Mike Celizic

Move over Giants. Sit up and pay attention, all playoff-bound NFC teams. There’s a new team that you had better pray you don’t have to face in the playoffs.

They’re the Carolina Panthers, and after watching what they did to Tampa in a battle of NFC South division leaders, it’s no longer possible to ignore the season they’ve put together. They squashed a very good Tampa team, beat them up, ground them into the turf, steamrolled them, battered them, pounded them, rubbed them out.

It wasn’t as if the Bucs didn’t come to play. Far from it. Tampa came out hard and kept fighting back in a spectacular third quarter. But the Panthers got better, riding a devastating ground game — a ground game built for January and nasty weather and playoff football — to sole possession of first place in the NFC South and their 10th win of the season.

Suddenly, the Giants and their 11 wins don’t look nearly as sure a bet for the top seed in the NFC as we thought they were before the first snap of Week 14.

First, the Giants fell apart on Sunday under the dual pressures of the desperate Eagles and the legal troubles brought on by Plaxico Burress and his unlicensed handgun. But even then, there was no sense that there was cause for serious concern. And then the Panthers unsheathed their claws against the Buccaneers.

You have to love a game that can throw you curveballs like the Panthers just threw on Monday night. And you have to love it twice when you look two weeks ahead on the schedule and realize that the Panthers are due in Giants Stadium in Week 16 for what could be a preview of the NFC Championship game.

That would be make two years in a row for such a game. Last year, the Giants played the Patriots in the season’s last game and what would be a Super Bowl preview. This year, the Giants have to go through Dallas, then the Panthers before finishing against the Vikings.

Carolina has it a bit easier. They get to tune up at home against Denver before the Giants and a season finale in New Orleans. None of these games can be called easy, but it’s easy to envision Carolina coming to the Meadowlands with 11 wins and playing the Giants for the top seed in the playoffs.

The Giants, meanwhile, have their work cut out for them. They were clearly distracted by the Burress fiasco, and now they have to regroup and take on a desperate Cowboys team in Dallas with the specter of Carolina and its awesome ground attack looming in front of them. If the Giants should falter against Dallas and the Panthers dispatch the Broncos, New York could be the desperate team in two weeks and the Panthers could be the team playing for home field through the playoffs.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more. more photos

Did I mention their rushing attack yet? Did I say anything about the incredible speed and power of DeAngelo Williams, who ran for 186 yards on 19 carries? How about Jonathan Stewart, who tacked on more than 100 more yards against one of the better run defenses in the league? The Giants feel awfully good about their one-two punch of Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward, as well they should. But the Panthers’ tandem looked just as good against the Bucs. Plus, neither the Giants nor anyone else has a receiver quite as frightening as Carolina’s Steve Smith.

Before Monday night, the Panthers weren’t putting a very large blip up on the national radar screen. It wasn’t their fault. It’s just the way things are. The Northeast teams in both conferences got a big chunk of the preseason publicity and Dallas and Pittsburgh collected most of what was left over.

We started to catch on a couple of weeks ago that the NFC South might be the equal of the NFC East — or even its better. After Monday night, it’s impossible to ignore the Panthers — or the Bucs, for that matter.

Two weeks ago, we thought the top of the NFC was pretty much settled. It was New York all the way, clearly the best team in the NFC — and the NFL. And now it’s all unraveling and the season is coming down to Week 16 in the New Jersey swamps.

Unless you’re a Giants fan, you’ve got to love it.

NFL game stories Quick look at Week 9 games STEELERS 28, BRONCOS 10: Roethlisberger throws 3 TDs COWBOYS 20, EAGLES 16: Austin’s TD puts Dallas atop NFC East COLTS 20, TEXANS 17: Indy's 17th-straight regular season win  |    Video SAINTS 30, PANTHERS 20: N.O. now 8-0 for first time in its history CHARGERS 21, GIANTS 20: N.Y. loses 4th straight  |    Video BUCS 38, PACKERS 28: Rookie QB leads Tampa to first win  |    Video PATRIOTS 27, DOLPHINS 17: Brady-Moss connection thrives  |    Video CARDINALS 41, BEARS 21: Warner tosses 5 TDs  |    Video BENGALS 17, RAVENS 7: Cincy cements AFC North status  |    Video FALCONS 31, REDSKINS 17: Atlanta gets into scuffle, still wins TITANS 34, 49ERS 27: Young improves to 2-0 as a starter this year SEAHAWKS 32, LIONS 20: Seattle overcomes 17-0 hole JAGUARS 24, CHIEFS 21: Chargers cast-off Chambers can't save K.C. Byes: Bills, Browns, Raiders, Rams, Vikings, Jets

Slideshow NFL's top shots A look at the best photos from Week 16, including Kurt Warner's nightmare. NBC Sports

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