CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There was no champagne-spray celebration in the locker room Sunday and no passing out of NFC South championship hats and T-shirts, either.
But the Carolina Panthers didn’t care.
They were in the playoffs for the first time since 2017, and that’s all that mattered to second-year coach Dave Canales.
“Championship opportunity right in front of us,” Canales said after the Panthers captured the NFC South for the first time since 2015 by virtue of the Atlanta Falcons’ 19-17 win over the New Orleans Saints at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“How long can we keep that statement true. That was my message to the group over a month ago. [Go] 1-0 with a chance to win the division. That’s been our focus. … We did enough to put ourselves in this position. And so here we go.”
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The Panthers qualified for postseason play less than 24 hours after a 16-14 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that included several controversial plays on a rain-soaked day in Tampa, Florida.
The Falcons, Panthers and Saints finished the regular season at 8-9. Carolina won the division because of a 3-1 record against the other two, including a 2-0 mark against Atlanta.
The Bucs would have been the division champions had the Saints beaten or tied the Falcons. And it nearly happened.
Trailing 16-10 in the fourth quarter, the Saints drove to the Atlanta 20 before Dee Alford intercepted a Tyler Shough pass and returned it 59 yards to the Saints’ 27 with 3:14 remaining. Zane Gonzalez followed with a 38-yard field goal to extend Atlanta’s lead to nine points. Shough responded with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Ronnie Bell with 1:11 left, but Atlanta recovered an onside kick to seal the win.
Canales watched it all unfold from his house with family and a few friends.
“My brother called me after the Alford interception, and he’s ready to celebrate,” Canales shared. “I was like, ‘Call me back. This ain’t over.'”
When it was over, Canales said, “We all yelled like crazy.”
Canales said his phone was blowing up after the game, including a short call with team owner David Tepper, who made the playoffs for the first time since he purchased the Panthers in 2018.
“When he answered the phone I said, ‘Is this the owner of the NFC South champion Panthers?'” Canales said. “He got a good kick out of that.”
The Panthers became the first team since at least 1990 to clinch a playoff spot in the final week of the season despite losing their final game and finishing with a losing record.
Up next for the Panthers is a home matchup in the NFC wild card round against the Los Angeles Rams, who defeated the Arizona Cardinals later Sunday. The Rams lost to the Panthers 31-28 in Charlotte on Nov. 30.
Canales sees an opportunity to correct things the team did wrong in that first matchup. He was already on his way to Bank of America Stadium to pick up his NFC South hats and shirts and get back into game prep mode. He doesn’t have a planned locker room celebration with the players on Monday when they all gather because most watched the Falcons-Saints away from the facility.
“[Monday] is going to be a full-on game-plan prep day,” Canales said. “The guys will come in and move their bodies and do some things like that, but we’ll go right back to work.
“Championship opportunity, right in front of us. How long can we keep that statement true?”
