The postseason-hungry Carolina Panthers are facing a late-season gauntlet.
Beginning with Monday night’s NFL showcase outing against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium, the Panthers (6-5) face a flurry of playoff contenders with a combined .590 winning percentage over their final six regular-season games.
Four of the Panthers’ next five opponents have at least six victories, leading ESPN to tag them with the third-toughest slate, based on schedule strength.
The combined win percentage of those teams is .590. Four of the next five all have six or more wins, and every NFC West opponent coming up has seven or eight wins.
“Take it one game at a time,” Panthers running back Rico Dowdle said, per Panhers.com. “We’ve got to win this one first and then we’ll focus on the next one that comes. I mean, we show we can go compete with the best.
“So it’s all about going 1-and-0 each week, and that’s what we got to focus on.”
RB Rico Dowdle said #Panthers can overcome their challenging 6-game closing #NFL stretch if they “take it one game at a time” … pic.twitter.com/uFGymAcnYI
— Jeff Hawkins (@WriterHawkins) November 22, 2025
Carolina Panthers Face Grueling End-Of-Season Stretch
Following Monday’s matchup against the 49ers (7-4), the Panthers host the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams (8-2). They will also face the Seattle Seahawks (7-3) in a Week 17 flex game.
The Panthers’ remaining three games are against NFC South rivals, the New Orleans Saints (2-8) on Dec. 14 and two outings (Weeks 16 and 18) against the first-place Tampa Buccaneers, which could decide the division title. The Panthers have not qualified for the playoffs since 2017.
“We’re sitting here looking at a bunch of NFC opponents, four out of the five that are in front of us, in the playoff picture, so there’s a real focus and opportunity for the group to say let’s go one game at a time,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said. “We’re playing the Niners this week. We’ll worry about the next one when we get to the next one, but big-picture-wise, understanding our work is right in front of us. Can we execute? Can we maintain our focus and not be distracted by the rest of it? Because what is it gonna come down to? Fundamental execution.
“It’s going to come down to blocking, tackling, throwing, and catching, and making our plays when they come to us, and that’s never going to change.”
#Panthers defenders, like ILB Claudin Cherelus, will need to focus on basic #NFL tackling fundamentals when facing #49ers RB Christian McCaffrey on Monday night … pic.twitter.com/xrAYORKwd4
— Jeff Hawkins (@WriterHawkins) November 22, 2025
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