(Ed. Note: Don't forget, folks: If you're reading somebody else's power rankings, you're wasting your time. Cold, Hard Football Facts boasts the single most accurate power rankings on the web, beating out all our biggest and most unworthy competitors from the major networks or from that cheesy entertainment and sports site. Chumps.)
Week 1 felt like an entire season, with all of the injuries, drama and honest-to-goodness great football being played.
And, as we noted in August when tabbing the Giants the No. 1 team until proven otherwise, all of the offseason moves and speculation don’t mean diddly until the games start.
Fans from San Diego, New England and Indianapolis were indignant when we placed their teams behind the “fluke” Giants – but two of those AFC powers lost at home to allegedly inferior teams on opening day, and the other lost its franchise quarterback. The Patriots are now led by a QB who hasn't started a game since high school, while the Giants look quite un-fluke-like.
Like we said, our rankings are based solely upon the on-the-field evidence. You should adopt our philosophy.
New York's opening-night win over Washington was as impressive as any in Week 1, although the 16-7 score didn’t reflect it. The Giants dominated both sides of the ball, and only a tepid effort from Eli Manning kept them from making it an all-out party in the Meadowlands.
But the Giants didn’t play well enough to keep the top spot – that honor goes to Dallas, which was the only team among the front-runners to successfully live up to all of its preseason hype. The smart money is on Dallas in the NFC and Pittsburgh in the AFC. (Could we see our fourth Dallas-Pittsburgh Super Bowl this year?)
The Steelers are healthy, the rest of the AFC North looks shaky, and the Colts-Patriots-Chargers troika is vulnerable. San Diego's loss of Shawne Merriman for the season only reinforces this notion.
Although Tom Brady is likewise done for the year, we resisted the temptation to drop New England all the way out of the top 12, as many have. With seven years of success under their belts and a legendary team-oriented approach, the Patriots aren’t completely devalued by the loss of one player – even if it's the reigning MVP.
Oh, and while the top teams have experienced some ups and downs, the bad ones are just experiencing downs. Six of the bottom seven lost their openers, and though it’s a long season and anything can happen, that doesn’t provide much comfort for teams like the Rams, Lions, Dolphins and 49ers.
On to the rankings…
THE DOMINANT DOZEN
1. DALLAS (1-0, preseason rank: 4)
Last week: The Cowboys made the most potent statement of Week 1, cruising to a 28-10 win in Cleveland as RBs Marion Barber and Felix Jones combined for 25 carries, 142 yards and 3 TDs.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: Dallas is a team that appears to be loaded with veterans, yet there are only nine players on the roster who are 30 and over – fewer than “rebuilding” teams like St. Louis (16) and Atlanta (10), and only one more than Miami (8).
Week 2 matchup: vs. Philadelphia on Monday night. The Cowboys are 4-12 against the Eagles since Donovan McNabb became Philly's full-time starter in 2000.
2. N.Y. GIANTS (1-0, preseason rank: 1)
Last week: The Giants impressed on both sides of the ball (if not on the scoreboard) in a 16-7 win over Washington that featured a 354-209 yardage edge.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: The best player never to make a Pro Bowl? It might be Plaxico Burress, whose 11 catches in Week 1 gives him the inside track for a 2008 berth. Burress has four 1,000-yard seasons and has scored 10 and 12 TDs the last two years.
Week 2 matchup: at St. Louis. After dispatching one not-ready-for-prime-time player, the Giants take on another. If you’re looking for the Rams in the Power Rankings, look low – right near the Giants’ Week 3 opponent, Cincinnati.
3. PITTSBURGH (1-0, preseason rank: 8)
Last week: The Steelers made the visiting Texans look overhyped in a 38-17 home win. Last season's breakout star, James Harrison, led the charge with three sacks.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: Ben Roethlisberger has a career passer rating of 93.2, following his superbly efficient Week 1 effort (147.0). He now needs 50 pass attempts to quality for "official" NFL records (min. 1,500 attempts). If he comes close to the efficiency he displayed in Week 1, he will debut on the "official" all-time passer rating list at No. 3 in history, ahead of players like Tom Brady and Joe Montana, and behind only Steve Young and Peyton Manning. Even Manning's No. 2 mark on the all-time passer rating list is within Big Ben's reach.
Week 2 matchup: at Cleveland. With a victory here, the Steelers will have a two-game lead over the team that was supposed to be their main rival for the AFC North crown. Pittsburgh is 16-3 vs. the Browns since Cleveland's resurrection in 1999, including nine straight.
4. GREEN BAY (1-0, preseason rank: 6)
Last week: Aaron Rodgers (115.5 rating) led the Packers to a turnover-free 24-19 win over the Vikings at home.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: Rodgers completed 18 of 22 passes (81.8%) in his first regular-season start. How many times did Brett Favre complete 80 percent of his passes in his 16 years with Green Bay? Believe it or not, just once: in his very last regular-season game in a Packers uniform. He went 9 of 11 (81.8%) in the 2007 finale against Detroit.
Week 2 matchup: at Detroit. If the Packers rushed for 5.1 YPA against last year’s No. 1 run defense in Week 1, what will they do against a Detroit team that allowed 10 YPA to Atlanta's Michael Turner last week?
5. NEW ENGLAND (1-0, preseason rank: 2)
Last week: The Patriots recorded a completely uneventful 17-10 win over the visiting Chiefs.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: For all of those jumping off the New England bandwagon, the folks at pro-football-reference.com recently did a study quantifying the actual difference between a starting QB and a backup. The answer? One win over the course of a 16-game season. So, expect 15-1, Pats fans!
Week 2 matchup: at N.Y. Jets. What a difference a year makes. When these teams met last December at Foxboro Stadium, the line was as high as New England -24. Early lines for the rematch (in New Jersey) have the Jets favored by 2½ – that's a 26½-point swing in less than 10 months.
6. CHICAGO (1-0, preseason rank: 20)
Last week: The Bears turned in the most unexpected performance of Week 1, handing the Colts their first double-digit home loss since 2003, 29-13.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: There’s reason for optimism in Chicago, but maybe not about the wide receivers. Bears wideouts totalled six catches for 40 yards and 0 TDs against the Colts (Indy’s WRs had 23 catches for 210 yards).
Week 2 matchup: at Carolina. Speaking of wide receivers, the Bears have to be happy that suspended Panthers star Steve Smith will miss this one. In their last two meetings, back in 2005, Smith caught 14 passes for 169 yards against the Bears in the regular season and added 12 catches for 218 yards and 2 TDs in the playoffs.
7. TENNESSEE (1-0, preseason rank: 10)
Last week: The Titans defense picked up where it left off in 2007, holding the Jaguars to 189 yards and forcing three turnovers in one of their usual ugly wins, 17-10.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: Owner Bud Adams set official criteria for number retirement last week: A player must make the Pro Football Hall of Fame and have played the bulk of his prime with the Oilers/Titans. The team so far has retired the numbers of six players: Warren Moon (1), Earl Campbell (34), non-HOFer Jim Norton (43), Mike Munchak (63), Elvin Bethea (65) and Bruce Matthews (74).
Week 2 matchup: at Cincinnati. The two worst defensive performances in franchise history have come against the Bengals. The Oilers surrendered 61 points to them in both 1972 and 1989.
8. PHILADELPHIA (1-0, preseason rank: 14)
Last week: Receivers DeSean Jackson, Greg Lewis and Hank Baskett all topped 100 yards as the Eagles outgained the Rams, 522-166, in a 38-3 shellacking.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: Over his last eight games dating back to 2007, QB Donovan McNabb boasts 1,909 passing yards, 14 TDs, 5 INTs and a 94.99 passer rating.
Week 2 matchup: at Dallas on Monday night. Including the playoffs, this will be the 98th meeting between the longtime rivals (the Cowboys lead the series, 54-43).
9. CAROLINA (1-0, preseason rank: 18)
Last week: Jake Delhomme’s walk-off TD pass to TE Dante Rosario (7 catches for 96 yards, nearly topping his entire 2007 output) gave the Panthers a 26-24 upset win in San Diego.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: Carolina's new RB tandem of Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams finished with a solid 28 carries for 139 yards (4.96 YPA). The old tandem of Williams and DeShaun Foster combined to average 4.07 YPA in 2007 and 4.02 YPA in 2006.
Week 2 matchup: vs. Chicago. The two teams that pulled off big interconference road upsets fight to see who’s the official rising star of September.
10. NEW ORLEANS (1-0, preseason rank: 16)
Last week: The Saints rolled up 438 yards of offense in a 24-20 win against Tampa Bay, a team that was second in the NFL in yards allowed last year.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: Reggie Bush is being anointed as a breakout star already, thanks to his 163 yards from scrimmage against the Bucs. It may well be so, but Bush's 14 rushes for 51 yards equal 3.6 YPA – worse than his disappointing 3.7 career average – and he still has only one 100-yard rushing game to his credit.
Week 2 matchup: at Washington.
11. SAN DIEGO (0-1, preseason rank: 5)
Last week: Shawne Merriman registered one tackle and no sacks as the Chargers allowed 388 yards in a stunning 26-24 loss to visiting Carolina. That’ll be his final 2008 stat line, as he pulled himself out for the season on Tuesday to have knee surgery.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: The Chargers have finished in the top 5 in scoring for four consecutive years; if they can do it again this year, they’ll top the four straight achieved by the great Chargers offenses from 1979 to 1982. (For the record, the Chargers finished in the top five in scoring every year of their AFL days, 1960-69.)
Week 2 matchup: at Denver. The bad news is that a loss would put the Chargers two games behind their only real rival in the AFC West. The good news is that they’ve beaten the Broncos four times in a row, by an average score of 37-13.
12. INDIANAPOLIS (0-1, preseason rank: 3)
Last week: The Colts looked like they were stuck in the preseason, failing on both sides of the ball in a 29-13 home loss to Chicago.
Cold, Hard Football Facts: The Colts defense didn’t give up a ton of yards (319), but allowed the Bears to convert 10 of 16 times on third down (62 percent). Chicago was 29th in third-down conversions last year (34 percent).
Week 2 matchup: at Minnesota. It's another tough NFC North opponent for Indy, which hasn’t been 0-2 since 1998.
THE TEPID TWENTY
13. ARIZONA (1-0, preseason rank: 17) – History in the desert: The Cardinals ended their win over the 49ers with four straight Kurt Warner kneel-downs, tying the NFL record and lowering Warner’s career per-rush average to 1.97.
14. DENVER (1-0, preseason rank: 22) – The Broncos impressed on Monday night, but does a win over the hapless Raiders (10 penalties, 96 yards) really tell you anything?
15. JACKSONVILLE (0-1, preseason rank: 7) – The Jaguars produced one run of 10+ yards in their loss to the Titans.
16. BUFFALO (1-0, preseason rank: 24) – The Bills' 34-10 win over Seattle was their most decisive since December of 2004 (41-7 over San Francisco).
17. N.Y. JETS (1-0, preseason rank: 23) – The Jets defense allowed only one gain of 20+ yards to Miami over its 64 offensive plays.
18. BALTIMORE (1-0, preseason rank: 25) – Flacc-O! Flacc-O!
19. TAMPA BAY (0-1, preseason rank: 9) – One bright spot for the Bucs in their opening loss was the tandem of Warrick Dunn and Earnest Graham, who combined for 19 carries and 145 yards (7.6 YPA).
20. MINNESOTA (0-1, preseason rank: 13) – Courtesy of NFL.com, here’s a truly amazing Cold, Hard Football Fact: The Vikings have now lost 38 straight games when trailing after the third quarter. How is that even possible?
21. ATLANTA (1-0, preseason rank: 30) – The Falcons’ first three drives vs. Detroit on Sunday covered a total of 221 yards on just 13 plays.
22. CLEVELAND (0-1, preseason rank: 11) – Confetti production in Cleveland dropped 84.5 percent after Sunday’s awful opener.
23. SEATTLE (0-1, preseason rank: 12) – The Seahawks managed to fail in all three areas: offense (passer rating of 53.9), defense (5.5 yards per play allowed) and special teams (two TDs allowed). Congrats!
24. WASHINGTON (0-1, preseason rank: 15) – A Google search for “Jim Zorn deer in headlights” returns 968 entries.
25. HOUSTON (0-1, preseason rank: 19) – Mario Williams contributed two sacks and a forced fumble, giving him 12 sacks over his last eight games.
26. SAN FRANCISCO (0-1, preseason rank: 25) – The team is named “49ers” after the Bay Area’s famous gold rush of 1849; it seems like it's been that long since they were any good.
27. KANSAS CITY (0-1, preseason rank: 31) – Don’t blame the quarterbacks: Chiefs receivers dropped a Week 1-high four passes in the loss to the Patriots.
28. CINCINNATI (0-1, preseason rank: 21) – Marvin Lewis’s approval ratings make George W. Bush look like Harry Truman on V-J Day.
29. DETROIT (0-1, preseason rank: 26) – Insert your own Matt Millen joke here.
30. MIAMI (0-1, preseason rank: 32) – The Dolphins are 2-20 over their last 22 games, dating back to December 2002. Those are sad numbers for a team that lost a total of 16 games in their six-year glory run of 1970-1975.
31. ST. LOUIS (0-1, preseason rank: 28) – The Rams are 7-21 in their last 28 games, dating back to mid-October 2006. No historical footnote needed.
32. OAKLAND (0-1, preseason rank: 27) – Just Woeful, Baby! The Raiders allowed 441 yards and forced 0 turnovers in their Monday night home loss to the Broncos. Superfan points to anyone who watched the game until the end (past 1 a.m. ET).
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