One week into the NFL season and things haven't gotten too crazy yet. Sure, the Eagles took to Chip Kelly's offense at a speed comparable to the pace they run plays at while it looks like the Patriots can't plug just any old players into the offense with Tom Brady and still be dominant. Oh, and Peyton Manning is on pace to throw 112 touchdowns...
1. Denver (Last week: 2) - Speaking of Manning. It's not yet evident whether the Broncos are just that good or if the Ravens have fallen off that much. One thing that is clear - defensive coordinators will cry themselves to sleep after looking at the highlights from the second half against Baltimore.
2. San Francisco (1) - The 49ers were able to get a hard fought win against Green Bay in part thanks to a bit of a flub by the officials. It's nice to have this rivalry back again, of course, Jim Harbaugh seems to have a rivalry with everyone.
3. Seattle (3) - The Seahawks looked a bit lackluster in their victory against Carolina. Everyone knows this team plays significantly better at home, and they'll have to this week when they face San Fran for the first time this season.
4. Houston (6) - If it wasn't for a fierce fourth quarter comeback the Texans would have plummeted in our rankings. They're going to need to get a lot more out of Arian Foster in the coming weeks if they're going to be a powerhouse.
5. Green Bay (5) - Green Bay dropped a tough road game to a Super Bowl contender, as long as they get back on the winning track with a victory against shell-shocked Washington at home they'll be fine.
6. New Orleans (9) - The Saints are back. In addition to Brees having his usual great game it looks like the defense is greatly improved. Of course, it really couldn't be any worse...
7. Atlanta (4) - Are the Falcons still the frontrunners in the NFC South? Probably. But you don't get ranked ahead of the division rival you just lost to, thems the breaks.
8. Chicago (11) - Marc Trestman's new offense looks like it's still going to take a couple of weeks to fully settle in but the Bears were able to play enough D, and get enough turnovers, to beat the Bengals. This week they will have to find a way to contain the always dangerous Adrian Peterson.
9. New England (7) - Bill Belichick's team is the only team to get a win in week 1 and look significantly worse than where they were ranked last week. The best offensive player for the Pats (not named Brady) last week was Shane Vereen, it looks like he may be done for the year with an injury, so goes the Pats' luck this year.
10. Dallas (16) - One can easily make the argument that the Cowboys would have lost in week one even if the Giants had made five turnovers. Or you can give their defense credit for getting that sixth turnover and saying they played a solid game.
11. Philadelphia (25) - Admittedly I had Philly way too low go into last week. And I'll admit, I probably bumped them up far too much after Monday night's dismantling of RGIII and friends. Still, that offense looked darn near unstoppable.
12. Indianapolis (14) - The Colts were able to walk away with a win despite a bit of a lackluster effort from Andrew Luck and the offense.
13. Cincinnati (12) - The Bengals were a stupid penalty away from getting a chance to win on the road in Chicago, and if they got the chance you can almost guarantee A.J. Green would have taken them in for the victory with the game he had. They look to be the best team in what may be an unexpectedly weak division.
14. Baltimore (10) - The Super Bowl champs looked fine in the first half, then, well, Peyton showed up. The Ravens should still be a good team but it looks like they are far from the elite team we saw in January.
15. Kansas City (19) - Wins against the Jags should be taken with a grain of salt but Andy Reid's team was the only team to look truly dominant for the whole 60 minutes last week.
16. Miami (17) - A great fourth quarter made the fish look a little bit better than they actually played but a scrappy team might be able to make a run at the vulnerable Patriots.
17. New York Giants (13) - Other than the six turnovers the Giants looked pretty good, unfortunately one can't just glaze over six turnovers. They should recover from the loss just fine, but they still had to tumble a bit.
18. Washington (8) - The Redskins put together a fantastic highlight film of how not to play the Eagles in the first half of week one. To be considered true contenders in the NFC East the Skins only need to learn how to do two things they showed they were incapable of on Monday; tackle and hold on to the ball. No big deal, right?
19. St Louis (18) - The Rams won their first opener since 2006. Yay! They had to come from behind in the fourth quarter, at home, against a miserable Arizona team to get that victory. Boo!
20. Tennessee (27) - The Titans came within 1:23 of holding the Steelers to the all-time greatest football score possible: 2. The offense needs a lot of work, hence them not getting a huge boost, but that defense looks stifling.
21. Detroit (20) - The Lions put up some big numbers offensively and new Lion Reggie Bush had a heck of a day.
22. Pittsburgh (15) - It's official, the Steelers are playing for a low draft pick in what is sure to be a transitional year. Expectations were low, their level of play was lower.
23. New York Jets (32) - Mark Sanchez may never play in another Jets game, hence them moving up so many spots. All jokes aside, they looked pretty good against a bad Tampa team but were still a stupid penalty away from losing. Thursday night we'll learn a lot about this team.
24. Carolina (21) - If Cam Newton had a better game the Panthers would have been able to get a huge victory against a far superior Seahawks team. If this season is going to be anything other than a disappointment someone other than Greg Olsen and Steve Smith is going to have to step up in the receiving corps, the defense can't carry them all year long.
25. Tampa Bay (22) - Don't be surprised if the Bucs end up at the bottom of this list before the season is over. Everything looks like it's just about to go off the rails with infighting between the coach and quarterback.
26. Minnesota (24) - The Vikings are who we thought they were; Adrian Peterson, a good pass rush and a whole bunch of question marks.
27. Buffalo (29) - Just when the Bills looked like they were resigned to a lost season with a rookie quarterback they darn near beat the Pats in the opener... and then they remembered who they were and tore out their fans hearts. Again.
28. Oakland (31) - The Raiders and Terrelle Pryor gave Indy a heck of a fight but fell just short. On the plus side, they'll be 1-1 after hosting Jacksonville on Sunday.
29. Arizona (28) - The good news, Carson Palmer looked like he found the Fountain of Youth in Arizona. The bad news, it wasn't enough.
30. Cleveland (26) - It looks like the Browns might still be a year or two away. Also, who was the genius that thought having Richardson get 13 carries while Weeden threw 53 times was a good idea?
31. San Diego (23) - Perhaps we were a little bit too hard on Norv for all those years.
32. Jacksonville (30) - 2 points. 'Nuff said.
