’ve been whispering seethingly through your teeth for the past two paragraphs, none of that matters if the Panthers can’t win a game themselves.
We get it. They get it, too.
“We can’t really rely on nobody else – we’ve still got to take care of business one game at a time, one play at a time and hopefully go out with a bang,” said defensive tackle Kawann Short this week. “We say it every week, it’s just whoever plays the best on Sunday.”
So, yes, all of this comes with a huge grain of salt if the Panthers continue their losing ways – but technically, Kawann’s incorrect – it will come down to whomever plays the best on Monday as the team that has already clinched the NFC South, the team that beat the Panthers three times in 2017, including in the playoffs; the team they’ve played the most in franchise history, visits the Panthers under the bright lights of Monday Night Football and while the chances are slim that the Panthers can rebound from the five-game losing streak and win three straight to head into the playoffs, they’re not so slim that a light isn’t at the end of the tunnel.
Insert your Dumb & Dumber GIFs here.
“Five percent. That’s what they’re giving us, so we’ll see what happens. As long as you’ve got a chance, you take it for what it is and we’ll see,” said Ron Rivera. “Every season has it’s own personality – this one started fast and it’s kind of dwindled a little bit and now we’ll see what happens.”
Five percent is another fact that’s technically incorrect – depending on who you ask, the Panthers playoff chances are actually between nine and 15 percent. There’s a simple scenario where the Panthers control their own destiny after Week 15 – beat the Saints along with a Dolphins and Jaguars victory and the Panthers can assure themselves a playoff spot with victories in Weeks 16 & 17.
There’s even a (very) convoluted playoff scenario that doesn’t even require the Panthers beating the Saints and sneaking into the playoffs at 7-9 – but that requires almost a dozen games to go exactly right.
Stranger things have happened.
The comparisons to 2014 write themselves – the Panthers had just been embarassed in Minnesota and went to New Orleans as nine-point underdogs on the tails of a six-game losing streak. Less than 10 minutes into the game, they were up 17 points and on their way to a 41-10 blowout and winning their final four games en route to a first-round playoff victory over the Cardinals.
“You go through the NFL, the NBA, whatever professional level of sport that you’re playing, if you ask the best guys that are around, they’ve all faced adversity,” Christian McCaffrey said after the Panthers lost their fifth straight game. “Right now, we’re facing it and I keep harping on it because i think it’s important. We’ve got two options now. The great teams, the great players, they take it one day at a time and they focus on what you can control and right now that’s grouping together as a team and figuring something out to go in and win as a team.”
“You’ve got two paths you can go down when bad stuff happens and we’ve got to take the correct one.”
It can be done – it’s been done before. Julius Peppers, who has seen more football than any other Panthers player – he’s the oldest active defensive player in the league, after all – still has confidence that it can be done. He spoke in the locker room Tuesday, smiling knowingly when asked about his feelings about the Saints beating the Panthers three times in 2017 and essentially holding all the cards for the Panthers future in 2018.
“That was last year, you can’t really take anything year to year – or week to week for that matter, so this week is a new week and we have to focus on this,” said Peppers. “Anything else doesn’t matter; last week doesn’t matter, next week doesn’t matter.”
The 38-year old was then asked if he had thought about it possibly being his last time on Monday Night Football.
“I haven’t actually thought about that. It doesn’t matter,” said the always-thoughtful Peppers, who rarely speaks unless he has something to say. “Not really.”
National TV. New Orleans Saints. Division Rivals. Under the Lights. Big Underdogs.
Peppers’ eyes flashed.
“That would be a great story, wouldn’t it? If we won this game and then won two more and then made it in? That’d be a great story.”
But could it really happen?
“Of course it can happen. We expect it to happen.”
So you’re telling me there’s a chance.
