CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Of the 12 teams that participated in the NFL playoffs last season, none seemed less likely to turn into a superpower than the NFC South champion Carolina Panthers.
It wasn’t just the Panthers’ 7-8-1 finish atop the weakest division in the league that underwhelmed. It was their 16th-ranked offense and a defense that ranked 19th in points allowed.
Yet, here they are, the new darlings of the NFC, if not the entire NFL, a one-loss wonder that would wrap up home-field advantage throughout this year’s playoffs with a victory today over the Buccaneers.
“Right now they’re the team everyone has to go through,’’ Bucs right tackle Demar Dotson said of the Panthers.