If the Panthers win Sunday in front of a home crowd at Bank of America Stadium, the odds improve substantially.
A win over the Seahawks in Week 17 would then nearly clinch things. The only way the Panthers win the next two and don’t make the postseason would be if the Bucs beat the Dolphins and then the Panthers in Week 18.
(Feel free to root for the Dolphins.)
If the Panthers beat the Bucs this week and lose to the Seahawks in Week 17, they make the playoffs if they beat the Bucs in Tampa in Week 18, regardless of the outcome of the Bucs-Dolphins game.
In any of the other combinations of results of the four games in question, the Panthers fall short of the playoffs.
That will obviously sting. But for a team that won two games in 2023 and five last year, the improvement this year remains significant.
And the simple act of talking playoffs 10 days before Christmas shows how far this team has come.
