Written by Pablo Figueroa at Sporting Charts
The 2015 season started with an unusual amount of teams that took undefeated records deep into November, which made it look as if we were about to witness multiple runs at greatness. However, the Packers stumbled and took a mini-slump, the Broncos lost Peyton Manning and a couple of games, and the Bengals fell victim to their prime-time ghosts to also give back two contests. Even as the ranks of perfection have been greatly thinned, we still have two teams standing with a big zero on the loss column, which is impressive as the calendar is about to turn to December.
The Panthers and Patriots have become only the 16th and 17th teams in the Super Bowl era to start a season 10-0, which makes the accomplishment a special one by itself. Even as both squads entered the season as contenders, no one could have really expected such a prodigious run. Both of them share the trait of having a star quarterback that can make a thin roster much better by association, which has turned Tom Brady and Cam Newton into the front-runners for the league MVP. They also benefit from having some of the best coaching staffs in the NFL, which is suddenly making the possibility of a perfect season a plausible one.
Also, this is only the second time in NFL history in which a team from each conference has started 10-0, and that case eventually became a Super Bowl matchup when the Saints and Colts clashed after the 2009 season. Even as it may seem like a long shot for either New England or Carolina to remain undefeated (they both have odds below 10% to go 16-0), history suggests that at least one of them has a very good chance of making a deep playoff run.
Going back to the first cases of a 10-0 start, the end results have been overly positive.
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