New England Patriots: Worst 16-0 Team Ever

Of course, they are technically the best 16-0 team as well because there has only ever been one 16-0 team in the history of the NFL -- this year's Patriots.

The last team to go undefeated in the NFL was the formerly champagne-swilling 1972 Miami Dolphins, but back then, the regular-season consisted of just 14 games, two less than today.

There's no doubting the fact that the Patriots are an excellent team. You don't go undefeated in the NFL by just being lucky, although luck certainly helps. But you can't consider where the Patriots stand in history without factoring in their schedule.

Within their division, the Patriots played the 1-15 2007 version of the Miami Dolphins twice. They played the 4-12 New York Jets twice. They played the injury decimated 7-9 Buffalo Bills twice. Right there, even an average team would stand a pretty darn good chance of going 5-1.

Outside the division, the Pats played the 7-9 Cincinnati Bengals and the 5-11 Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens were on the verge of upsetting the Patriots until the they did what every young child does when he/she realizes the training wheels are off: fall over in a heap on the pavement at the very last second. Back to that hypothetical average team, 7-1 or 6-2 seems pretty reasonable.

To be fair, the Pats also played the Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys, two teams that would be considered worthy of a Super Bowl victory if not for the existence of the Patriots. Hypothetically Average Team would be about 7-3 or so after those games, right?

Of course, all of this is speculation. Brian Burke's much more objective work suggests that there were thirteen teams with tougher schedules in the NFL than the Patriots. [Our very own Philadelphia Eagles had the second toughest schedule, so we've got that going for us anyway.]

Again, the New England Patriots are an excellent team and they deserve to be favorites to win the Super Bowl, but their pedestrian schedule definitely made it much easier to go undefeated.