Can the Carolina Panthers do it? Can they go from below .500 to one or more playoff victories? This season is already unusual in Panthers history. It has seen the first defended NFC South title by the team. It has seen two starts by Derek Anderson with two wins over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to show for it.
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Carolina Panthers Fast Facts
The Panthers beat the Saints and Falcons on the road, and lost to those same teams at home.
The Panthers recorded the first tie in team history, against the Cincinnati Bengals.
They beat Lions and Bears, but only tied ‘tigers’ (Bengals).
They were beaten by the two most famous ex-Panthers’ newest teams as Julius Peppers with the Packers and Steve Smith with the Ravens.
They knocked Johnny Football out of this football season and beat on Brian Hoyer enough that Connor Shaw started for the Browns in the season finale.
The Panthers had two thousand yard receivers with Greg Olsen and Kelvin Benjamin both receiving for 1008 yards.
The NFC South was miserable and the AFC North took advantage by putting three teams in the playoffs.
Betsided
The Road Ahead
Then on the final weekend, the Panthers seized the season by the throat and won out and were rewarded with a home playoff game as befits a divisional winner. The pairings even worked out so that the Panthers would face the Arizona Cardinals, who are on their third quarterback.
The road ahead for the Panthers is no less hard than the road behind. If you read my schedule analysis, I said there were maybe eight wins on the schedule though I tried to stay optimistic and said ten was possible. The teams that are left are all tough. The Panthers lost to the top two seeds, Seattle and Green Bay, and no one knows what to expect from the Bruce Arrians Cardinals.
Yet last year, no one thought the Panthers were quite ready for primetime. This team has no illusions this year. Why not shock the world one more time?