Nfl Playoff Picture Panthers Win Nfc South With Help From Cbs Sports

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Jan 18, 2026, 8:33 PM

nfl playoff picture panthers win nfc south with help from cbs sports

The race for the NFC South title is officially going to come down to one game: Saints at Falcons. That's right, the division title will be decided by two teams that can't even win the division. That became a reality on Saturday after the Buccaneers secured a 16-14 win over the Panthers in an NFC South showdown that didn't end up deciding anything. If Carolina won the game, the Panthers would have clinched the division title, but because the Bucs won, the Saints-Falcons game on Sunday will now decide who wins the division. How is that even possible? That's a great question.

Let's answer it. The Falcons pulled off a shocker Monday night when they beat the Rams, 27-24. The win improved Atlanta's record to 7-9 -- and that's where things get interesting. Let's take a quick look at the NFC South standings so we can break down why Atlanta's win made such a huge difference in the division title race. Sunday game result: With Atlanta’s 19-17 win over the Saints, the Panthers are NFC South champions. They will host a playoff game on Wild Card weekend as the No.

4 seed. Saturday game result: The Panthers lost to the Buccaneers on Saturday to open Week 18, and now they have to wait for the Falcons-Saints game to decide the division winner. The Panthers fell behind 10-0 but managed to come back and keep things interesting. They scored a touchdown with 2:27 left, but by the time they got the ball back, they were too deep on their side of the field and did not have enough time. The Bucs are currently in first place in the division, but both of Saturday’s teams will be watching Falcons-Saints on Sunday. If the Saints win, the Bucs clinched the division based on the common games tiebreaker.

If the Falcons win, we would have a three-way tie for first place and the Panthers would win the tiebreaker based on overall head-to-head record against the other two teams. The Carolina Panthers are 60 minutes of football away from their first playoff berth since 2017. Or maybe it’s 120 minutes. We’ll explain more below, but the Panthers head into Week 18 with their highest win total since 2017 and showing signs of growth moving forward. They face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to close out the regular season in a game that could decide the NFC South champion. I say “could” because there is an usual clinching scenario for the Panthers.

The Panthers-Bucs matchup kicks off in Tampa at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. The Panthers are field goal underdogs. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Carolina Panthers on Saturday in a must-win game, but the Buccaneers needed more help on Sunday to win the division. With the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints finishing their seasons in a matchup, Tampa Bay needed the Saints to prevail. However, it was the Falcons who won the game, which means that the Panthers finish the season as NFC South champions at 8-9.

The reasoning behind the Panthers' making the playoffs involves the differences in tiebreaks. Atlanta's win means the Falcons, Panthers and Buccaneers are all tied at 8-9, allowing Carolina to win a three-team tiebreak. However, had the Falcons lost, the Buccaneers would have won a two-team tiebreak. Here's a breakdown of how the Panthers still won the division despite losing on Saturday. LIVE: Updated NFL playoff picture for Week 18 The Carolina Panthers had a chance to clinch the NFC South with a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 18.

Dave Canales' squad couldn't quite achieve that goal. The Panthers lost 16-14 in a rainy, defensive slog, during which they generated just 19 rushing yards on 14 carries against a strong Buccaneers run defense. The defeat puts the Panthers into a first-place tie with the Buccaneers in the NFC South standings. Tampa Bay currently holds the advantage needed to make the 2025 NFL postseason, but Carolina still has a path to the postseason despite having no games remaining. The Panthers just need to get help from one of their divisional rivals to earn their first postseason berth since 2017. Here's what to know about the NFC South standings and how the division title for 2025 will be decided.

The Buccaneers overtook the Panthers in the NFC South standings by virtue of their 16-14 Week 18 win. Below is a look at the full divisional standings: A Panthers win improves their odds at the playoffs and winning the NFC South The Panthers needed a win today to solidify their contention for the NFC South title and the fourth seed in the NFC for the 2025-26 NFL Playoffs. They scraped that win off of the skin of their teeth and now only have to repeat the process against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa in Week 18 to stamp their ticket. That isn’t the only way they are going to make the playoffs, but it is the most likely way.

Below are the Panthers remaining scenarios for winning the NFC South. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from today is that the Panthers cannot be eliminated from the playoffs until the last week of the season. It all comes down to this. We've reached the final weekend of the 2025 regular season, and Week 18 is poised to bring plenty of chaos as we cross the finish line. Entering the weekend, four division titles were still up for grabs, along with the No. 1 seeds in the AFC and NFC.

In the NFC, the No. 1 seed was decided Saturday night when the Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers in San Francisco. With the win, Seattle clinched the NFC West and a first-round bye as the conference's top seed. On Sunday, the Panthers (8-9) backed into an NFC South title thanks to the Falcons beating the Saints. In the AFC, the Broncos wrapped up the AFC's top seed and the first-round bye that comes with it. The red-hot Jaguars clinched the AFC South and the third seed.

Beyond the top seeds, the AFC North title came down to a thrilling game between the Ravens and Steelers on Sunday night, as Pittsburgh escaped with a 26-24 victory. As we close the book on the 2025 regular season and put the postseason into focus, let's take a look at the official playoff picture. The final week of the NFL season always seems to get crazy and this year has been no different. The 14th and final playoff spot wasn't clinched until the final seconds on Sunday night when the Ravens kicker Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal on the final play of the game to... With the win, the Steelers clinched the AFC North, and they'll now host the Texans in the wild-card round. The AFC North was one of four divisions got clinched during a wild Week 18, and that included a wild NFC South race that ended in the most unlikely way possible.

The Buccaneers and Panthers had to wait until the end of the New Orleans-Atlanta game on Sunday to find out who would win the division title. The Panthers ended up clinching their first NFC South title in 10 years after the Falcons beat the Saints, 19-17. With the win, the Falcons improved to 8-9, which created a three-way tie atop the NFC South and the Panthers had the tiebreaker in that scenario. In the AFC South, there was no drama. The Jaguars needed to beat the Titans to clinch the division title and they ended up destroying Tennessee, 41-7. The win means that the Jags have now won the AFC South for just the second time in eight seasons.

The NFC West race is also over and that ended on Saturday night. The Seahawks clinched the division title and the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC with a dominant 13-3 win over the 49ers. That means the Seahawks will get a bye in the opening round of the playoffs while the 49ers will be forced to hit the road for the wild card round. The Carolina Panthers haven’t been to the NFC playoffs the last seven seasons. They haven’t won the NFC South title since 2015, the season in which they advanced to Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium.

But the Panthers (8-9) ended both droughts ahead of Super Bowl 60, which also will be played in the 49ers’ home venue in Santa Clara, Calif. While Carolina lost to Tampa Bay in Week 18 with a chance to control its destiny, the Panthers got help when the Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints to give Carolina a division... Here’s a breakdown of how the Panthers ended the regular season with an NFC South title: LIVE: Updated NFL playoff picture for Week 18 Here's a look at the current potential initial matchups for this year's playoffs:

Nfl Playoff Picture Panthers Win Nfc South With Help From Cbs Sports

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