Week 3 Power Rankings

1. Baltimore: The Ravens are suddenly a scoring machine, on offense. The defense may not be as nasty as we are used to, but it doesn't matter so far.
2. New York Giants: The Giants are 2-0 in the NFC East and dominated the Buccaneers this week.
3. Indianapolis: With Payton Manning around, the Colts can beat anybody.
4. Minnesota: It looks like the run defense will be OK, but is it really possible that Minnesota hasn't fixed their special teams problems?
5. New York Jets: Mark Sanchez is doing better than anybody could have expected, but their defense is driving them.
6. New Orleans: Nine passing touchdowns in Weeks 1 and 2, and zero against the Bills in Week 3. The 27-7 win was not as impressive as the score, but 3-0 is 3-0.
7. Philadelphia: Apparently Philadelphia is the big play team this year. Kevin Kolb is filling in nicely for Donovan McNabb.
8. San Francisco: The 49ers defense will keep them in contention all season, and Shaun Hill is exactly the game manager they need right now.
9. New England: We saw that old will to win again this week at home against Atlanta. Tom Brady is still working himself back to form.
10. Atlanta: There were a couple of bad breaks for the Falcons in New England, but they didn't look like an elite team last week. They are close though.
11. San Diego: For as inconsistent as the Chargers can be, overall they look solid.
12. Denver: The Broncos have the number 1 defense in the NFL. Unbelievable.
13. Cincinnati: The Bengals defense is really tough. Add a competent quarterback and Cedric Benson to the fold, and you have a contender.
14. Dallas: The Cowboys lead the league in rushing. That's probably the best way to keep Tony Romo from messing things up.
15. Green Bay: The Packers are an interesting mix of good and bad. They throw as good as anybody, and can't run. They force a lot of turnovers on defense, and give up a lot of yards. So far the good is outweighing the bad.
16. Chicago: Jay Cutler has settled in a little, but is tied for second-most turnovers in the league with six.
17. Pittsburgh: Super Bowl hangover, or whatever.
18. Arizona: Maybe a worse Super Bowl hangover. Kurt Warner got beat up last week.
19. Seattle: Luckily for the Seahawks, uniforms don't count in the standings. Seneca Wallace is a solid back-up, but they are better off when he is on the sideline.
20. Buffalo: Terrell Owens is doing nothing. At all. Trent Edwards has to play better for the Bills to win.
21. Jacksonville: Who knows what to think about the Jags? The 'team-most-likely-to-be-contracted' wins a big division game to pull to 1-2.
22. Houston: It turns out that the Texans do not have it figured out this season.
23. Tennessee: The Titans are better than their 0-3 record, and I wouldn't write them off yet. Almost, but not yet.
24. Miami: Like Tennessee, they are better than their 0-3 record. But now Chad Pennington is out for the year (maybe forever), and Tyler Thigpen could be starting in a few weeks. Maybe next year...
25. Carolina: Tempted to put Carolina even lower, but they could still win a few games this year, if Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith stop sabotaging them.
26. Detroit: They are in the 20s! The Lions run the ball pretty well, and if they beat Chicago this week, who knows where the 2009 season could go! ...er...
27. Washington: Jason Campbell might not ever figure it out, though he had a whole lot of yards in Detroit.
28. Oakland: JaMarcus Russell is not going to be a good quarterback for the Raiders. Probably not for anybody.
29. Kansas City: I'm not sure when it is going to get any better for the Chiefs.
30. St. Louis: With Kyle Boller, the Rams actually staged a mini-comeback, getting with in a touchdown of Green Bay after falling behind 16-0 early. That count's as a 'sign of life' for this team.
31. Tampa Bay: The Bucs didn't get a first down until the 3rd quarter, and at one point in the 4th they had 30 net yards. Those are numbers that are usually found in high school football games.
32. Cleveland: This year's Browns may be worse than the 1999 expansion team.