On Sunday afternoon, the Carolina Panthers had a perfect opportunity to take control of the NFC South, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers having lost to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night and a game against the lowly New Orleans Saints looming on the schedule. Instead, Carolina let that golden opportunity slip right through their fingers, ultimately succumbing to late field goal from the Saints to hand them their second L against New Orleans this season.
One controversial moment occurred in this game when Panthers head coach Dave Canales opted to go for it on a fourth and one and ended up not converting.
After the game, Caneles spoke on what went into that decision.
“I couldn't pass up on fourth and inches right there. I trust my guys to get that done. We've been really successful in those situations, and the Saints beat us on that play,” said Canales, per Joe Person of The Athletic on X, formerly Twitter.
Overall, the Panthers have to be kicking themselves after letting such a great chance to get control of the worst division in football slip away in such gutwrenching fashion.
The good news for Carolina is that all of their goals for this season are still ahead of them, as the team still has two games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on their schedule, which will go a long way in deciding who ends up hosting a playoff game against a far superior team in a few weeks.
If one of the Buccaneers or Panthers are able to win both of the matchups between the two teams, that team will receive the honor of winning one of the worst divisions in NFL history.
The first of those two matchups is set to take place on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm ET in Carolina.
