NFL Power Rankings: Breaking Down Sunday's Action Ahead of Week 7

As usual, Sunday's action across the NFL slate didn't disappoint. Week 6 brought a handful of down-to-the-wire showdowns between some of the league's best, further proving the hierarchy entering the middle stretch of 2015.

One of the weekend's marquee moments came early as the Cleveland Browns took their best shot at taking down the unbeaten Denver Broncos. Cleveland had chances to win behind another big day from quarterback Josh McCown, but the Broncos came through in overtime to remain unbeaten.

Also a part of the early slate was a surprising 25-13 victory for the Pittsburgh Steelers at home over Arizona. Backup QB Landry Jones threw two touchdowns in relief of Mike Vick and handed the Cardinals their second loss.

Another NFC West heavyweight went down as well, with the Seattle Seahawks suffering yet another fourth-quarter collapse that dropped their record to 2-4. This time, Cam Newton led the Carolina Panthers on a game-winning touchdown drive in the closing moments.

From the Cincinnati Bengals improving to 6-0 to the Miami Dolphins starting their new head coach off with a blowout win, Week 6 results loomed large in deciding where teams stand at this point. Let's look at the latest power rankings.

NFL Power Rankings

Rank	Team
1	New England Patriots
2	Green Bay Packers
3	Cincinnati Bengals
4	Denver Broncos
5	Carolina Panthers
6	Arizona Cardinals
7	New York Giants
8	Atlanta Falcons
9	New York Jets
10	Indianapolis Colts
11	St. Louis Rams
12	Philadelphia Eagles
13	Pittsburgh Steelers
14	Minnesota Vikings
15	San Diego Chargers
16	Seattle Seahawks
17	Buffalo Bills
18	Cleveland Browns
19	Oakland Raiders
20	Dallas Cowboys
21	New Orleans Saints
22	San Francisco 49ers
23	Chicago Bears
24	Washington Redskins
25	Kansas City Chiefs
26	Miami Dolphins
27	Houston Texans
28	Baltimore Ravens
29	Jacksonville Jaguars
30	Tennessee Titans
31	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
32	Detroit Lions

Team of Week 6: Carolina Panthers

Stephen Brashear/Associated Press

Perhaps there was a reason to discount the hot start to the season by the Carolina Panthers. After all, their opening four wins came against Jacksonville, Houston, New Orleans and Tampa Bay.

Week 6 was always going to be the real measuring stick of where they stand in the NFC. And, well, they measured up against the best.

The Panthers took down the once-mighty Seattle Seahawks in their building, and did so in the most demoralizing fashion possible for those at CenturyLink Field. Newton took them on a drive that looked to be for a game-tying field goal before he tossed the game-winner to Greg Olsen with just 30 seconds left.

The winner even came against Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman, which caused the following quip from NBC's Rodney Harrison (via Pro Football Talk):

However, the win was less about the 2-4 Seahawks and more about just how far these Panthers have come. They're now off to a 5-0 start that is all the more validated by the fact that they took down the two-time defending NFC champs in their own backyard.

They're also doing things the franchise has never accomplished, as Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer noted:

All of those wins were nice and all, but none quite compared to the magnitude of this one, as Max Henson of Panthers.com noted:

On top of the defense standing up big and stymying the Seattle offense enough to give the Panthers a chance, Newton's play should be especially lauded. He's playing himself into MVP conversation with seven passing touchdowns and two more on the ground.

When your offense has put up 20 or more in every game and is winning games, it's hard not to be among the MVP talk.

The most important number of all, of course, is the 5-0 record. It's one that will be tested in the coming weeks as Carolina faces Philadelphia, Indianapolis and Green Bay.

But all of those games will come at home. And if there's any indication from the way the Panthers just performed on the road, they could run right through all those teams and send an even bigger message to the rest of the NFC.