CHARLOTTE — Regardless what happens this afternoon, the NFC South division winner will head into the playoffs with a sub-.500 record. Whether it's the Carolina Panthers or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will now depend solely on the outcome of the Falcons and Saints game, which is as convoluted as it sounds.

It seems unusual in this new 17-game format for a playoff team, and a division host at that, to have a losing record that got them to the postseason, but that's where this division stands after a snow globe of a season when everything was shaken up, and nothing landed like predicted.

"It's a grimy, gritty division," said Panthers coach Dave Canales on Saturday night, following the Panthers 16-14 loss to the Bucs.

If Carolina had won the game, they would've had the division locked up then. Now everyone waits to see what happens between the Falcons and Saints. In the meantime, though, Canales defended an 8-9 team being the division leader.

"Between our team, between the Falcons, and the Bucs, you know, we've had our share of wins against top opponents around this league," said Canales, pointing to wins such as the Panthers victories against the Packers and the Rams, among those.

"We all play a similar style of football, and the pride of it is on just physicality and playing really tough, and that's where this division is headed. I'm proud to be a part of it, and whatever the record ends up at the end, I know that for whoever gets into this postseason, they're going to bring a physical brand of football, and I think that that travels well. Running the football and defense really travels well, and we weren't able to get the running part done today, but I'm proud to be a part of this division."

The Bucs began their season 6-2 before going 2-7 over the back half of the season. The Falcons had an early win against the Buffalo Bills, a five-game losing streak, and have now won their last three, including splitting games with the Bucs and knocking off the Rams last week.

Carolina, as mentioned, notched those wins against the Packers and Rams. What will help the Panthers win the three-way tie, though, should it arise, are the Week 16 win against the Bucs and the series sweep against Atlanta. While it's a backdoor way into the playoffs and one that comes as a slight bitter pill, remembering they could have locked this up themselves the past two weeks, Nick Scott has been playing long enough to know one game does not a season make.

"I don't ever feel less worthy of anything in this game. It's hard, and less than one percent of the people in this world can do it," Scott said Saturday night. "So, when you're in the playoffs, that's a tremendous feat regardless of how you slice it up, regardless of what your record is, regardless of what other divisions look like.

"If you're in the playoffs, based on how everything's set up, you did enough to be there, you deserve to be there.

"And we'll be ready to play hard and fight."