For the second straight season, the Carolina Panthers’ playoff hopes have died inside of Raymond James Stadium. But this time, it was a mercy killing.
As opposed to last season, where the 6-9 Panthers entered their Week 17 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a shot at an NFC South title, this year’s cats came crawling in at 1-10. Sunday’s 21-18 loss moved them to 1-11 and mathematically eliminated them from postseason contention after just 13 weeks.
While Carolina didn’t embark on this 2023 campaign with the strongest of Super Bowl odds out there (heck, they were hardly considered a legitimate threat for their own division), they probably weren’t expecting to be where they are here, on the night of Dec. 3. Alas, a new head coach with a new all-star coaching staff and a new quarterback resulted in an even worse outcome than last year.
But hey, at least Mike Evans went for 45 fewer yards this time around.
