1. New England Patriots (Last week: 1)

The Patriots remain in the same position after their bye week. They head to Arlington to take on Brandon Weeden and the Cowboys.

2. Green Bay Packers (Last week: 2)

Green Bay continues to look like a Super Bowl contender. While they played a team that has been sliding in the 49ers, the defense completely shut down the San Francisco offense on the road. The offense only mustered 17 points, but they took their foot off the gas throughout the game in a possession approach.

3. Cincinnati Bengals (Last week: 3)

It was an interesting game in Cincy as the Bengals held the Chiefs out of the end zone the entire day. Kansas City was forced to kick 7 field goals yesterday. I’m not sure if that’s a testament to the Bengals defense, or the Chiefs offense. Either way, the Bengals look like a true contender in the AFC this year.

4. Denver Broncos (Last week: 5)

Denver has not looked particularly good on offense in any game they have played this season, but their defense continues to impress. As long as Denver keeps winning games, they will be fine. The real question is whether or not Peyton can withstand the beating he’s been taking this year with a regressing offensive line.

5. Seattle Seahawks (Last week: 6)

The Seahawks did what they almost always do at home: take care of business. It wasn’t easy, and this team has not shown elite football yet. If this offense continues to progress at this pace, they will remain completely dependent on their defense to carry them to victories.

6. Atlanta Falcons (Last week: 9)

How about this for a storyline to start the season? I’ve mentioned him every week thus far, but head coach Dan Quinn deserves a lot of the credit. Matt Ryan and Julio Jones are a dynamite combination, the defense has been playing well, and Devonta Freeman is an absolute stud out of the backfield.

7. Carolina Panthers (Last week: 10)

Unlike their division counterparts, the Panthers seem to win ugly most weeks. Carolina doesn’t have phenomenal offensive weapons, but Cam Newton continues to move the ball down the field and collect victories. With this combination of defense and quarterback, there could be many more wins in store for the Panthers.

8. Arizona Cardinals (Last week: 4)

What a disappointing outing from the Cardinals. Arizona fumbled the opening kickoff and was playing catch-up the entire game. As we have now seen, the game plan against this team is to strike early and make them play from behind. The Cards will look to bounce back against the Lions next week.

9. Pittsburgh Steelers (Last week: 7)

Without Big Ben, most would’ve expected the Steelers to come out flat on Thursday night. But, the team played well and really SHOULD have won that game. Josh Scobee needs a new job after missing those kicks, but at least the Steelers are #7 in scoring defense this year. Who saw that coming?

10. New York Jets (Last week: 14)

The Jets have only played one bad quarter of football so far this year. Outside of the second quarter of the Philadelphia game, the Jets have outscored their opponents 88-34 in the other 15 quarters of football this season. As long as this defense keeps playing like this, the Jets will keep winning.

11. Minnesota Vikings (Last week: 13)

Do the Vikings really get to move up after a loss? The answer is yes and I will tell you why. Teddy Bridgewater walked into Denver and outperformed Peyton Manning going 16-18 in the second half, Adrian Peterson looks as good as ever, and they have one of the most underrated defenses in the NFL.

12. Buffalo Bills (Last week: 8)

Rex Ryan teams do have the tendency to play some really flat games. The Bills came out and were not motivated at all, and even had 17 penalties. This team was physically controlled by a Giants team with a less-than-stellar offensive line, and a defense that allows more pass yards per game than any other team in the NFL.

13. Indianapolis Colts (Last week: 15)

The Colts played sans Andrew Luck this week and came out victorious, granted it was against the Jags. Now they have a short week against a Houston team that is really struggling. 3-2 looks like a possibility, but a short-week may not be a good sign for Luck and his offensive line on the road against J.J. Watt.

14. Dallas Cowboys (Last week: 11)

You can’t help but think about how the absences of Romo and Bryant really matter to this team. The defense that looked strong the first two weeks has looked much weaker since the Romo injury. I said it last year too, but the offense masks a lot of the problems that the Dallas defense has.

15. St. Louis Rams (Last week: 21)

You really never know what you’re gonna get with the Rams. If you’re keeping score at home, the Rams beat Seattle and Arizona, and lost to Pittsburgh and Washington. Here is part of what I said after Week 1: “They always seem to play division opponents exceedingly better than non-division opponents.”

16. San Diego Chargers (Last week: 18)

The Chargers are now 2-2 and one of the toughest teams to figure out in the NFL. The root of the Chargers’ problems is the run defense, which ranks 29th in the league. It will be hard for Philip Rivers to lead this team to wins with a defense that is giving up four touchdowns a game.

17. Kansas City Chiefs (Last week: 12)

Part of you wants to love their ability to play solid defense, and protect the ball on offense. But, this team has no consistent big play threat on the outside, and Alex Smith seems to have a panic attack when they get close to the red zone.

18. New York Giants (Last week: 23)

I think their win over Buffalo qualifies as one of the more surprising wins of the season thus far. The Giants were not expected to win that game, but they showed up.

19. Baltimore Ravens (Last week: 19)

The Ravens barely won against a Michael Vick-led Steelers team. They should be able to beat Cleveland and San Francisco the next two weeks, setting them up at 3-3 going into Monday Night Football against the Cardinals in three weeks.

20. Oakland Raiders (Last week: 16)

To all the people (including myself) who jumped on the Oakland bandwagon, it was a fun ride for one week. Unfortunately for the Raiders, they couldn’t take care of business against what was the consensus worst team in the NFL in the Bears. Oakland must come out with more energy against the Broncos at home next week.

21. Philadelphia Eagles (Last week: 17)

I hope Chip Kelly had fun this offseason, because he is having absolutely no fun during the season. While Bradford aired out a couple deep balls to get them back in the game, the Eagles offense got started way to late. Getting shut out in the first half is not a recipe for success.

22. New Orleans Saints (Last week: 25)

The Saints have look much better the last two weeks compared to the first two. Without Drew Brees, they were competitive against the undefeated Panthers, and this week, with Brees back, they came out victorious on the first play of overtime. They have a date with the struggling Eagles next week.

23. Washington Redskins (Last week: 26)

The Redskins really don’t have a long-term plan at quarterback right now. The roster is good enough to win a couple of games and remain competitive in an incredibly weak NFC East. Still, as long as Kirk Cousins is leading the charge, things can go awry at any moment.

24. Cleveland Browns (Last week: 27)

The Browns really did everything they could to win, until they made a play that we’ve come to expect from Cleveland. The Chargers missed a field goal as time expired. We were headed to overtime surely, until the referees called offsides on Tramon Williams. After looking pretty good for most of the day, it was a very Browns way to lose.

25. Houston Texans (Last week: 22)

The decision to switch to Mallett over Hoyer so early in the season is one of the reasons this team has struggled early. Granted the defense has been porous at best outside of the Tampa Bay game last week, but Mallett is a proven backup at this point, and the second half of this week proved that.

26. Miami Dolphins (Last week: 20)

Joe Philbin is jobless after a third straight embarrassment for the Dolphins. A lot of people expected this team to challenge for a Wild Card spot at the end of the season. If there is any silver-lining for Ndamukong Suh, he has more wins in Miami than they do in Detroit thus far!

27. Detroit Lions (Last week: 24)

The four teams that Detroit has played so far are San Diego (16), Minnesota (11), Denver (4), and Seattle (5). It doesn’t get any easier as next week they host the Arizona Cardinals. You have to feel for Detroit who was handed an incredibly difficult start to the season.

28. Jacksonville Jaguars (Last week: 29)

The Jaguars should be leading the AFC South right now. They also may want to invest in a new kicker. Jason Myers had a 53-yard kick to win the game; he missed it, but the Colts called timeout. Then, he missed again. It overtime, he had a 48-yard kick to win that he also missed. Then, Vinatieri hit the game winner a few minutes later.

29. Tennessee Titans (Last week: 30)

The Titans were one of two teams with a bye this week. They move up a spot, only because of the continued poor performance by the 49ers.

30. Chicago Bears (Last week: 32)

Never thought I would say this, but Bears fans are happy to see Jay Cutler back. Even if it is only for the rest of this season, watching Jimmy Clausen try to run that offense was horrifying. The Bears should still be expected to finish this season with a top five pick in next year’s draft.

31.   San Francisco 49ers (Last week: 28)

After looking so good in Week 1, the 49ers have slipped into full collapse mode. This marks three straight games with no offense whatsoever. While the defense held Aaron Rodgers. to only 17 points, Colin Kaepernick looks less and less like an NFL quarterback each week.

32. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Last week: 31)

Currently Jameis Winston is on pace to throw 28 interception this season. After only four weeks of football, I bet the Tampa Bay GM is kicking himself. While Mariota seems to be progressing as an NFL quarterback, the game looks really fast for Winston right now. The rest of the roster doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence either.

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Image: International Business Times