Overreaction? Panthers Winning Ugly Cements Them as Playoff Contender

Admittedly, it’s a division that has had its issues as of late as a whole. Dating back to 2022, there has been only one example, the 2024 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, of an NFC South team finishing the season with a winning record. The Bucs were a 10-7 division champion, but were one-and-done come playoff time via a home loss to the Washington Commanders.

Of course, the Buccaneers were also an 8-9 NFC South champion in 2022, just as were the Carolina Panthers this past season. These days, Dave Canales’s club is all alone in first place in the division. On Sunday, the well-rested Panthers came away with a 25-14 over the depleted Philadelphia Eagles in the City of Brotherly Love.

Carolina owned a 19-7 fourth-quarter lead and the Birds would make it interesting, but Bryce Young’s second TD pass of the day to tight end Tommy Tremble with 6:33 to play gave Canales’s club a comfortable cushion.

Dave Canales’s team overcame plenty of penalties to beat the Eagles

The Panthers outgained the Eagles, 399-222, in total yards, the Birds hung around in part due to some sloppy play by the defending NFC South champions. They finished the game with 13 accepted penalties for 149 yards—six of those for 72 yards in the second quarter alone.

Yet, Carolina still managed a double-digit victory and own a two-game winning streak for the first time since posting three consecutive victories from Weeks 5-7 in 2025.

The adage of not playing your best game and still coming up with a win certainly applies here. And the fact that no other team in the NFC South has taken the proverbial bull by the horns this season to date certainly is a factor. Both the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints own 2-4 records, and the Buccaneers are all alone in the divisional basement with a 1-5 mark. Carolina hosts Todd Bowles’s club on Sunday.

There are a lot of positives when it comes to the Panthers

Let’s not get it twisted. There are 12 weeks remaining in the regular season. A year ago, Carolina dropped its first two games, opened 1-3 and made the playoffs. The Houston Texans were 0-3 in 2025 and reached the postseason. Every team in the NFC South has at least four divisional games remaining. The matter here is not whether the Panthers will repeat as division champions, but are they on course to reach the playoffs for a second straight season.

Young is playing the best football of his career. Running back Chuba Hubbard has once again emerged as a reliable performer and leads the team in scrimmage yards and total touchdowns. Ejiro Evero’s defense has rebounded well after the Week 1 debacle vs. the Bears. This looks like a different Panthers’ team even compared to last season, and it adds up to a lot of optimism in Carolina.