Panthers and Saints Play for First Place in the South

LIVE — Panthers 7, Saints 0 at halftime in New Orleans. The only score of a defensive half is Chuba Hubbard's 2-yard touchdown run — he has 12 carries for 63 yards. Tyler Shough (10 of 14, 96 yards, one interception) has moved New Orleans without finishing a drive; Bryce Young is 10 of 18 for 106 yards.

The NFC South has produced the season's strangest standings line, and Sunday it produces a first-place game between two 3-5 teams. The Carolina Panthers visit the New Orleans Saints at the Caesars Superdome. Kickoff is 1 p.m. ET. The winner is 4-5 and alone in first place in the division. The loser is 3-6 and out of excuses.

Carolina's hope is that last week was the turn. Bryce Young threw for 276 yards and three touchdowns against Denver after a couple of down weeks, and the version of Young who plays on time and on rhythm is good enough to win this division. The Panthers also get a Saints run defense that gives up 133.9 yards a game, 29th in the league — which means Chuba Hubbard should eat.

New Orleans has momentum of its own, and it's fresher. The Saints beat Cleveland 23-22 in overtime last week, the kind of win that convinces a locker room the season isn't over. At home, in a dome that still gets loud for division games, New Orleans gets to test whether Carolina's revival survives contact.

Nobody's pretending the winner is a contender. But the division sends somebody to January, and by Sunday night one of these teams will hold the South's only winning position. In a season this strange, that's worth a Sunday afternoon.

There's no help coming from the standings this week, either: Tampa Bay, the division's other plausible team, is on its bye. Whoever wins in the Superdome on Sunday owns first place outright for at least seven days, which in this division might as well be a month.

This story updates live once the game kicks off and closes as the game's full summary at the final whistle.