CHARLOTTE
The Carolina Panthers like to break down the 16-game regular season into quarters.
The goal is to win three out of four in each quarter of the season, figuring that a 12-4 record will definitely put them in the playoffs.
After their dramatic 35-31 win at Green Bay on Sunday, the Panthers are right where they hoped to be at 9-3 going into the final four games. And they've done it by going 3-1 in each third of the schedule.
But even though they have the second-best record in the NFC, they have no better than a share of first place in the NFC South with Tampa Bay. That makes Monday night's showdown between the teams at Bank of America Stadium more than just one of the four remaining games, because there are tie-breaker implications.
Coach John Fox was in no mood to build the game up too much yesterday at his weekly news conference, but it was hard to deny the significance.
"When you get down to the end of a season, it's kind of like the last part of a race," Fox said. "There are a lot of people that are fighting for their playoff lives, and we're one of them. All of our focus is going to be on this week against our next opponent, which is Tampa Bay. That's the first game of the fourth quarter. At this point of the season, I think that would be true probably just about everywhere in the league today. They are all critical."
The Bucs rolled past the Panthers 27-3 on Oct. 12 in Tampa, so a win would give the Bucs a one-game lead in the division, plus the tie-breaker edge with three games remaining. A Carolina win would give it control of its destiny, with games against Denver, at the New York Giants and at New Orleans to close out the season.
Dallas and Atlanta, 8-4, trail by one game in the wild-card race.
Fox was full of praise for the way the Panthers endured and made the key plays when it had to on Sunday.
The defense gave up 438 yards and 31 points -- making it 76 in the last two games and 98 in the last three. But it held the Packers to a field goal, for a 34-31 Green Bay lead, with 1:57 left after the Packers had first and goal. That, ultimately, was critical. Mark Jones returned the kickoff 45 yards, Jake Delhomme hit Steve Smith for 54 yards on the next play to the Green Bay 1, and DeAngelo Williams scored from there with 1:30 remaining.
"This game is full of ebbs and tides," Fox said. "But we made stops when we needed to. That's the difference in records this time of the year, being able to win those types of games and not. This is a good bunch of guys. We had a disappointing game a week ago (45-28 loss at Atlanta) and I think it was a good time for us to sit back and refocus. And our guys did refocus.
"I think it showed a lot about our football team. We stressed all week about starting fast. I think we were able to finish fast, too, which is critical."
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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