The NFC South has been a rollercoaster all season, and with just three weeks left, the Carolina Panthers find themselves right in the thick of it. After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stumbled in a surprising Thursday night loss to the Falcons, the door swung wide open for Carolina to take control of the division. But a missed opportunity against the Saints on Sunday has left the Panthers locked in a 7-7 tie with Tampa Bay - and with two head-to-head matchups still to come, the stage is set for a dramatic finish.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales didn’t sugarcoat the mood in the locker room after the loss to New Orleans. There was disappointment, sure - how could there not be, with a golden chance slipping through their fingers? But there was also resolve.
“There’s a lot of guys who are really disappointed, because of the missed opportunity that we had,” Canales said. “At the same time, there’s a lot of great leaders in that locker room that understand we’ve got a lot of football in front of us.”
That’s the mindset this team has to adopt. Take your medicine, learn from the tape, and move on.
Because the margin for error is gone. Every snap, every drive, every quarter matters now.
And no one understands that better than defensive anchor Derrick Brown. His message? No time to dwell - it’s time to dig in.
“It’s great to still have everything in front of us, right?” Brown said.
“Like you’ve got to put this [loss] behind us and get back to work. You can’t sit here and suck on this because you’ve got to go back to work and get ready for tomorrow and get ready to play Tampa Bay next weekend.”
That’s the tone of a locker room that knows exactly what’s at stake. There’s no waiting for help, no scoreboard watching. The Panthers have their fate in their own hands - and that’s all you can ask for in December.
Brown also pointed to the team’s resilience, something that’s been tested all year long. “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us,” he said.
“We’ve got to go out here and we got to get it now. It’s been that way since Day 1, right?
We started off 1-3, and you know it’s the same mentality. Nothing has come easy for us this season.”
That early-season hole could’ve buried a lesser team. But Carolina has clawed its way back into the race, and now they’ve got a shot to finish the job - if they can close strong.
Veteran offensive lineman Austin Corbett sees this stretch as more than just a playoff push - it’s a test of the culture they’ve been working to build.
“It’s just the growing nature of when you’re trying to build a winning culture, and it’s not going to happen overnight,” Corbett said. “We are in a position now where we have to go make it happen.
So we want to go win the division. We’ve got Tampa coming in.
We’ve got to go do it. There’s no other option.”
For Corbett and the rest of the Panthers, the message is clear: This is the moment. No more hypotheticals.
No more waiting. If you want to host a playoff game, it starts with taking care of business against the Bucs.
“You’ve got to own this,” Corbett added. “Be present where your feet are and own the moment.
It didn’t get done today, and ultimately it doesn’t really hurt too much. It’s not as easy of a way to go get the win now, but it’s still there.
We can still win the division. It’s still right in front of us and we have to go on it and go get it done.”
Sunday’s matchup with Tampa Bay isn’t just another game - it’s the first of two high-stakes showdowns that will likely decide who wears the NFC South crown. For Carolina, the path is clear.
The challenge? Execute when it matters most.
The Panthers have been through the fire this season. Now we find out if they’re ready to rise from it.