Overview
- Los Angeles thumped Tampa Bay 34-7 to improve to 9-2 and overtake the Eagles for the conference lead, with Chicago holding the No. 3 seed at 8-3.
- San Francisco beat Carolina 20-9 on Monday night to move to 8-4 and retain a wild-card spot, dropping the Panthers to 6-6.
- Tampa Bay maintains seeding priority in the NFC South on a division-record tiebreaker, leaving Carolina a half-game back with two head-to-heads still to come.
- Green Bay’s Week 12 win kept the Packers in the No. 6 wild-card position at 7-3-1, with the NFC West and North powering a crowded wild-card field.
- NFL.com’s model pegged Carolina near 20% to make the playoffs before Monday; the loss pushed that figure down near 15%, heightening the stakes of upcoming games versus the Rams and Buccaneers.