1- Denver Broncos - 4-0 (+0) - The Broncos just seem to be getting better as the season goes along. Peyton Manning has now thrown for 1470 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. If he were to keep those averages up, he would end the season with 5880 yards and 62 touchdowns. That would be insane.
2- Seattle Seahawks - 4-0 (+0) - The Seahawks have played sub-par football in both road games this season while playing unstoppable in both home games. That goes to show how important the twelfth man is for them. Despite not playing great in Texas, though, that was an impressive comeback that was capped off with a great defensive play by Richard Sherman.
3- New Orleans Saints - 4-0 (+1) - The Saints are in total control of the AFC South after just four weeks into the season. After having several good defensive performances, it was a complete showing for their team with a great offensive and defensive performance. If they play like that every week, they are going to be hard to stop.
4- Kansas City Chiefs - 4-0 (+1) - The Chiefs steamrolled past the weak Giants team in quite an impressive fashion. If they keep playing like this, looking at their schedule we could definitely have a match-up of 9-0 teams when they first head into Denver.
5- New England Patriots - 4-0 (+2) - The Patriots had their first test of the season by playing the Falcons and they looked impressive in doing so. They may not have a stacked team, but they find ways to win and when Gronk and Amendola come back, they will also be hard to stop.
6- Indianapolis Colts - 3-1 (+2) - It was a fun scrimmage for the Colts with Jacksonville coming to town. They have looked impressive so far, but they will be greatly tested here soon as they have both Seattle and Denver in the next three weeks.
7- Miami Dolphins - 3-1 (-1) - It wasn't a pretty loss for the Dolphins on Monday Night Football, but I will give more credit to a fantastic performance by the Saints as opposed to the Dolphins falling apart. The Dolphins are still a good young team with a fairly manageable schedule. They may not beat out the Pats for the division title, but they'll give them a good run for their money.
8- Detroit Lions - 3-1 (+5) - Reggie Bush is playing like the Reggie Bush everyone thought he play like when he came out of college as he led and the Lions put up 40 points on the Bears tough defense. If he can stay healthy the whole season, this Lions team will be a tough team and could even make a run for the NFC North title. They have a tough challenge in Green Bay this week. If they win it'll make a huge statement.
9- Chicago Bears - 3-1 (-6) - As previously mentioned, Reggie Bush completely lit up the Bears defense on Sunday and the Bears couldn't complete yet another comeback win. It won't get much easier next week as the red hot Saints come to town this upcoming Sunday. It should be fun to watch this NFC North race.
10- San Francisco 49ers - 2-2 (+5) - The Niners actually woke up this week and played typical Niners football. Although the Rams this year are making it easy for a lot of teams, so we'll see if they are actually back when they host the Texans this next week in a battle of teams trying to avoid 2-3.
11- Houston Texans - 2-2 (-2) - Speaking of Texans, I will give them a bit of a break because it was the Seahawks they lost to, but not much of a break because that was a sad collapse. I believe they can still pull things together and win the AFC South, but they better get working fast because they are currently sitting in third place behind both the Colts and the Titans.
12- Tennessee Titans - 3-1 (+5) - I do have to give the Titans a bit of love this week because they are sitting at a 3-1 record and have the lead in the division. The bad news is that Jake Locker was starting to get into a rhythm and now he will be gone for several weeks. That's real bad timing because the next three opponents for the Titans are the Chiefs, Seahawks, and Niners.
13- San Diego Chargers - 2-2 (+9) - I probably bounced the Chargers a little high this week, but that is mainly due to them looking more impressive than the teams behind them currently. However, I do have a feeling that they will doing up and down my chart quite a bit this year because they can't play consistently for multiple games in a row if their life depending on it. That said, they do have the Raiders, Jaguars, and Redskins in their next four games, so that should help them get somewhat of a head start as far as their confidence goes.
14- Green Bay Packers - 1-2 (+0) - They had a week off to think about things, but now they have to pick things up or else the Lions and Bears are going to happily leave them in the dust. They play host to the Lions this week, so that time to pick things up is right now.
15- Dallas Cowboys - 2-2 (-4) - The Cowboys did what they do best on Sunday, that being choking down the stretch. Like the Chargers team they played, they have a tough time playing consistent football right now. What they have in their favor, though, is an awful division. At 2-2, they are flying solo at the top. The bad news for this upcoming week is that the Broncos will be in town Sunday.
16- Buffalo Bills - 2-2 (+8) - The Bills were huge fans of Joe Flacco on Sunday as he kept thinking he was their team. Embarrassing. The Bills have been a somewhat of an impressive team this year, although that will probably not show in their record when things are all said and done because their schedule gets quite brutal here in a bit.
17- Cleveland Browns - 2-2 (+10) - We went through half of the league already in this and now we are just getting to the AFC North. Yes, the Browns are winning the division right now. You did read that right when you went to look at the standings. And that is all because of third string quarterback Brian Hoyer. 590 yards and 5 touchdowns is not bad for his first two starts in Cleveland.
18- Cincinnati Bengals - 2-2 (-8) - Remember when people were picking the Bengals to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of the year? Yeah, I'm still kinda laughing about that. They are actually pretty lucky to be at 2-2 with how they've played this season so far. And they also are pretty lucky that despite that, they still have a good chance of winning the division as no one in the AFC North is that good. Someone's gotta win, though.
19- Baltimore Ravens - 2-2 (-7) - It's pretty embarrassing when you pay a guy crazy money and then come week four he forgets what team he is on. Five interceptions for Joe Flacco in a loss to the Buffalo Bills is a pretty sad thing. This team looks nothing like last year's Super Bowl team.
20- Atlanta Falcons - 1-3 (-4) - I was heavily criticized at the beginning of the season for calling the Falcons overrated. Now look where they are. The facts are simple. They won a ton of games last year on a super easy schedule and they struggled to win most of those games. Now with a much tougher schedule this year, their only win comes against a Rams team that has no running game. And even that one they almost dropped.
21- Carolina Panthers - 1-2 (-1) - The Panthers got a week off, so not much movement for them in the rankings, but they looked really good against an awful Giants team two weeks back and now they need to take that momentum and cruise through the Cardinals, Vikings, Rams and Bucs in their next four games so they can have a lot of built in confidence by the time they actually face off against a good team again.
22- Philadelphia Eagles - 1-3 (-4) - What happened on Sunday was about what I expected to happen as the Eagles' awful defense faced off against the Broncos. What they need to do is just completely forget that that game happened. At 1-3, they are somehow only a game back of the Cowboys for the division lead and they have a schedule that they could breeze through.
23- Arizona Cardinals - 2-2 (+0) - The Cardinals unimpressively beat a bad Bucs team on Sunday and that is bad news because despite them not looking awful this year, they do have a really brutal schedule and thus will get left in the dust if they don't take their game to a higher level.
24- St. Louis Rams - 1-3 (-3) - Yes, the Rams did play a really tough Niner defense this past Thursday, but it seems like they are progressing backwards this year as they pretty much had no offense at all. There's only so much Sam Bradford can do when he gets no help from anyone on offense, so I'm not going to put the whole blame on him.
25- New York Jets - 2-2 (-6) - The Jets got lucky with their schedule early on and somehow wound up 2-1 to start the season, but this past Sunday against the Titans was the Jets team that most people thought would show up. I would expect more of that type of awful performance to happen as the season progresses.
26- Minnesota Vikings - 1-3 (-1) - The Vikings did win the battle of the winless teams this past Sunday, but unfortunately for them they don't have a whole lot more opponents like that this season. In a division with the Lions, Bears and Packers, their season already looks over.
27- Washington Redskins - 1-3 (+1) - Redskins fans shouldn't be gloating too much. Sure they got their first win, but it came against a sub-par Raiders team that was playing without their starting quarterback Terrell Pryor. However, if they turn things around magically, they could still compete in their division. They are only a game back of the lead, which is crazy.
28- Oakland Raiders - 1-3 (-2) - The Raiders aren't a great football team anyways, but it hurts even more when your already bad team starts getting injury plagued. Thanks to the baseball team they share a city with, their Sunday game should be interesting. It got postponed to 11:30 p.m. eastern time. Some people on the East coast will be getting up for work before that game officially ends.
29- Pittsburgh Steelers - 0-4 (+0) - It is really weird to be watching the Steelers play this bad. It's been a long time since the Steelers started out 0-4. They do have talent on their roster and on their coaching staff. They just seem to have forgotten how to actually play football and I have no idea how they are going to go about fixing the problem.
30- New York Giants - 0-4 (+0) - The Giants have been outscored 69-7 in their last two games. Ouch. And I said the Steelers forgot how to play football. That is ridiculous. It's hard to believe that this is the same team that won the Super Bowl just two years ago. They just look awful in about every position.
31- Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 0-4 (+0) - The Josh Freeman era in Tampa is over and the first game of the Mike Glennon era didn't give Bucs fans much to look forward to as far as this season goes. Trying to come up with a week where the Bucs will get their first win is a pretty difficult task, although it is slightly easier to do so with them than with my last team in the rankings.
32- Jacksonville Jaguars - 0-4 (+0) - There is one positive thing about the game against the Colts on Sunday. The Jags were actually winning 3-0 as the first quarter ended. That's about as fun for them as it got, though. Justin Blackmon comes back from a suspension this weekend. Perhaps he can be somewhat of a spark to this team? If he's not, I don't even know if the Jags will win a single game this year.
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