{"id":396449,"date":"2026-01-07T01:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396449\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T01:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:18:11","slug":"insider-claims-its-hard-to-believe-in-2025-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396449\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider claims it’s \u2018hard to believe\u2019 in 2025 Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 NFL regular season is history, and per usual there were plenty of surprises throughout 18 weeks. Now there are 14 teams remaining that are vying for an appearance in Super Bowl LX<\/a> at Levi\u2019s Stadium. <\/p>\n

The postseason begins this Saturday afternoon at Charlotte with a rematch between the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina Panthers<\/a>. Naturally, NFL analysts Gary Davenport, Kris Knox, Maurice Moton and Brent Sobleski of Bleacher Report <\/a>have come up with power rankings when it comes to the postseason field. It\u2019s hardly a shock that Dave Canales\u2019s 8-9 NFC South champions are at the very bottom<\/a> of the list.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe in a sub-.500 team that needed a rival to punch its ticket to the postseason following back-to-back losses, said Moton. \u201cThe Carolina Panthers are that club in this field of 14, making them stand out as pretenders. In Week 13, the Panthers beat the Los Angeles Rams at home<\/a>, where they\u2019ll face off again this week. However, Carolina hasn\u2019t played well recently,<\/a> turning the ball over five times over the last two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Panthers<\/p>\n

Nov 30, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers safety Lathan Ransom (22) celebrates after a play during the third quarter against the Los Angeles Rams at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kinser-Imagn Images | Scott Kinser-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an up-and-down season for the improved Panthers, who finally ended a 10-game stretch of alternating wins and losses with a 16-14 setback last Saturday at Tampa Bay. Nonetheless, Carolina wound up clinching a division title when the Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday\u2014prevailing in a three-way tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Los Angeles doesn\u2019t necessarily come into this playoff clash with a head of steam. The club split its last six games, and the team\u2019s run defense was an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cRams head coach Sean McVay played his starters in Week 18 to reestablish some momentum, which could be the difference-maker in the matchup between these teams. If the Panthers pull off the upset<\/a>, they\u2019ll earn tremendous respect as a team that belongs among the contenders. Until then, they have a lot to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n

They do indeed, considering this is a franchise that is making its first playoff appearance since 2017. Coincidentally, that was McVay\u2019s debut season with the Rams. His team lost a home playoff game to the Falcons.<\/p>\n

– Enjoy more free Panthers coverage with Carolina Panthers on SI –<\/p>\n

Opening odds for Rams-Panthers revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

Panthers rise in power rankings after sloppy loss<\/a><\/p>\n

Panthers\u2019 running game AWOL ahead of playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n

5 Panthers who need to step up in the playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 NFL regular season is history, and per usual there were plenty of surprises throughout 18 weeks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-396449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}