Panthers’ Postseason Losing Streak Closing in on a Decade

Bill VothNews, Wild Card3 Comments

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Now that the Panthers have earned consecutive playoff berths for the first time in their history, there’s a new pressing matter: Actually winning in the postseason.

Carolina’s overall playoff record is 6-5, but its last win came nearly nine years ago. Former receiver Steve Smith caught 12 passes for 218 yards and two scores in the Divisional Round against the Bears on Jan. 15, 2006.

Since then, the Panthers have lost three straight playoff games, all to NFC West opponents. The latest came in January when the franchise’s first postseason trip in five years ended quickly with a loss to the 49ers.

Coach Ron Rivera has repeatedly lamented his behavior early in that game. As he became more heated with the officials, defensive backs Captain Munnerlyn and Mike Mitchell picked up two unnecessary roughness penalties that helped set up two 49ers’ field goals.

“I lost focus for almost a quarter. I was upset. I didn’t think the game was being called fairly, and that’s my fault,” Rivera admitted Monday. “At that point, I’ve got to move on to the next detail, I can’t get caught up in that because the players feed off of it. I had a bunch of negative energy and the players started buying into it.”

“We’ve been through it. We understand it. We’re going to guard against it, and we’re going to work towards taking care of the little details that we can control, and that’s how we play.”

PANTHERS IN POSTSEASON

YEAR OPP RESULT
2013 Division vs. SF L, 23-10
2008 Division vs. ARI L, 33-13
2005 NFC Champ at SEA L, 34-14
2005 Division at CHI W, 29-21
2005 Wild Card at NYG W, 23-0
2003 Super Bowl vs. NE L, 32-29
2003 NFC Champ at PHI W, 14-3
2003 Division at STL W, 29-23
2003 Wild Card vs. DAL W, 29-10
1996 NFC Champ at GB L, 30-13
1996 Division vs. DAL W, 26-17

The Panthers will face their fourth straight playoff opponent from the NFC West on Saturday when Arizona returns to Charlotte for a rematch of the 2008 Divisional Round. Before they made a run all the way to the Super Bowl that year, the Cardinals finished the regular season with four losses in their last six games.

Arizona again heads into the playoffs having lost four of six while Carolina is on a four-game win streak. It appears like a perfect situation to end a postseason slump, even if the Panthers are trying to avoid adding some of that extra pressure.

“I think the biggest thing is to just keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’re not going to sit there in our team meeting tomorrow and say, ‘We’ve got to take the next step.’ That’s like saying, ‘Don’t fumble,’” offensive coordinator Mike Shula said.

For his part, Rivera is willing to admit how vital this second chance is, for both him and the entire organization.

“Until we can [win in the playoffs], I think there’s always going to be the doubters that say, ‘Well, you can only get them that far as a coach.’ Or, ‘You can only get them that far as a quarterback.’ Or, ‘You can only get them that far as a middle linebacker.’ And I want to dispel that, not just for me, but for the team,” Rivera said.

“I don’t want to be the guy that can only get them that far. I’d love to see us obviously go all the way, but we’ve got to take it one game at a time. And the next step, obviously, would be to win a playoff game.”



  • DuaneFannon

    BlackBlueReview With just 4 WR’s KB, Cotchery, Brown & Bersin then we R betting the run game can win against AZ. We will see.

  • BlackBlueReview

    DuaneFannon olsen not playing?

  • Jholt915

    BlackBlueReview To be fair, we haven’t been that much.