Rankings: Week 2

1. Pittsburgh: The Steelers defense still looks strong, and even without Troy Polamalu they are the best team in the league right now.
2. New York Giants: It is pretty difficult to rank the next few teams. The Giants still have a lot to prove, but they played very good defense at home against Washington.
3. Philadelphia: They will probably be better off if Jeff Garcia plays sooner than later, but no matter who the quarterback is, they can't rely on turnovers every game.
4. Baltimore: The Chiefs made a habit out of challenging teams all of last season, but the Ravens shouldn't being giving up 24 points to that team.
5. New England: Not the best performance by the Patriots last night, and they were beyond lucky to even come away with a win. Still, Brady mostly looked good, and Moss and Welker were very big. The defense will need to step up against the run.
6. Atlanta: Having all offseason to prepare for Miami probably helped them shut down the wildcat. The Falcons are a real threat in the NFC, at least so far.
7. Minnesota: Brett Favre played like a 2000 Trent Dilfer and Adrian Peterson dominated the Browns. A winning formula against lesser teams, but the Vikings will need to throw the ball downfield at some point.
8. Dallas: Plenty of big plays. Again, we need to see how Dallas fares against better teams.
9. Green Bay: The Packers were given a lot of gifts by Jay Cutler, but they looked good on defense, and Aaron Rodgers is just getting warmed up.
10. Indianapolis: Many think the Colts should have easily disposed of Jacksonville, but don't forget that this is a divisional game and that the Jaguars usually play their hardest against Payton Manning.
11. New Orleans: They'll score a lot of points this season, but they'll also give up way too many.
12. Seattle: Thorough domination of the Rams.
13. San Francisco: Mike Singletary has the right idea so far, and the 49ers won a huge Week 1 game.
14. San Diego: They looked like the same flat, disappointing team that we saw for most of 2008.
15. Tennessee: At 0-1 I can't put them higher yet, even though their defense is still pretty good without Albert Haynesworth.
16. Carolina: Jake Delhomme needs to go. But I've been saying that for a year now.
17. Miami: They'll be OK, but Atlanta made their wildcard offense look silly.
18. Chicago: Brian Urlacher will be missed, but the big problem is whether Jay Cutler will settle down.
19. New York Jets: Their defense dominated what is supposed to be a pretty good offense in Houston. Mark Sanchez just needs to limit mistakes, and he will get off to a nice start.
20. Buffalo: The offensive line actually held their own, and Trent Edwards played mistake-free. Basically, the only thing the Bills did wrong in New England was fumble a kickoff.
21. Arizona: I can't imagine many are shocked by this. The Cardinals maybe need to pretend these are playoff games.
22. Houston: Can the Texans dig themselves out of this hole? They better start this week in Nashville.
23. Washington: Jason Campbell just can't seem to break out and make plays. If he doesn't start, Washington has no chance in 2009.
24. Denver: Lucky does not fully describe it, but you can't fault a team that is in a position to make that play. Could be a rare win this season, but it's nice to be 1-0.
25. Cincinnati: Lucky or not, the Broncos were within a point with under a minute, so it's not like the Bengals ran away with it. At least they aren't the worst team in their division.
26. Jacksonville: No passing game, but they will make it hard on teams this year.
27. Kansas City: Impressive fight, hopefully they win a few of these close games this year. They need Matt Cassell soon.
28. Tampa Bay: If they lose at Buffalo this week, they might as well start planning for Josh Freeman's debut.
29. Oakland: Even though they could have beat San Diego, I don't know that they showed a lot of potential for future success. Nice to see JaMarcus Russell make some plays, even if he is running only part of the playbook still, after three years.
30. Cleveland: No passing game, no run defense. Josh Cribbs can't score every game, and even if he does, the Browns will still lose by double-digits.
31. St. Louis: Pitiful, but until the Lions break that losing streak...
32. Detroit