ESPN ESPN - NFL Power Rankings - National Football League NFL.com Cowboys, NFC leading the way after Week 1 Please feel free to critique, and especially to write you own! ESPN has a nice tool to drag and drop teams into place if your interested, fun to wander through the league. Please note that in the first few weeks there will usually be some huge ups and downs for teams. I generally went wins over losses for this week personally, so while San Diego is likely more talented than, say, Chicago or Buffalo, I wanted to reward the week 1 victors who came out with a W. If you disagree, please share your own! Mine 1.Steelers-Starters on the bench in the fourth quarter is either really good, or really bad. Turns out it was good. The Steelers just destroyed what many thought would be a good Texans team, dominating every aspect of the game. Willie Parker is back. 2.Cowboys-Only slightly less dominating over the Browns than the Stillers were over the Texans. 3.Packers-Brett who? Rogers looked just fine to me, and the Pack put together a very good game against a tough divisional opponent. Must watch those penalties though. 4.Eagles-Ok ok, it was the Rams, but that was still a whuppin by any account. McNabb looked great, Westbrook is awesome as always, the D was all over the place. They couldnt have asked for a better start. 5.Giants-A tough divisional game, they slugged through it and came out on top. 6.Jets-Favre who? Ok, yeah, he was a good pickup, as was Jenkins. Still, they will need to find a more consistent offense than 2 hail marys against a weak secondary. Great start for them against a fiesty young team with a former friend. 7.Bills-Made mincemeat out of the Seahawks. Defense looks solid and the special teams may be NFLs top unit. Doubt they will stay this high, but wont be an easy game for anyone. Must find more offense as well. 8.Panthers-Anytime you go on the road and beat a team as talented as SanDiego, you have to get noticed. The panthers are back. 9.Titans-Conflicting reports over Youngs state of mind, but this is a great defense that could carry them some ways. 10.Saints-Explosive offense, better utilization of Bush, and an improving defense. They need to stay consistent and avoid the horrid start from last year. 11.Broncos-Cutler looked good on MNF and Royal will be a solid rookie. Defense has some concerns, but the team overall should be better than last year. 12.Bears-Matt Forte had an impressive debut, shredding the Colts D. Orton played surprisingly well, making good passes and being consistent. As long as the O can do that, and the D stays healthy, the Bears will be in the race. 13.Patriots-Barely beat out the lowly Chiefs, and losing Brady will hurt. The NFL will hold their breath to see if Cassell will become the "new" Brady and find out once and for all if God is a patriots fan, or if their reign is over. 14.Chargers-Should move higher, but a team with this much talent should not lose at home. 15.Cardinals-It seems they are always about here arent they? 16.Falcons-A shockingly good win for them. Matt Ryan was OK, and Burner Turner was, for a game, the best FA signing of the offseason. 17.Ravens-How in gods name did Flacco score that TD? Ive never seen a guy run so slowly for so long, that play took an eternity. But the Ravens won anyway, and thats all that counts. 18.Colts-Erk, that was a bad game against the Bears to open their brand new stadium. The offense was expected to struggle some with Manning being out for preseason, but the D looked really bad against an iffy (to put it nicely) Bears offense. 19.Jaguars-Vaunted running game died against tough Titan D, but at least their own was pretty solid overall. Hurting on the OL which does not bode well. 20.Vikings-Lost a tough game to the Packers making them 0-5 now. Peterson looked sharp, and Berrian was a good pickup, but the pass D was bad, the passrush wasnt there mostly and Tavaris Jackson may be in the CFL by this time next year. 21.Redskins-Jim Zorn needs to learn what clock management is. 22.Browns-A bad preseason, and a bad start against Big D. They need to do what they did last year after losing big in the first game of the season and rally for a playoff run. 23.Buccaneers-Looking their age, but they still have some talent left in the tank. 24.Dolphins-a young and rebulding team, they gave the Jets a small run in the end but came up short. Need to get the running game going better and have the WRs catch a few passes to make an offensive leap. 25.Chiefs-Gave a reeling Brady-less Pats team a run, not bad for a team many said had the worst talent, worst coach and predicted worst record. Lets see if they can build or fall back down. 26.Bengals-HOT SEAT ALERT! Marvin Lewis has lost this team. Will be surprised if he makes it halfway through the season barring a dramatic turnaround quick. 27.Seahawks-Getting thrashed by Buffalo is never good, as is starting pretty much an offense full of backups. 28.49ers-Frank Gore finally going a little, now the rest of the O needs to contribute some. 29.Texans-A trendy pick to make "the leap" the Texans will need to show up on the field as well as paper if they hope to improve on last year. 30.Raiders-Ugh. Fargas looked good. The rest of the team didnt. 31.Lions-Same old lions. Getting trounced by Atlanta ... let me repeat ... getting trounced by ATLANTA. 32.Rams-HOT SEAT ALERT. The Rams were dominated in every aspect. They looked bad, plain and simple. Key players are aging fast, with no depth behind them, and an inadequit core of youth. A mess of a team. Linehan wont make it far with games like that one.
