Carolina Panthers Facing Crucial NFC Matchup In Week 10

After starting the season 2-0, the Carolina Panthers have gone 1-5-1 and have looked ugly in the process. Despite all that, the NFC South title and NFC Wild Card spots are not far out of reach. Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles provides the Panthers with a crucial matchup against a team also fighting for a Wild Card spot in the NFC.

With Eagles starting quarterback Nick Foles out with a broken collarbone, the opportunity to get a quality conference win on the road has only increased.

Heading into week 10, I have estimated that there are nine teams competing for six playoff spots in the NFC: The Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East, the Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West, the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions in the NFC North, plus the New Orleans Saints and Panthers in the NFC South. For Carolina, winning the NFC South still represents the easy path to getting into the playoffs as they are just one game behind New Orleans right now.

A win at Philadelphia on Monday night would give the Panthers a 4-5-1 record and drop the Eagles record to 6-3. While it would still take a lot to catch Philadelphia in the Wild Card standings, they are now playing with backup QB Mark Sanchez for the foreseeable future, and that might cause them to take a nosedive in the win-loss column.

Assuming two teams make the playoffs from the NFC West (Arizona and Seattle), Carolina is competing with Detroit, Philadelphia and San Francisco for the final Wild Card spot. This assumes the Saints winning the NFC South, the Packers winning the NFC North and the Cowboys winning the NFC East. Having already beaten Detroit earlier this season, a win on Monday night would give Carolina two wins against the three teams they are competing with for a Wild Card spot.

It is still only Week 10 and we all know the NFL hardly ever works out the way you think it will, but securing a win over the Eagles would go a long way towards Carolina righting the ship and getting their season turned around towards a playoff berth in the NFC.

Andrew Skaggs is a Carolina Panthers writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @RantSkaggs and add him on Google.