Which Undefeated NFL Team Will Remain Unbeaten the Longest in 2015?

There have never been this many teams undefeated in the National Football League this late in the season.

Ever. OK, in the Super Bowl era, anyway. Was there football before that?

(Ducks eggs, tomatoes and bricks thrown by Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions fans.)

Entering Week 6, six teams have yet to suffer a loss. The New England Patriots are 4-0. So are the Carolina Panthers. The Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers are all a perfect 5-0.

Could this be the year another team joins the 2007 Patriots in the 16-0 club? Or better yet pulls a '72 Miami Dolphins and follows an unbeaten regular season with a Super Bowl win?

Yeah—probably not.

But which of these unbeaten teams will last the longest? Who will make it the furthest into the 2015 campaign without suffering a loss?

Let's take a look at how talent, opponents and schedule will combine to dethrone each team's chances at perfection.

Carolina Panthers

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Projected first loss: Week 6 (at Seattle Seahawks)

Last season, the Carolina Panthers became the first team in NFC South history to repeat as division champions.

They did so with seven wins, eight losses, and a sister kiss against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Well, as the Panthers come out of their Week 5 bye the team is already more than halfway to that total without suffering a loss.

This week brings with it easily the Panthers' stiffest test of 2015, a trip West to face a 2-3 Seattle Seahawks team in scramble mode after blowing a 17-point fourth-quarter lead in Cincinnati.

The Panthers have managed to stay undefeated despite a number of injuries to key contributors. Wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin was lost for the season to a torn ACL before games even started to count. Linebacker Luke Kuechly hasn't played since a Week 1 concussion. Defensive end Charles Johnson was placed on short-term injured reserve with a hamstring injury.

It's that last injury that may cost the Panthers most against Seattle. Yes, the Panthers dealt for former Pro Bowl defensive end Jared Allen, but at 33, he's a shadow of the force he once was. Simply put, the Panthers just don't have the pass-rushers to take advantage of a porous Seahawks offensive line.

Add in that the Seahawks are a much different football team when playing in CenturyLink Field, and many pundits, including Pete Prisco of CBS Sports, expect the Panthers to absorb loss No. 1 Sunday:

"

The Seahawks just don't look like the team we've come to expect. The defense gave up a 17-point lead late last week in a loss to the Bengals. They will come out in this one breathing fire. They are a different team at home. Carolina is coming off the bye, but they don't have enough weapons to move the ball consistently. Seattle takes it.

"

These teams have quite the recent history, having met three teams in the past two seasons, including in this same building in last year's divisional round.

The Seahawks won all three meetings. They'll win this one too.

Projected 2015 record: 10-6

Denver Broncos

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Projected first loss: Week 8 (vs. Green Bay Packers)

It isn't that often that a team starts a season 5-0 among calls for their MVP quarterback to be benched.

Just digest that sentence for a second.

Yet there have been just such calls in Denver, where Peyton Manning has looked like anything but Peyton Manning so far in 2015.

Still, despite those clamors for Brock Osweiler, Troy Renck of the Denver Post isn't playing Chicken Little—largely because there's no guarantee Osweiler will be any better:

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That's the one part that I miss when fans argue for Osweiler. To make a quarterback change, teams like to have some assurances. Osweiler fits this offense. But he brings the great unknown right now. What evidence has he provided that he could lead a game-winning drive? The counter, I know, is that the Broncos might need it because he would have played better earlier in those games. Again, there's no proof, and the Broncos are 5-0, not 1-4.

The issue for Manning is simple going forward: Complete some deep passes to get the defenders off the line of scrimmage, which will open the running game, and eliminate mistakes. He doesn't need to be great for this team to win. Good is all that is necessary.

"

But that's where the problem comes in. Yes, the Broncos defense has been playing so well that Manning hasn't even needed to be good for the team to keep winning.

But the Broncos have also played only two playoff teams from a season ago. Those teams (the Baltimore Ravens and Detroit Lions) are a combined 1-9 this year. The combined record of Denver's opponents is a dismal 6-18.

The weather is going to get cold. The schedule is going to heat up. And the Broncos are going to need Peyton Manning to play like, well, Peyton Manning.

To date this season, we've seen nothing to indicate he can really do that anymore.

And in Week 8 against a Green Bay team that may well be the best overall squad in the NFL, that's going to spell trouble.

Projected 2015 record: 11-5

Green Bay Packers

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First projected loss: Week 9 (at Carolina Panthers)

There may not be a more complete team in the National Football League than the Green Bay Packers. They have arguably the game's best quarterback in Aaron Rodgers and talent galore at the offensive skill positions.

And as Mike Sando of ESPN.com recently pointed out, a Green Bay defense that cost the team a trip to the Super Bowl a year ago has been playing lights-out football to this point in the 2015 campaign:

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A coach who charted several of the top pass-rushing teams in recent weeks said Denver was the only team winning its one-on-one matchups more frequently than the Packers. That is hugely important and could prove pivotal if Green Bay faces New England in the Super Bowl. It's also an area where the Packers have the potential to improve if Clay Matthews rushes on early downs more frequently.

The Packers have done just about everything right organizationally in the past five-plus years, but lapses on defense and special teams have limited their championship prospects -- to the point that coach Mike McCarthy was willing to give up play-calling duties so he could focus on the bigger picture.

"

So why, then, would I pick the Packers to fall in Week 9 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte?

Well, it's mainly the result of nothing more than a particularly nasty quirk in the Packers' 2015 schedule. The week prior to heading to Carolina, the Packers head West for a tilt with Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.

That's road games in successive weeks against a pair of playoff teams from a year ago who are presently a combined 9-0.

It's not a huge stretch of the imagination to imagine the Packers dropping one of those two contests.

And lest you think there's no way a Packers juggernaut would let themselves be beaten by a inferior team, consider this.

In December of 2011, Rodgers and the Packers took an undefeated record to Arrowhead Stadium to face a 5-8 Kansas City Chiefs team that had fired their head coach.

Green Bay lost 19-14.

Projected 2015 record: 14-2

New England Patriots

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First projected loss: Week 10 (at New York Giants)

At this point, I can practically hear the outrage. The umbrage. The sharpening of pitchforks and lighting of torches.

After all, you won't find a whole lot of argument that the top two teams in the National Football League as things stand today are the aforementioned Green Bay Packers and the defending world champion New England Patriots.

"So why aren't they the last two teams listed here?," the crowd will no doubt ask as they prepare the tar and feathers.

Please use the hypoallergenic ones, folks. I don't want a rash.

Ike Taylor of NFL.com wrote recently that he feels the Pats will remain unbeaten the longest this year:

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With plenty of attrition this offseason, the Patriots' secondary entered this season with plenty of skeptics. But honestly, this unit has always relied on turnovers. Regardless of where the secondary is ranked, they always create takeaways, which is pretty decent.

Tom Brady is going to be Tom Brady, and we've seen what he can do week after week. Regardless of what happened in the offseason, he's one of the greatest. I have New England being consistently better than any other team this year. They'll be undefeated the longest.

"

Colleague Steve Mariucci agreed, opining that the Patriots could be 10-0 headed into the latest edition of the long-running rivalry between Brady and Peyton Manning:

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New England will outlast everyone else. To me, the Patriots' toughest test is Week 12 at Denver. That game seems like it provides the best chance of them losing, so I think they're going to go into that week with a 10-0 record. Between now and Week 12, the Pats have four games at home and only two on the road. They're playing very well right now and the schedule can only help them.

"

So why am I saying that the Patriots will fall two weeks earlier at MetLife Stadium?

Seven words: Eli Manning and the New York Giants.

In case you haven't noticed, Manning and Big Blue have a tendency to rain on Brady's parade. It was the Giants who ruined the Patriots' perfect season in 2007. A 9-7 Giants team again beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl four years later.

And it will be the Giants who put the only blemish on the Patriots' regular season in 2015.

Is that tar ready yet?

Projected 2015 record: 15-1

Atlanta Falcons

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First projected loss: Week 11 (vs. Indianapolis Colts)

Make no mistake. While they are indeed 5-0, the Atlanta Falcons are not the best undefeated team in the NFL.

In fact, in the opinion of Luke Kerr-Dineen of USA Today, the Falcons may well be the worst undefeated team in the NFL:

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Only one of the five teams the Falcons have beaten this season have a winning record. Looking ahead, just two of the remaining eight teams left on their schedule — the Carolina Panthers and the Indianapolis Colts — have won more games than they’ve lost.

And it’s not as though the Falcons have won any of those games convincingly.

Nowhere are the margins between winning and losing thinner than in the NFL, and it’s tough to be too harsh on a team that’s racking up wins. But suggesting that this Falcons team is anything more than average is a stretch. Their defense — the unyielding problem for the better part of the last six seasons — is still comprised of many of the same players as last season. It’s why the Falcons defense ranks 21st in the league in total defense despite their easy stretch of games.

The Falcons will continue reaping the benefits of an absurdly easy schedule, but the bottom will fall out sooner rather than later. This was and remains a transitional year for the franchise, everything else is just a red herring.

"

Yowza.

The thing is it's hard to argue the point. Yes, the Falcons have shown a remarkable amount of resiliency under first-year head coach Dan Quinn. They are rallying to win games they would have lost over the past two seasons.

However, this is also a team with an average defense that is getting fat off the NFL's easiest schedule by virtue of 2015 winning percentage.

That schedule may well earn the Falcons a first-round bye in the playoffs. But there are going to be times (both in the regular season and especially in the playoffs) when the Falcons are going to have to play teams who are more contender than cupcake.

Have the Falcons improved in 2015? Absolutely.

Have they improved as much as their record indicates? No.

Projected 2015 record: 13-3

Cincinnati Bengals

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Projected first loss: Week 11 (at Arizona Cardinals)

Stop rolling your eyes.

Yes, according to the projections in this article the Cincinnati Bengals will be the last undefeated team in the NFL in 2015, even if their first loss happens a just a few hours after Atlanta's.

Yes, this is the same Cincinnati Bengals who for four straight seasons have stayed in the postseason just long enough to get their heads handed to them.

And yes, this is a Bengals team that I very nearly forecast a loss for in Week 8, when they travel to Pittsburgh to face a Steelers team desperately trying not to fall too far off the pace in the AFC North.

However, as Robert Klemko of The MMQB reported, there's something different about this year's Bengals team:

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The Bengals are 5-0 for the first time in head coach Marvin Lewis’s 13-year tenure. What does that mean in the bigger picture? To cynical, weary fans, not much. This team has had no trouble winning important regular season games and making the playoffs in recent years. Last season, Cincy topped division-rival Baltimore at home and on the road, and then beat Peyton Manning’s Broncos in Week 16 by a couple scores, only to lose the wild-card game in Indianapolis, 26-10. What looks like a breakout season and a possible MVP bid for Dalton won’t be validated until he improves his atrocious and oft-cited playoff record (0-4).

But the optimist will look at the little things: the way the Bengals ruthlessly and consistently attack weaknesses and create mismatches on offense; their resiliency in the face of a scoring onslaught; and the rare ability to acquire depth and plug in contributors when injuries occur.

"

As incomprehensible as it may seem, when it comes to the totality of their roster, the Bengals might just be the most talented team on this list.

Tons of skill position talent, including a superstar wideout (A.J. Green), a one-two punch in the backfield (Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard) and a rising young star at tight end (Tyler Eifert).

One of the NFL's best defensive fronts and a veteran secondary.

And a quarterback in Dalton who is playing at an MVP-caliber clip at the moment.

Will that translate to the team's first postseason win in over two decades? That's unknown. But from all indications we're going to find out come January, because the Bengals appear to be on a collision course with the AFC North title.

Projected 2015 record: 12-4