NFL Thursday Night Football takes place tonight with a big game between the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers. The game has a scheduled start time of 8.25 p.m. ET and takes place from the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game can be watched on TV on the NBC network or online through live stream via the link below.
The Panthers suffered a demoralizing loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, which compounds the troubles they've been having this season.
Carolina put in all the hard work through the first half to take a 17-3 lead at the mid-way point. Keeping things tight in the third meant that the Panthers went into the final quarter with a 14 point cushion. Surely they would be able to see things out!
But obviously it was not meant to be, and they allowed 17 unanswered points to the Chiefs in the fourth quarter allowing Kansas City to steal the victory and inflict a sixth defeat of the season onto the Panthers.
The loss drops Carolina down to 3-6 and surely out of the postseason reckonings. They continue to languish in the basement of the NFC South division, but yet looking at the standings, the Panthers will surely feel they still have a chance.
Unlikely yes, but with three of the four teams on losing records in the division, and with the division-leading Atlanta Falcons only on 6-4, if the Panthers can win tonight, and go on a winning run through the final month and a half of the regular season, they may still pull off an upset.
Today they face the New Orleans Saints, who sit just one spot above the Panthers in the division.
The Saints are on 4-5 coming into today's game and if Carolina can get the victory here today then they would move level with them on 4-6.
Although the Panthers have not shown it so far this season, the underlying thought about them week after week is that they are much better than what we've seen so far. So if they can shake off the funk that has consumed them so far this season, they are a team that is capable of going on a big winning run and getting back in Playoff contention.
However, they are running out of weeks, and they surely must start their revival today against their fierce division rivals.
The Saints themselves will be kicking themselves after suffering a poor defeat last Sunday. Like the Panthers, they too managed to turn a winning situation into a loss as they went down 23-25 to the Denver Broncos.
Going into the final quarter the Saints were leading 17-10, and had an excellent chance at claiming a big win to move into a positive record territory. But when things came down to the crunch the Saints buckled under pressure from the Broncos, allowing 15 points in the final quarter to lose the game by two.
That result dropped them back to a losing record on 4-5, and they missed a golden opportunity to apply such much needed pressure onto the division topping Atlanta Falcons.
Now today they face a stern test against a fellow struggling team, and they dare not lose again if they are to keep up their own chase for the postseason spots.
Today's big NFL Thursday Night Football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers has a scheduled start time of 8.30 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the NBC network or online through live stream by clicking here.
