NFL Power Rankings: Carolina Panthers finally climb to the top

The Carolina Panthers still have a perception problem.

It's hard to imagine that in a little more than a month, we could have three teams finish an NFL regular season undefeated and untied in the Super Bowl era: 1972 Miami Dolphins, 2007 New England Patriots and ... 2015 Carolina Panthers? It's possible.

With just five games left, the Panthers' chase for perfection is close enough that we can talk about it seriously. And the remaining schedule isn't tough. They play at New Orleans, vs. Atlanta, at the Giants, at Atlanta and home against Tampa Bay to finish the season. The toughest team Carolina has left is the Falcons, and they haven't played well in almost two months.

Does this seem like a historically great team? Does Carolina seem like a Super Bowl favorite this season? Be honest: Would you pick the Panthers right now to win it all (people in the Carolinas aren't allowed to answer)?

Again, this might just be a perception problem.

Grandstanding: A Yahoo Sports podcast
Subscribe via iTunes or via RSS feed

The Panthers weren't favored by oddsmakers last week against the Dallas Cowboys, who were 3-7. Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight site declared the Panthers the worst 11-0 team ever, and even the Panthers' Twitter feed had to take notice.

Being the worst 11-0 team ever is kind of like being the worst movie to ever win the Oscar for "Best Picture," in that it's still not a bad list to be on no matter what spot you occupy. But still, it's a strange story. Carolina is 11-0 and completely underappreciated.

The Panthers deserve to be the No. 1-ranked NFL team. They have won all 11 games (ask New England how tough that can be) and have won eight of them by at least a touchdown. They have won their last three games by an average of 21.3 points, and that's not supposed to happen in the NFL. It's a team with an MVP candidate quarterback in Cam Newton and a defense that doesn't have many holes and superstars like cornerback Josh Norman and linebacker Luke Kuechly. Whatever we thought about the Panthers before this season or over the first few weeks doesn't matter anymore. They're legit.

The beauty of the NFL is there's no committee that decides which teams deserve to play for a championship. If the Panthers keep winning, their place in history will be undeniable. Perception won't matter much then.

Here are Shutdown Corner's power rankings after Week 12:

32. Cleveland Browns (2-9, LW: 31)

Losing that game, ultimately, is better for the Browns. They'll likely get a better draft pick as a result. But wow, that's brutal.

31. Tennessee Titans (2-9, LW: 29)

The Titans have lost 11 straight home games. That's an amazing streak of futility.

30. San Francisco 49ers (3-8, Last week: 32)

Say what you will about Jim Tomsula, but his team hasn't quit.

29. Baltimore Ravens (4-7, LW: 30)

Matt Schaub must have a tell worse than Teddy KGB eating the Oreos in "Rounders." Defensive backs jump routes on him like they were in the huddle listening to the play.

28. Jacksonville Jaguars (4-7, LW: 26)

Losing a home game to a 2-8 team that was dealing with a ton of injuries, and not being competitive in dropping that game, is a terrible look in the third year of the Gus Bradley regime.

27. San Diego Chargers (3-8, LW: 28)

Going on the road and winning an early game on the East Coast on Sunday, after their season is long gone, was impressive. So was Philip Rivers throwing for 300 yards and four touchdowns.

26. Dallas Cowboys (3-8, LW: 16)

Seriously, they're two games out of first place. Nobody in the NFC East will ever die.

25. New Orleans Saints (4-7, LW: 25)

The Jimmy Graham trade with Seattle looks like one of the rare deals that actually was bad for both teams. The Saints lost that weapon in the passing game that possesses matchup problem.

24. Philadelphia Eagles (4-7, LW: 21)

The weirdest story of the NFL season will be if Chip Kelly wins a division title after being mercilessly ripped all season. And they are just one game out of first place.

23. St. Louis Rams (4-7, LW: 23)

I'm not sure if they're the NFL's most disappointing team, but they're on a very short list.

22. Miami Dolphins (4-7, LW: 22)

Hopefully Zac Taylor, the Dolphins' new offensive coordinator, has a play sheet that just says "HAND THE BALL TO LAMAR MILLER." Miller, who is averaging 4.8 yards per carry this season after averaging 5.1 last season, has 12 carries in Miami's last two games. Twelve. The Dolphins are 4-0 when he gets 14 or more carries, and 0-7 when he doesn't. Miller has had 10 or fewer carries in six of 11 games. No wonder Bill Lazor got fired.

21. Detroit Lions (4-7, LW: 27)

Didn't seem to matter much at the time, but now that the Lions have turned around their season a bit the blown call at Seattle looks really bad. If the refs got that Calvin Johnson fumble play right, the Lions would likely be 5-6 and a game out of a wild-card spot.

20. Atlanta Falcons (6-5, LW: 17)

Tevin Coleman looked good in place of injured Devonta Freeman, gaining 110 yards. Hey, we're trying to find something positive with Atlanta.

19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-6, LW: 18)

Doug Martin will be a free agent after this season. He's second in the NFL with 1,038 rushing yards. Tampa Bay has a tough choice on their hands with him this offseason, especially with Charles Sims waiting in the wings. Not many big-money running back contracts have worked out well.

18. Oakland Raiders (5-6, LW: 20)

Since the Raiders' bye, Derek Carr has 300 yards in four of Oakland's six games, and 289 yards in another.

17. New York Giants (5-6, LW: 14)

What a disappointing performance. For three quarters Eli Manning torpedoed New York's chances, and by the time he warmed up it was too late. Amazing this team almost beat the Patriots a few weeks ago.

16. Washington Redskins (5-6, LW: 24)

Prepare yourselves now to watch this Washington team hosting a playoff game in that first Saturday time slot of wild-card weekend.

15. Chicago Bears (5-6, LW: 15)

I'm not saying John Fox should win coach of the year, but what he has done after a bad start has been remarkable. With a big assist from offensive coordinator Adam Gase, of course.

14. New York Jets (6-5, LW: 12)

Ryan Fitzpatrick will never be allowed to grow The Beard again now that the Jets have broken out of their slump.

13. Buffalo Bills (5-6, LW: 10)

Here's the Bills' biggest issue: Only the Dolphins and Saints have more allocated to the 2016 salary cap at this point. They invested heavily on breaking through into the playoffs either last season or this one. And it doesn't look like that investment is going to pay off.

12. Houston Texans (6-5, LW: 19)

New Orleans had scored a touchdown in every game between Dec. 24, 2005 and Sunday. The Texans' defense is on fire right now.

11. Indianapolis Colts (6-5, LW: 13)

Chuck Pagano shot down any notion that Matt Hasselbeck could keep the starting quarterback job when Andrew Luck is healthy. But what about this scenario: Hasselbeck leads the Colts to a 10-6 record, with the team winning nine of his 10 starts, and Luck gets healthy the week before Indianapolis' first playoff game. Are we positive you can't think about starting Hasselbeck over Luck, who hasn't played since Nov. 8?

10. Seattle Seahawks (6-5, LW: 11)

The defense is not great anymore. When you look at all the superstars on that unit that still remain, it doesn't make sense how the Seahawks can allow almost 500 passing yards at home.

9. Green Bay Packers (7-4, LW: 7)

When Aaron Rodgers has targeted Davante Adams the last three weeks, he has a 41.2 rating. He's 15-of-35 for 129 yards, no touchdowns and an interception throwing to Adams. The amazing part is that Rodgers has thrown to him 35 times in three weeks even though Adams is killing the offense.

8. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-5, LW: 6)

A team nobody would want to face in the playoffs ... and we have no idea if they can make the playoffs.

7. Kansas City Chiefs (6-5, LW: 9)

The Chiefs dodged a bullet because Justin Houston's knee injury doesn't appear to be season ending, according to the Kansas City Star. Houston should be back by the playoffs, at least. And, they're likely going to the playoffs.

6. Minnesota Vikings (8-3, LW: 8)

Adrian Peterson has 1,164 yards with five games to go. Last year, only six backs had more than 1,164 yards over the full 16-game season.

5. Cincinnati Bengals (9-2, LW: 4)

Jeremy Hill had 86 yards on 16 carries, while Giovani Bernard had 16 yards on 10 attempts. Bernard has been the better runner this season, but perhaps Hill is getting ready to carve out a bigger role as the playoffs near.

4. Denver Broncos (9-2, LW: 5)

The complaining about the officiating Sunday night has to stop. There was no conspiracy to cheat the Patriots. A few more either-or calls went Denver's way (and our Eric Edholm recapped every one of them here). It happens. But at the end of the day, the Broncos deserve credit for the win. They're a legit contender with Jeff Hostetler, I mean, Brock Osweiler.

3. Arizona Cardinals (9-2, LW: 3)

Their running game gets a bit thin with Chris Johnson or Andre Ellington injured. It's a big spot for rookie David Johnson to shine.

2. New England Patriots (10-1, LW: 1)

It was lost with the final result of the game, but Tom Brady's drive with a little more than a minute to go to get the game-tying field goal Sunday night, with no Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman or Dion Lewis, was an MVP moment.

1. Carolina Panthers (11-0, LW: 2)

Since we've already said plenty about them here, here's a random observation: Josh Norman was on the ESPN set for the pregame show Sunday morning, and he was really, really entertaining. I want to see/hear more of him in that setting.

- - - - - - -

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab