The Carolina Panthers moved into first place in the NFC South after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who at one point seemed primed to run away with the division, suffered a shocking defeat to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football. The Panthers were primed to take complete control of the division, but lost to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
Now, both franchises are tied for first at 7-7, but will play each other twice in the last three weeks of the season. It’s something that’s not wasted on the Panthers, either.
“There’s a lot of guys who are really disappointed, because of the missed opportunity that we had,” head coach Dave Canales said, per the team’s official website. “At the same time, there’s a lot of great leaders in that locker room that understand we’ve got a lot of football in front of us.
“We have to make sure that we move on quickly. We look at the film, we make sure we tidy up the things that we need to, and get ready for the next game, and that’s really got to be the mentality, so we stay together and finish this thing.”
Derrick Brown knows it’s all in front of him and his teammates.
“It’s great to still have everything in front of us, right? Like you’ve got to put this s— behind us and get back to work,” he said. “You can’t sit here and suck on this because you’ve got to go back to work and get ready for tomorrow and get ready to play Tampa Bay next weekend.
“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. I mean, we’ve got to go out here and we got to get it now. I mean, it is what it is. It’s been that way since Day 1, right? We started off 1-3, and you know it’s the same mentality, right? Nothing has come easy for us this season. So I mean now we’ve got to go back and go to work.”
Offensive lineman Austin Corbett is now preparing for the critical three-game home stretch of the season, knowing that this is where Carolina can show the culture it has been building.
“It’s just the growing nature of when you’re trying to build a winning culture, and it’s not going to happen overnight, and we are in a position now where we have to go make it happen. So we want to go win the division. We’ve got Tampa coming in. We’ve got to go do it. There’s no other option. You want to win the playoffs, go to the home playoff game? It starts right now.
“You’ve got to own this. You have to be here present where your feet are and own the moment. It didn’t get done today and ultimately it doesn’t really hurt too much. It’s not as easy of a way to go get the win now, but it’s still there. We can still win the division. It’s still right in front of us and we have to go on it and go get it done.”
The Panthers and Buccaneers will square off on Sunday afternoon, with everything on the line.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.