Sunday will mark the fifth straight game the Patriots have faced a team that hasn’t suffered a loss — Buffalo, the New York Jets, Atlanta, Baltimore, and now, the Denver Broncos.

“You know, we haven’t really watched a tape of a team that’s lost a game yet, and you can say, ‘Well, this is how so and so beat them in the regular season,’” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “We know it will be a big challenge here for us this week, there’s no question about it.”

The last time this happened in the NFL was in 1986, when the Philadelphia Eagles played the Redskins (0-0), Bears (1-0), Broncos (2-0), Los Angeles Rams (3-0) and Atlanta Falcons (4-0) right out of the gate. The Eagles were 2-3 in those five games, and they finished the season 5-10-1. Current “Monday Night Football” commentator Ron Jaworski was the Eagles quarterback that year — it should be interesting to see if he brings up this stat during this week’s “Monday Night Football” game.

However, according to the Patriots media relations staff, the NFL does not count Week One as playing an undefeated team, because no team has played a game yet. So, Sunday will mark the fourth straight game for the Patriots against an undefeated opponent.

Notes from the 1986 Season:
• Patriots finished the season 11-5 and won the AFC East.
• The Giants defeated the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. Bill Parcells was New York’s head coach and Bill Belichick was the defensive coordinator.
• Lawrence Taylor won the AP MVP award.