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Ron Rivera is clinging to the slim hope the Panthers can rebound from a five-game losing streak Limited Rickey Jackson Jersey , beat the Saints twice in three weeks and earn a wild card spot in the NFC playoffs.The coach understands the chances of all of that happening are remote at best."There's a chance ?five percent," Rivera said Tuesday. "That's what they are giving us, so that's what we will take. ... All you need is a chance."Actually, Carolina's playoff hopes are a little better than that after the Vikings lost to the Seahawks on Monday night. According to the website FiveThirtyEight, which analyzes NFL teams' chances of reaching the postseason, the Panthers have a nine percent chance to reach the playoffs.Rivera relayed the team's chances to his players on Tuesday as a sort of dangling carrot."That would be a great story wouldn't it?" Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers said. "If we won this game and then won two more and made it in?"When asked if he really thinks that can happen, Peppers smiled and said, "of course it can happen. We expect it to happen, actually."One look at the standings and the task doesn't seem all that daunting considering the Panthers (6-7) are just a half-game behind the Vikings (6-6-1) in the race for the second wild card spot, tied with the Eagles and Redskins. The Panthers hold a tiebreaker advantage over the Eagles, but not the Redskins.That doesn't factor in the Panthers haven't won a game since Oct. 28, and will close the season with three games against division foes 鈥?including two against the division champion Saints, the first of which is Monday night at home.Rivera said his plan is to stick with Cam Newton at quarterback despite a lingering right shoulder problem that has limited the former league MVP's ability to throw downfield on a consistent basis and might have contributed to some throws sailing high. On three different occasions this season the Panthers have turned to backup Taylor Heinicke on Hail Mary attempts because of Newton's lack of arm strength.Rivera said this season bears a resemblance to 2014 when the Panthers were 3-8-1 and managed to win their final four games to capture the NFC South and then beat the Cardinals in the first round of the playoffs.But Carolina has shown no sign of another potential turnaround up until this point. Rather, the Panthers seem to collapse time and time again when they have a chance to break through and regain control of their own playoff destiny.Carolina was 6-2 and battling for first place in the NFC South when it to went Pittsburgh in early November and got dismantled 52-21 in a nationally televised Thursday night game. The Panthers went on to lose their next four games against the Seahawks and three of the league's lower-end teams 鈥?the Lions, Buccaneers and Browns 鈥?leading to speculation about Rivera's future.All four of those losses were all by seven points or less."We just keep finding ways to lose," Newton said Sunday.Rivera felt there was a lot of good" that happened in the Browns' loss Willie Roaf Jersey Salute to Service , but that the Panthers missed chances in the red zone on offense and had four costly bad plays on defense. He sees those problems as fixable.The biggest game remaining for the Panthers will be the next one against the Saints, a team they lost to three times last season and bumped them out of playoff contention.If the Panthers can somehow get past Sean Payton's crew, they will host the fading Falcons on Dec. 23 and play the Saints in a rematch on Jan. 30 鈥?a game in which New Orleans might rest some its starters if it has already solidified one of the top two seeds in the NFC playoffs."It's a big emphasis around here that we still have a chance to make the playoffs," said wide receiver D.J. Moore.The Saints will benefit from preseason struggles The New Orleans Saints have been a mixed bag through their first 2 preseason games, and if we’re looking at it objectively there has been more bad than good. Especially when looking at it from the viewpoint of a fan. However, that is exactly why the Saints are going to benefit tremendously from this year’s preseason. In 2017 the Saints were plucky underdog that became the hottest team in the league and was a ridiculous fluke play away from advancing to the NFC Championship game. But, the reality is that in professional sports no one stays where they were at the year before, you either get better, or you get worse. The Saints have spent the off-season further improving their depth, trying to shore up their weaknesses, and adjusting their mentality to go from the hunters to the hunted. There are a lot of things to be discouraged about so far, the backup QBs being the top of the list of course, but also a lot that we can take solace in as fans. Remember that the entire purpose of the preseason is evaluation and preparation. Wins and losses are meaningless. The process that leads to those wins and losses and the evaluation that is able to occur during that journey is the point. You don’t gameplan in the preseason, you play, you observe, and you analyze. When you take a look under the hood there are some things that are VERY promising towards the Saints being just fine when the games actually matter Drew Brees Jersey , here are a few. Games begin and end with the linesFootball is the ultimate team game and is a complex ever changing game of cat and mouse between the offense and the defense. Formations, calls, checks, counter checks, hundreds of possibilities calculated in seconds which determine victory or defeat. And yet, at the end of the day its not incorrect to make the statement that the outcomes are largely determined by the success (or failure) of the giant men up front. The offensive and defensive lines generally get the least publicity, the fewest commercials, and the most blame...and they also carry the most weight (pun intended). The Saints offensive line has been outright dominant, at least the starters have, and with their best player healthy and looking like his old self they could potentially have the best offensive line in the league. When the games matter the Saints will be heavily dependent on their run game and the play action passing attack that it opens up. That begins and ends with the performance of the guys up front. It doesn’t end there though, the Saints already have the best 4-3 DE in the NFL in Cam Jordan, and with Sheldon Rankins, David Onyemata and the emerging 2nd year player Trey Hendrickson all showing significant ability to get pressure the Saints are likely going to be even better up front this year than last. What really stands out though is the depth. There are no less than 4 players fighting for the opportunity to be a backup/rotational player along the defensive line and all of them have flashed in the Saints first 2 games. Depth matters everywhere, but especially along the defensive line where rotating fresh bodies can be a significant advantage. We haven’t even gotten a chance to see our 1st round pick Marcus Davenport yet, but while he is a raw player, his sheer physical ability makes it likely that he will be a ‘rising star’ for the 2nd half of the season provided he’s able to start working his way into the games going forwards. Talent mattersOutside of the Saints potential for dominant fronts on both sides of the ball Mark Ingram Jersey , they also have talent all the way across the board in every position group. The additions of Demario Davis and a returning Alex Anzalone add a much needed element of speed to the linebacking corp. The wide receivers group replaced Willie Snead and Brandon Coleman with Cameron Meredith and ‘Super Rookie’ Tre’Quan Smith which regardless of what you may think of either of them, its pretty much a guarantee you will get more production from this year’s unit than last. Oh, and Michael Thomas is still a monster who plays with a chip on his shoulder and his team on his back...best of luck DBs. You will need it. The Secondary has a more seasoned and by his own declaration a ‘smarter’ Marshon Lattimore, Marcus Williams coming off of a phenomenal rookie campaign is on a mission to erase the memory of how last season ended, and Ken Crawley is likely to continue his upward trajectory (and even if he’s not better, if he’s just the same we’re in a great spot). The only position where the team hasn’t added more talent to last year’s division winning roster are Tight End and Quaterback, and you can argue that 4,000 year old (yet ageless) veteran Benjamin Watson still improves the Tight End group. That would mean that the only position that didn’t get better is the position that didn’t need to. Drew Brees is still a BAD BAD man. So chins up Saints fans. The preseason is there to work out the kinks, test your execution, identify your weaknesses, and allow you to work on them in a ‘live’ theater that doesn’t count or matter. The Saints have yet to suffer a major injury. So long as that is the case the preseason is a win, and the fact they are taking their lumps now is good for us, it means they are less likely to need to punt two games to figure things out (like NOT letting Devante Harris on the field) like they did last year. Custom Green Bay Packers Jerseys