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Panthers Clinch Playoff Berth Nfc South Title

Bonisiwe Shabane
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panthers clinch playoff berth nfc south title

For the first time in a decade, the Carolina Panthers are your NFC South champions! Carolina clinched the division crown on Sunday afternoon, thanks to the Atlanta Falcons' 19-17 win over the New Orleans Saints. This marks the team's first NFC South title since 2015 and snaps a franchise-long playoff drought of seven seasons. The Panthers, who are locked into the conference's No. 4 seed, will now host their first playoff game since that 2015 campaign—which saw them defeat the Arizona Cardinals to advance to Super Bowl 50. Their last playoff appearance came in 2017, when they were eliminated by the New Orleans Saints in that year's wild-card round.

Their opponent for next weekend's postseason tilt will be determined by today's contest between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cardinals. A Rams win would match them up with the Panthers. A Cardinals win or a tie would send the San Francisco 49ers to Carolina. Follow @ThePanthersWire on Twitter/X for more Panthers content. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Carolina Panthers are playoff-bound for the first time in seven years and will host an NFC wild-card game against the Los Angeles Rams.

Dee Alford's red-zone interception stopped a potential go-ahead drive by New Orleans, and the Atlanta Falcons beat the Saints 19-17 on Sunday to give the NFC South title to the Panthers. By closing the season with four consecutive wins, the Falcons (8-9) finished in a three-way tie with Carolina and Tampa Bay for first place in the NFC South. The Panthers won the tiebreaker with the best record within the division. Watching on TV, second-year Panthers coach Dave Canales was locked in. "We were just excited, following it every single play. (We) couldn't take our eyes off the game." Canales said.

"Just the turn of events, I wouldn't expect anything less from this matchup. Playing the Saints and knowing the type of football they've been playing down the stretch, and the Falcons are really putting things together." 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: The battle for the NFC South title has officially come to an end. The Panthers secured the final NFC playoff spot on Sunday thanks to the Falcons beating the Saints. This Carolina's first division title in10 years.

The Panthers lost to the Buccaneers on Saturday night 16–14, which put all the pressure on Sunday’s Saints–Falcons game. If New Orleans would’ve won, then Tampa Bay would’ve earned the playoff spot. This complicated path to the playoffs definitely had the teams and the fans on the edge of their seats. Baker Mayfield, for instance, was a nervous wreck watching the game at home knowing his team’s playoff hopes were in the hands of a rival. 🥁🥁🥁@AtriumHealth | #KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/mm6SF46EHP It was a close NFC South matchup on Sunday as Atlanta won 19–17 to help Carolina make the postseason.

With an 8–9 record for the 2025 season, Carolina is the only playoff team with a losing record. The Panthers hold onto the No. 4 NFC seed, setting them up to host the 49ers as of now. If the Rams beat the Cardinals in the late Sunday slate, then the Panthers will host Los Angeles instead next weekend in the wild-card round. Backing into the playoffs is still getting into the playoffs. The Carolina Panthers have officially clinched the NFC South thanks to the Atlanta Falcons' 19-17 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

It is surely not the way the Panthers would have written it up. Carolina had an opportunity to clinch the division on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but instead fell, 16-14, to require a reprieve from another division rival. Nonetheless, reaching the postseason is certainly something to celebrate for the upstart Panthers. In head coach Dave Canales' second season at the helm, this will be the team's first playoff berth since 2017 and first division title since 2015 when Carolina advanced to Super Bowl 50. Though sitting at an underwhelming 8-9, the Panthers do have two wins over teams in NFC playoff field -- the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams. They'll also benefit from hosting a wild-card game as a division winner.

CHARLOTTE — For a day at least, the Panthers love the Falcons. Atlanta beat New Orleans 19-17 Sunday at the Georgia Dome, creating a three-way tie atop the NFC South at 8-9. Thanks to an edge in the three-way tiebreaker, the Panthers won the NFC South title on Sunday. The Panthers swept the Falcons this year, and that was the difference. The Falcons did it with a stingy defense, and four field goals by former Panthers kicker Zane Gonzalez (which means all is forgiven for the whole Buffalo pregame thing in 2021). And having a Saints touchdown wiped out by an offensive pass interference was doubtless satisfying for a lot of Panthers fans watching on television.

It's the first division championship for the Panthers since 2015, which, like 2003, was a year that began against the Jaguars and ended in the Super Bowl. Just saying. The Panthers got the help they needed from the Falcons to win the NFC South for the first time since 2015. Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images The Carolina Panthers couldn’t close the deal themselves the last two weeks, but they are postseason-bound anyway after the Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints 19-17 on Sunday. The Falcons’ win created a three-way tie atop the NFC South among the Panthers, Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Carolina earning the tiebreaker edge for its first playoff appearance since 2017 and first...

The Panthers (8-9) will now host either the Los Angeles Rams or San Francisco 49ers on wild-card weekend, while the season ends for a Buccaneers team that lost seven of its final nine games. It may not have been the way Carolina drew it up after entering Saturday’s Week 18 showdown in Tampa with a chance to win and celebrate a division title on its own terms. The Panthers also could’ve clinched with a Week 17 upset of the Seattle Seahawks, the NFC’s top seed entering the playoffs. But they lost at home to the Seahawks and then sputtered through a wet and sloppy 16-14 loss Saturday to the Buccaneers (8-9), forcing both teams to wait about 23 hours to learn their... Had the Saints — winners of four straight behind emerging rookie quarterback Tyler Shough — beaten the Falcons on Sunday, the Buccaneers would’ve been the NFC South champions for the fifth straight year. At that point, it would’ve only been a two-way tie between Carolina and Tampa Bay and the Bucs would’ve won on the third tiebreaker — record in common games.

(The teams were even on the first two tiebreakers, splitting the head-to-head matchups and both owning 3-3 division records.) On Sunday, the Carolina Panthers had everything on the line even though they were not playing, having lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a close game on Saturday afternoon. Still, the Panthers needed the Atlanta Falcons to defeat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, which would give the Falcons, Panthers, and Buccaneers a three-way tie atop the NFC South, allowing the Panthers to... Thankfully for Carolina, that's exactly what happened, as the Falcons defeated the Saints by a score of 19-17, recovering an onside kick in the waning seconds to secure the victory after having controlled things... The win allows the Panthers to backdoor their way into the playoffs for the first time since the 2017 season, where they will get a home game next weekend due to their status as... To say that this year was not a conventional postseason year for the Panthers would be an understatement, as the team struggled through more setbacks with quarterback Bryce Young and also lost in blowout...

However, the Panthers did pick up some impressive wins this season, including against the Los Angeles Rams and the Green Bay Packers, meaning that they won't be a pushover for whoever they get matched... 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.

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