It is Monday morning and I bring you hope, Panther fans.

   A few weeks ago it looked as though Carolina's only chance at a postseason berth would be to win the NFC South, but it's pretty clear now that the wild card is the easier route. And, believe it not,  the Panthers are not in as bad of shape as you might think record-wise.

   As it stands right now, the Panthers are only one game out of the No. 2 wild card spot. Yeah, one game.

   OK, stop laughing and bear with me for a second.

   Right now it appears Dallas (11-2), Green Bay (10-2), Tampa Bay (8-4) and Seattle (8-4) will win their respective divisions. The wild card race looks like this: The New York Giants are 8-4 and, barring another late-season collapse under Tom Coughlin, will likely grab the first wild card spot.

   But the second wild card spot is up for grabs.

   Minnesota, Detroit and Arizona are all 6-6.

   Carolina, Chicago, New Orleans, Washington and Philadelphia are 5-7.

   Now here's the kicker, folks. Of those eight teams competing for the second wild card spot, the Panthers have the best conference record at 5-4. That has the potential to be huge because it's the first tiebreaker outside of head-to-head games. The Panthers are in good shape head-to-head. They split with New Orleans and beat Arizona. They won't play anyone else, which means things revert back to conference record.

   Now, before you get your hopes up too high, realize that Carolina's remaining schedule is more difficult than anyone's.

   Carolina's final four games are against teams with a combined 35-13 record -- Jacksonville (8-4), Seattle (8-4), Dallas (11-1) and Tampa Bay (8-4). So far this season the Panthers have not defeated a team with a winning record. In fact, they haven't even come close.

   Nonetheless, if the Panthers can somehow find a way to beat the Jaguars this Sunday, then they have a chance to catch Detroit and Arizona. The Lions play Dallas and the Cardinals play Seattle, so both could lose. The Vikings should skate by San Francisco. Even if Carolina loses this week, it's not necessarily a deadly blow since it's an AFC opponent. But they would then need to win two of their final three (Seattle and Tampa Bay would be the easier opponents) to have any shot at sneaking in at 8-8.

   Hey, it's not much, but if your a Panthers fan looking for hope, at least there is some. Now your team needs to go out and play like it did on Sunday and prove it can win a game against a good NFL team.