Panthers win NFC South over Buccaneers thanks to Falcons’ win against Saints

The Panthers are division champions and going to the playoffs for the first time since the 2017 season, thanks to the Falcons.

The Falcons beat the Saints 19-17 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday to close their own season with four straight wins.

The Panthers had a chance to clinch the NFC South on Saturday, but a loss to the Buccaneers kept the latter alive and set up a bizarre scenario to decide the fate of the division.

It came down to a matchup between two teams already eliminated from postseason contention.

Both the Bucs and Panthers entered Sunday with an 8-9 record, though Tampa Bay was in a slightly better situation, since they owned a common-games tiebreaker over the Panthers.

But a Falcons win meant there is a three-way tie between themselves, the Panthers and Bucs at 8-9.

And the three-way tiebreaker is head-to-head record among the three tied teams, of which the Panthers have the best — they went 3-1 against the other two teams, while the Bucs went 2-2.

So the Bucs needed a Saints win or tie, while the Panthers needed a Falcons win.

Now, the Panthers will be the No. 4 seed in the playoffs and face either the Rams or 49ers — dependent on what Los Angeles does against the Cardinals later on Sunday.

The Panthers became the first team since the 2022 Bucs to make the playoffs with a sub-.500 team.