Carolina.
OK. I had a feeling that their schedule has been weak, and it turned out that I had an unexpected free 15 minutes this morning to check it out. So, in the spirit of Bill Parcells' adage, "You are what your record says you are," here are the records of every team that Carolina has beaten this season at the time that they played them...in the spirit of Bill Belichick, "it's a long season," so teams evolve over the 17 weeks, but this is where the Panthers' opponents were on the days of their games with Carolina:
Week Opponent Record
1 JAX, 0-0 (DUH!)
2 HOU, 0-1
3 NOL, 0-3
4 TBB, 1-3
5 Bye
6 SEA, 2-4
7 PHL, 3-4
8 IND, 3-5
9 GBP, 6-2
10 TEN, 2-7
11 WAS, 4-6
12 DAL, 3-8
13 NOL, 4-8
14 ATL, 6-7
15 NYG, 6-8
Total: 40--66; only one opponent with a winning record
Not sure what this means other than that it is a fact that the Panthers will not be playing a Wild Card Team and that they will have to win two games (at Home) against two, hot, strong teams with winning records and strong QB's (Rodgers and Wilson, perhaps) to get to the SB and then go to a neutral site to play a very hot AFC champion with a very good QB (if I had to bet, either Brady or Big Ben). After watching Eli wake up and shred them in the fourth quarter this week, I think that's a tall order.
I don't think this ends well for the Panthers, even if they go 16--0.