Carolina Panthers playoff perspective entering Week 12

Despite back-to-back losses, the Carolina Panthers playoff chances remain about the same.

Entering Week 11 the Carolina Panthers could not gain a position over any of the teams ahead of them in the current playoff picture. Fortunately, they also did not lose their place in line with a second consecutive road defeat, this time in Detroit.

Three weeks ago Carolina was sitting pretty, contending for the NFC South championship with New Orleans – who they face twice over the final three weeks – and winning six games through the first half of the schedule.

Then an embarrassing loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers took place in front of a national television audience and Carolina followed it up with another poor performance in the Motor City. The good news is that despite these two losses, the Panthers remain in good standing for the playoffs.

Before the loss, Carolina was in the fifth playoff position and they remain there following. Given less than a five-percent chance to win the division before suffering another loss, the Panthers playoff hopes are to focus on the wildcard, even with two games against the Saints remaining.

Thankfully, there has been a lot of parity in the NFC and every team still remains mathematically eligible for the playoffs with six games remaining. Los Angeles and New Orleans are the proven front-runners but behind them are about ten teams who should challenge for the final two playoff spots, if not their own divisional titles.

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Both the NFC South and West are essentially locked up but Washington and Chicago are expected to be challenged by other teams in their division down the stretch. For Carolina to contend, they need to maintain their home winning streak – which is on the line this Sunday – and find a way to win at least two of their final three road games.

That would mean doubling their current total (1) through five games against some combination of Cleveland and divisional rivals Tampa Bay or New Orleans. If so, the Panthers would finish 11-5 and still likely not win the division but their playoff ticket would be punched.

The Panthers may even be able to drop a couple games at home down the stretch, without being sacrificing their playoff chances, provided they win two of the final three on the road. But Sunday is a big game because the Seattle Seahawks are in a similar position to Carolina.

Trailing the Panthers by one game in the playoff picture, the Seahawks are four and one-half games behind Los Angeles in their division with time running out. Both Carolina and Seattle are now essentially dependent on the wild card and whoever wins Sunday will have the head-to-head, tie break advantage should they both finish in the same position.

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Carolina fans shouldn’t befriend Chicken Little just yet, but a third consecutive loss – at home this week – and they may want to look him up.

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