Mike Tolbert spent the Panthers’ bye on Sunday celebrating his 29th birthday with his wife. When the fullback stole a quick peek at his phone late in the afternoon, he saw an ESPN notification that read: Browns 26, Falcons 24.“I looked at it, and I was like, ‘That’s what we needed,’” Tolbert said Monday. “It could be meant to be for us to make a push at it.”It is incredible a three-win team in late November could make a postseason run, but that is what the Panthers continue to believe they can do. After all, someone from the NFC South has to go to the playoffs.Atlanta’s loss made this the easiest scenario for the Panthers: Win their final five games — which includes a matchup with the New Orleans Saints in Week 14 — and hope the Saints lose one of their other five games. If that happens, Carolina wins the division.Of course, help elsewhere does not matter much if the Panthers cannot help themselves. Their last win came in Week 5 against the Chicago Bears. What followed was a tie and six straight losses.Head coach Ron Rivera spent last week’s bye, the latest in franchise history, reading reports written by each of the Panthers’ coaches. He probably did not read anything groundbreaking. From personnel to coaching to execution, there are plenty of reasons the Panthers have lost seven times in two months. But now he is trying to get his team to focus on why they can win, starting Sunday in Minnesota.“A lot of the why-nots have been written already,” Rivera said. “We’re trying to get past the negativity. We’re trying to look at the positive side of it. I know it’s hard to look at the positive side of being 3-7-1, but we’re past being a young team. We’re past being different players. We’ve played together for over half a season, so we should know. We should understand, and we should be better, and these are the reasons why as we go forward.”