Week Three of the NFL season saw some major upsets as well as hammered home the point that some teams might not be who we thought they were. Shockingly both the 49ers and Packers find themselves with the same record as the Browns; while the Dolphins and Chiefs are neck-and-neck competing for the most surprising undefeated team. One thing is abundantly clear though, the NFC East is terrible.
1. Denver (Last week 1) - The Broncos offense continues to dominate their opponents while Peyton Manning set a new NFL record by throwing for 12 TDs in the first three games of the year.
2. Seattle (2) - Seattle blew out another opponent on Sunday, although beating Jacksonville is the NFL equivalent of Florida International. The scary thing about the Seahawks is that neither Russell Wilson nor Marshawn Lynch have had a great game yet.
3. New Orleans (6) - Drew Brees and the Saints are very happy to have Sean Payton back on the sidelines with them. As good as Brees has been the way that Rob Ryan has turned around the defense is a key reason the Saints are 3-0.
4. Chicago (7) - After getting up early the Bears let the Steelers crawl back into the game on Sunday, then Jay Cutler led them down field and the team put the hammer down. The loss of Henry Melton for the year will hurt but for now the Bears are the cream of the crop in the tough NFC North.
5. Kansas City (8) - The Chiefs defense was able to shut down Chip Kelly's vaunted defense by forcing five turnovers in Andy Reid's return to Philly. That defense could make things really ugly against the Giants this week.
6. Miami (11) - Early in the season one tends to be far too reactionary when making power rankings. That being said, Miami beat a good Falcons team to go 3-0. This week they play the Saints in a somewhat unexpected meeting of undefeated teams.
7. New England (10) - The Patriots rookies look like they are finally learning how to catch the ball. If that trend continues and Gronk comes back next week like expected the Pats might return to excellence.
8. Houston (3) - The Texans had some trouble getting into the end zone early in the Ravens game but still looked good, then the bottom fell out and they got trounced. There is still a lot of talent on the team and eventually Arian Foster has to get going.
9. Cincinnati (14) - The Bengals looked great in the first and fourth quarter against the Packers; if they can keep that play up for an entire game they could be a team to be reckoned with.
10. San Francisco (4) - The 49ers looked like a team that should be competing for a top draft pick instead of a Super Bowl on Sunday. Kaepernick has looked like a deer in headlights for much of this season, the Niners might be regretting the Alex Smith trade.
11. Baltimore (16) - The Ravens were able to hold the Texans to field goals early on and then after a fantastic punt return for a touchdown put the game away even without Ray Rice.
12. Green Bay (5) - After all of the work that Aaron Rodgers and the offense did to crawl back into Sunday's game the defense blew it almost immediately. With the Bears undefeated and the Lions 2-1 the Packers need to spend their bye week getting right if they are going to continue to be a power in the NFC.
13. Indianapolis (17) - The Colts were able to go into Candlestick and dismantle a 49ers team that was trying to rebound from an embarrassment the week before. The loss to Miami might not have been as bad as previously thought either.
14. Tennessee (18) - If nothing else the Titans look like they will be keeping every game close this season. Titan fans also have to be pumped that Jake Locker was able to step up and lead the team to victory in the fourth on Sunday.
15. Atlanta (9) - The Falcons were unable to hold a late lead against the Dolphins and fell to 1-2. With the resurgent Saints and a tough NFC Atlanta could be on their way to falling out of playoff contention.
16. Dallas (15) - The Cowboys became the first NFC East team to beat a team from outside of their division on Sunday, hooray! Tony Romo has looked great so far this year and DeMarco Murray finally had the breakout game people have been expecting.
17. Detroit (21) - One week after looking pretty bad against Arizona the Lions were able to carve up a bad Washington secondary and get the win. We'll know if they are for real after they host the Bears on Sunday.
18. Philadelphia (12) - It doesn't matter how quickly the plays are run, if the offense turns the ball over 5 times they are destined to lose. Luckily for the Eagles they play in what may be the worst division in football.
19. New York Jets (31) - The Jets were able to rack up over 500 yards of offense on the Bills while holding C.J. Spiller to a fantasy team killing 9 yards on 10 carries. If this team shows up more often than the one that was in New England a few Thursdays ago the Jets could make a run for a Wild Card spot.
20. San Diego (13) - The Chargers took all of the momentum from a good win against the Eagles and turned it into a miserable second half performance against Tennessee. As we mused after Week One, Norv may no longer be coaching this team but he left his complete inability to close games out with them.
21. Carolina (23) - Carolina's defense looked ferocious as they took down Eli six times in the first half. If it weren't for Ron Rivera the Panthers would be sitting at 2-1 right now, they are definitely better than they have played so far.
22. Buffalo (19) - The Bills got torched by big plays over and over on Sunday. You can't let a rookie quarterback throw the ball 42 times and expect to win.
23. St. Louis (20) - It was tough to tell which part of their team was worse against Dallas; the offensive line that let Bradford get sacked six times and got no push while trying to run the ball or the defense that let DeMarco Murray run wild.
24. Oakland (28) - While the Raiders found themselves on the losing end of a blow out against Denver they can take solace in the fact that they won't be the last team to say that this year.
25. Cleveland (30) - Everyone thought that the Browns were tanking when they decided send Brandon Weeden to the bench and trade Trent Richardson. Maybe GM Mike Lombardi is a mad genius! Or maybe the Vikings are terrible.
26. Arizona (27) - How does a team get blown out, have a player lose an appendage and still move up a spot? Thankfully for the Cardinals there are a lot of horrific looking teams out there.
27. Washington (26) - RGIII finally showed some signs of life against the Lions. Unfortunately the secondary continued to show signs of... death? You get the point, they're horrible.
28. Tampa Bay (25) - The Bucs let a hobbled Pats team coming off of a horrible game take them apart and they still look like they might implode.
29. Minnesota (22) - The Browns were trying to tank their season for a good draft pick and the ineptitude of the Vikings prevented them from doing so.
30. Pittsburgh (29) - For the last two weeks prime time audiences have had to watch the pathetic Steelers. No bar in the country will be showing their game against the equally awful Vikings next week.
31. New York Giants (24) - The Giants managed to make the Panthers defense look like the 85 Bears. It's time to stop believing they will get better as the season progresses like they have in years past, the Giants are horrible.
32. Jacksonville (32) - The 20 point spread for the Jags/Seahawks game was the largest in the history of the Seattle franchise and one of the 10 largest in 40 years. The Jaguars did not come close to covering.
* Stats and schedules taken from ESPN.com.
