Daily Norseman
Week 18 in the National Football League kicks off in just under half an hour or so, and we’re getting two games with playoff implications on this Saturday afternoon and evening.
The early game of this doubleheader gets underway from Tampa at 3:30 PM Central time, and it will feature the Carolina Panthers visiting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the game that will decide the NFC South title. . .maybe.
If Carolina wins the game, it’s easy. Carolina wins the South and goes into the NFC playoffs with a 9-8 record as the #4 seed in the conference. If Tampa wins, all eyes will turn to Atlanta and tomorrow afternoon’s game between the Saints and the Falcons. In that scenario, a win by Atlanta will still put Carolina atop the NFC South. Why? Because, in that scenario, the Panthers, Buccaneers, and Falcons would all finish with 8-9 records, and the first tiebreaker would be their head-to-head records against each other. The Panthers went 3-1 against the Bucs and Falcons, which would give them the tiebreaker and the NFC South title.
So, if Tampa wins today, they need the Saints to beat Atlanta tomorrow to secure the NFC South title, because in that scenario, it’s just a two-way tie at the top of the division between Tampa and Carolina, with both teams at 8-9, and the Bucs would win the division based on having a better record than Carolina in common games.
The late game, which kicks off at 7:00 PM Central time, takes a whole lot less explaining. That matchup comes to us from Levi’s Stadium, and will feature a scenario that we as Minnesota Vikings fans are familiar with from right around this time last year. The Seattle Seahawks, led by Sam Darnold, will head to the Bay Area to face off with the San Francisco 49ers with the #1 seed in the NFC playoffs on the line.
The winner of tonight’s game locks themselves into the #1 seed and gets the lone bye week in the NFC. If Seattle loses, they will lock themselves into the #5 seed and a trip to face whoever wins the NFC South. If San Francisco loses, they could fall as low as the #6 seed if the Rams beat Arizona during the late window on Sunday (which is something you would probably expect to happen), which would mean a trip to either Chicago or Philadelphia on Wild Card weekend. If the Rams should lose to Arizona tomorrow, San Francisco would stay at #5 and the Rams would be at #6.
Both of these games will air on ABC and ESPN.
If you’re going to be watching the games, feel free to hang out here and watch them with your fellow Vikings fans.
Enjoy all of today’s action, folks!
