1. New England Patriots (Previous: 1)
Another week, another dominant performance by the Patriots. Tom Brady is clearly out for revenge this season as the Pats have been scoring touchdowns in bunches. People are saying this team resembles the 2007 New England team, but I wouldn’t go quite that far.
2. Green Bay Packers (Previous: 2)
Aaron Rodgers is simply untouchable at home. I was sitting watching the game last night and all I could do was admire Rodgers’ performance. The Packers’ defense looked pretty good for the first two and a half quarters before taking the rest of the game off.
3. Cincinnati Bengals (Previous: 4)
What a thriller in Baltimore this weekend. The Bengals now move to 3-0 and have some challenging games coming up in the next month. Their next three games are against the Chiefs, Seahawks, and Bills. We’ll know how much Cincinnati has improved after those games.
4. Arizona Cardinals (Previous: 5)
The #BirdGang has become an elite team in the NFC. What team has a better offense-defense-special teams combination than Arizona? Bruce Arians is leading this team beautifully and has completely revived Carson Palmer’s career.
5. Denver Broncos (Previous: 3)
Peyton Manning simply doesn’t look the same. Luckily, the Denver defense is for real and has been dominating opponents.
6. Seattle Seahawks (Previous: 7)
They only go up one spot for beating the Bears at home. Had Seattle not won that game, all hell would have broken loose. Next week is against another winless team from the NFC North in the Detroit Lions.
7. Pittsburgh Steelers (Previous: 8)
The loss of Ben Roethlisberger for 4-6 weeks is exactly what Pittsburgh didn’t need. The newly signed Michael Vick will be making the start on Thursday night against the Ravens, and this team will turn to Vick, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, and their defense to keep their postseason hopes alive amid Roethlisberger’s injury.
8. Buffalo Bills (Previous: 12)
Buffalo looks like a team that is not going to back down to anyone. For 60 minutes, their goal is to hit you in the mouth and physically dominate you. Outside of the quarterback position, even though Tyrod Taylor has looked pretty good, Buffalo has one of the top five rosters in the NFL.
9. Atlanta Falcons (Previous: 14)
Here come the Atlanta Falcons. This team really snuck up on people, as Dan Quinn has ushered in a new era in Atlanta. Devonta Freeman balled out this Sunday, and the team delivered it’s second straight come-from-behind victory.
10. Carolina Panthers (Previous: 13)
The Panthers keep rising in the rankings because they keep winning. Both the Panthers and the Falcons are not great 3-0 teams; however, Cam Newton and the offense seem to be picking up the pace, while the defense took a step backwards against Luke McCown and company this weekend without Luke Kuechly.
11. Dallas Cowboys (Previous: 6)
No Romo and no Dez is going to look like this for the Cowboys. It appears that the Dallas run defense isn’t as good as we thought, and Weeden struggled despite what his numbers may indicate. If they’re going to win without Romo, they can’t abandon the run in the second half again.
12. Kansas City Chiefs (Previous: 10)
Kansas City looked really bad for a while on Monday night. It’s easy for teams to come into Green Bay and look like a different team than we are used it, but the Chiefs made it interesting at the end. The good news is that Alex Smith FINALLY threw a touchdown to a wide receiver, so we can finally stop talking about that.
13. Minnesota Vikings (Previous: 19)
In a valiant effort sans Ragnar, the Vikings throttled the Chargers at home. Adrian Peterson looks like he is 26 and running wild. As long as they continue to win the turnover battle, pound it with AP, and play solid defense, many more wins are in store for the Vikings.
14. New York Jets (Previous: 9)
Well the Jets fell back down to earth this week, but still almost came back to win the game. As good as Brandon Marshall has been, he made what he deemed to be the “worst play in NFL history.” A lot of miscues for the Jets this week; they’ll need to play better vs. the Dolphins in London next week!
15. Indianapolis Colts (Previous: 16)
Like I said last week, this roster lacks a lot of talent. Winning solves all of your problems in the NFL, but this team has a lot of holes. Andrew Luck needs to stop throwing so many interceptions, the offensive line needs to protect better, and it would be nice if the defense could stop anybody.
16. Oakland Raiders (Previous: 23)
The Raiders in the top half of the power rankings? Something can’t be right. Either way, I really expected Oakland to lose this week against the Browns. Luckily, the Raiders have David Carr, Charles Woodson, and Amari Cooper.
17. Philadelphia Eagles (Previous: 21)
Boy, did the Eagles really need that win. Now I know everyone thought the sky was falling after the first two weeks, but things really are just fine in Philly. They are one game back of a Cowboys team that is going to continue to lose games these next couple of weeks.
18. San Diego Chargers (Previous: 11)
The Chargers didn’t even bother showing up in Minnesota. As good as this secondary has played at times this year, the Chargers cannot stop the run. If San Diego continues to lose the turnover battle and abandon the run, they will continue to lose football games.
19. Baltimore Ravens (Previous: 15)
Did anyone have the Ravens starting 0-3? I thought this was a Super Bowl contender this year, and they have fallen fast. Thursday night in Pittsburgh will be the season for Baltimore. If they can’t beat their biggest rival without their starting QB, Baltimore will be 0-4 and thinking about 2016.
20. Miami Dolphins (Previous: 17)
Tannehill still hasn’t taken that next step to become a great quarterback, and Suh hasn’t been worth the 100+ million dollars. To make matters worse, ownership is getting impatient and Joe Philbin may need a new job soon.
21. St. Louis Rams (Previous: 18)
Unless they are playing against division opponents, St. Louis cannot put together a complete football game. They only scored 6 points against a below-average defense. The defensive front of this team is unstoppable, but it seems to be the only true strength on the roster after all.
22. Houston Texans (Previous: 24)
Finally the Texans get on track with a victory. The defense executed and held Winston and the Bucs to only 9 points. The offense was only able to muster 19 points and they still looked underwhelming as a whole.
23. New York Giants (Previous: 25)
The Giants took care of business against the Redskins on Thursday night. They move up two spots from last week and now have to travel to Buffalo this weekend. As long as Dallas keeps losing, then the Giants are fine.
24. Detroit Lions (Previous: 20)
0-3 for the Lions looks like it will become 0-4 this next weekend as they have to travel to Seattle for Monday night. Detroit looked better this week and kept this game close going into the 4th quarter. Unfortunately, Spaghetti-armed Peyton led the Broncos past the Lions.
25. New Orleans Saints (Previous: 28)
The Saints looked like an actual football team for some reason last week. The Panthers either came out flat, or New Orleans was teasing us for the first two weeks. Now, I know they are 0-3, but they really did look alright without Drew Brees this weekend.
26. Washington Redskins (Previous: 26)
The Redskins would’ve loved to build off the momentum from the week before and beat the Giants. Kirk Cousins regressed from Week 2 to Week 3 as did the defense. Washington needs to get back to smash mouth football next week against the Eagles.
27. Cleveland Browns (Previous: 27)
Johnny Football should be starting for the Browns. I’m not sure if they are trying to protect him mentally, but he clearly has a higher ceiling than Josh McCown. The Browns are not going to make the playoffs this year, so why are they wasting their time with a washed up veteran?
28. San Francisco 49ers (Previous: 22)
The 49ers have looked really, really bad these last two weeks. After giving up 43 points in Week 2, San Fran followed that by allowing 47 points to the Cardinals. Jim Tomsula needs to get this team back on track, before this losing streak pushes to a month.
29. Jacksonville Jaguars (Previous: 29)
The Jaguars played how most people expected them to against New England. Jacksonville was completely over-matched from the beginning, and you didn’t learn much about them as a team this week. Next week they travel to Indianapolis.
30. Tennessee Titans (Previous: 30)
Week 1 looks very flukey now having watched two games since. Mariota, who looked like a veteran previously, looks much more like a rookie now. The Titans completely wasted an opportunity to end September with a 2-1 record and a division lead.
31. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Previous: 31)
There is a reason this team was 2-14 last year. For rookie Jameis Winston, the big picture must be emphasized. This team is going to lose a lot of games, but the goal every week is to make tangible improvements.
32. Chicago Bears (Previous: 32)
The Bears are the worst team in football this year and they have noticed it themselves. The Bears are already forgoing this season and selling some of their veterans to other teams for pennies on the dollar.
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