CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Carolina Panthers coach Dave Canales didn't hesitate when asked what the locker room felt like after Sunday's 23-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that gave his team a one-game lead in the NFC South with two to play.
"Hope, belief,'' Canales said. "Everything's right in front of us.''
A win next week against the Seattle Seahawks and a loss by the Bucs (7-8) against the Miami Dolphins, or a win in the regular-season finale at Tampa, would put the Panthers (8-7) in the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
"Everything,'' guard Austin Corbett said when asked how big Sunday's victory was. "It's everything we work for when we come in during the offseason, It's everything you always talk about, the goals that you have, to be in the position to win the division.''
Corbett thought he might have taken away that hope late in the first quarter when he stepped on Bryce Young's bothersome right ankle late, leaving the quarterback temporarily on the ground in pain.
"Shoot, gosh dang-it, I owe you dinner, sorry a whole lot,'' Corbett said with a smile, trying not to give away exactly what he said with one of his young sons standing within earshot.
Corbett was able to smile because Young bounced back with two touchdown passes and led the game-winning field goal drive that temporarily has Carolina in the driver's seat to win the division.
Temporarily, because a loss next week to the Seahawks with a Tampa Bay win against the Dolphins would put the Bucs right back in control heading into the finale.
That's why winning this one was so important, and why Corbett would have hated for his size-17 cleat to have for all practical purposes spoiled any chance of Carolina winning the division. The Panthers didn't look like a threat to make the playoffs after an 0-2 start to the season that turned into 1-3. They were two games back of the Bucs after eight games.
But Tampa has lost three straight and six of the last seven games, allowing the Panthers to overtake them even though they haven't won consecutive games since October.
Young's a big reason Carolina has topped seven wins for the first time since 2017. He's 8-5 this season, missing one game after initially spraining his right ankle during a Week 7 win against the New York Jets.
Six of this year's wins have come on fourth-quarter or overtime game-winning drives, giving him an NFL-best 12 since he was selected first in the 2023 draft. That's two more than Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills with 10 each during that timespan.
Overall, 12 of his career 14 wins have featured a game-winning drive.
But few, if any, felt more special than Sunday's because of all that was on the line.
"That's leadership, that's mental toughness, that's everything you want in a quarterback,'' tight end Ja'Tavian Sanders said.
Sanders was on the receiving end of Young's second touchdown, a 6-yarder with eight seconds left in the third quarter to put Carolina ahead 20-17.
Young appeared headed for a sack when the pocket collapsed, but he spun out of the reach of outside linebacker Yaya Diaby, bought some time running to his left and located Sanders all alone near the back of the end zone.
Young needed 6.67 seconds to make the throw, the longest on any touchdown pass so far in his career, according to ESPN Research.
He hardly looked like a candidate to buy that much time after Corbett stepped on his ankle in the first quarter. He limped through the next couple of plays and limped off the sideline at the end of the series.
"Hey, we're all playing through something this time of the year,'' said Young, shrugging off the pain he dealt with.
Canales didn't shrug off the injury or what Young has meant to Carolina being in position to make the playoffs.
"Bryce was just taking what was there, and the Bucs did a great job of mixing things up,'' he said. "Bryce just did the right thing with the ball, threw it away when he had to and extended the play when he could.''
