The Buccaneers are favored to win Saturday’s big NFC South showdown. Unfortunately for them, that’s not enough to win the division.
The Panthers are the betting favorites to win the NFC South, thanks to their path to winning the division via a three-way tied with the Buccaneers and Falcons.
Current betting odds have the Bucs as 2.5-point favorites to win at Tampa Bay on Saturday. That would leave the Bucs and Panthers tied at 8-9 atop the NFC South, and for the time being put the Buccaneers ahead of the Panthers via the division record tiebreaker.
But to win the NFC South, the Buccaneers need to win a two-team tiebreaker with the Panthers. If the Falcons beat the Saints on Sunday, the Falcons will also be 8-9, and in a three-way tiebreaker, the Panthers will win the division because the Panthers have the best record in games among all three teams.
The Falcons are three-point favorites to beat the Saints on Sunday, and that would be enough to hand the division to the Panthers regardless of what happens in Saturday’s Panthers-Buccaneers game. The current betting odds have the Panthers as -400 favorites to win the NFC South, and the Buccaneers as +310 underdogs.
Ultimately, the Panthers control their own path to the playoffs: Win and they’re the division champions. The Buccaneers need two things to happen: They need to win and they need help from the Saints beating the Falcons. And the odds are against that happening.
