NFL Power Rankings Week 4: Arrowhead Pride Edition

Wow, what a week in football!  The Bills beat the Patriots, the Chiefs put up a fight against the Chargers and in my second year in franchise mode in Madden 2012 I led the Chiefs to a Super Bowl victory. 

But the first three weeks the media hasn't been kind to the Chiefs in the power rankings.

The Arrowhead Pride panel ranked the Chiefs 11th before the season started.  After week one we ranked them 24th.  Last week the panel ranked them 32.  So....we aren't a bunch of homers.

The Packers are still number one which is no surprise.  The Patriots are still in the top three after a big upset loss to the Bills.  The biggest jump with 8 spots this week goes to the Bills.  The biggest fall with 8 spots this week goes to the Eagles.

There was one tie this week between the Bengals and Rams.  I took out the best and worst from both teams.  I then averaged out the remaining 6 rankings.  The Rams edged out the Bengals to be more consistently ranked.  The number after the team is the average ranking of the panel of eight.

Three of the eight panel members ranked the Chiefs 32nd in the league.  The highest ranking was a 27 with 29 following closely.  Just a reminder on who the panel is.  ChiefsFan90's wrote about the AFC North.  The AFC South has upamtn talking about it.  Flowers24 took the AFC West while I took the AFC East.  The NFC North is being covered by saskwatch.  The NFC South belongs to wustl_chiefs_fan.  MtHammer writes about the NFC West while GenericBrand writes about the NFC East.  So be sure to thank them.  If you have a problem then please contact ups with your concerns.

1.  Green Bay Packers (1.3)

The defending champs are rolling along. The offense has to many weapons right now.

2.  New Orleans Saints (2.4)

Got all the tough teams out of the way, so their toughest game remaining is against the Giants. Thank god I bet on them to win the division.

3.  New England Patriots (2.8)

The Patriots defense has to catch up to their offense.  If that happens the Patriots will be unstoppable.

4.  Baltimore Ravens (5)

Missouri is the "Show-Me" State and the Baltimore defense showed Sam Bradford that he is not an elite quarterback; not yet. On the other side of the football, Torrey Smith had a career game racking up 152 yards on 5 catches and 3 touchdown for an average of 30.4 yards per catch.

5.  Buffalo Bills (6.1)

The Bills start off the year 3-0.  If I would have predicted that before the season I would have been called crazy--among other things.

6.  Houston Texans (6.3)

No shame in losing to the Saints on the road, Texans should have plenty of breathing room with little or no competition from within the division.

7.  Detroit Lions (6.4)

As long as Stafford can stay healthy and the that defense continues to play nasty, the will be hard to beat.

8.  Pittsburgh Steelers (7.1)

The Steelers were lucky to leave Indianapolis with a win. They have more giveaways (10) than they do takeaways (1) so far this season, that trend only continued this week against the Colts as they were -2 in the turnover ratio. To make matters worse, their offensive linemen are as durable as a Vikings' lead. They have to do something about these two problems, or else they will not return to Indy during the postseason.

9.  New York Jets (10)

The J-E-T-S just might be A-V-E-R-A-G-E.

10.  San Diego Chargers (10.5)

San Diego got a much needed win on Sunday, and now gets into the wheelhouse of their schedule.

11.  Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11.5)

I have no idea what to think about them, so I'll just say that I'm on the Bills bandwagon 100%. The Bucs are nice too, I guess.

12.  Dallas Cowboys (13.5)

Big time character win for the Cowboys Sunday and despite not scoring a TD it was some proof that maybe Romo is ready to get over the hump and be the clutch QB everyone thought he could be.

13.  Oakland Raiders (13.6)

Beating the Jets was a huge step for this team. Will it continue Sunday?

14.  New York Giants (14.1)

Same old winning formula in New Jersey: Play tough D and eliminate turnovers on offense.

15.  Washington Redskins (15.5)

It's a shame the 'Skins lost Sunday because they've definitely been the best all around team in this division since week one but will continue to fly under the radar.

16.  Philadelphia Eagles (17)

It was too easy to see the giant holes at o-line and linebacker that would ruin this "Dream team". Maybe they should try handing to ball off to budding star, McCoy, to alleviate some hits on Vick.

17.  Chicago Bears (17.4)

After week 1 I declared I was a believer, and then they promptly played two terrible games. Which team shows up this week?

18.  Atlanta Falcons (17.9)

It seems every week I say how I thought they were bad from the start, and I will for the foreseeable future, so I'm going to apologize now for being being such an insufferable D-bag about it.

19.  San Francisco 49ers (18)

After taking care of business against the Bengals, the 49ers have found themselves in sole possession of first place in the NFC West.  To hold onto it, they'll likely need to go into Philly and steal one from an Eagles team in desperate need of a win.

20.  Tennessee Titans (18.6)

Titans do Chiefs fans a favor and defeat Broncos, but can they win many more games this year?  Don't count on it.

21.  Cleveland Browns (18.9)

The Browns pulled out another close one against a weak opponent. Could they be the 2011 version of the 2010 Chiefs? They play at home against the Titans, so their stretch of playing weak teams continue.

22.  Arizona Cardinals (21.3)

The defense did a pretty good job only giving up 13 points (even if it was against the less than unstoppable Seahawks), but the offense needs to get better.  They'll get their next chance against a banged-up, but still tough, Giants' squad.

23.  Carolina Panthers (22.9)

Cam Newton does amazing, the Panthers lose. Cam Newton does poorly, the Panthers win. I don't understand.

24.  Jacksonville Jaguars (23)

Blaine Gabbert gets off to a rocky start in Jacksonville as the Jags fall to the Panthers in an ugly game.

25.  Denver Broncos (25.9)

A tough loss in Tennessee, but a good show by the defense. This team may be improving.

26.  St. Louis Rams (26.5)

Another week, another loss.  I'm still inclined to give the Rams a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, however.  After playing the Eagles, Giants, and Ravens, it's hard not to argue that St. Louis has faced perhaps the toughest early schedule in the league.  Sooner or later, though, they need to start racking up wins.  Next weekend against the Redskins would be a good place to start.

27.  Cincinnati Bengals (26.5)

Young teams usually play sloppy games, and the Bengals are no different. It is too bad that Andy Dalton and the gang had to suffer there first sloppy game against a winnable opponent like the 49ers at home.

28.  Seattle Seahawks (27.6)

The Seahawks 13-10 win over the Cardinals wasn't really pretty, per se, but it still counts.  They'll need to carry that momentum into this weekend as they host a hungry Falcons team looking to right the ship.

29.  Minnesota Vikings (28.8)

They have blown 3 double digit leads three weeks in a row. Will Frazier figure out to keep pounding the rock with AP this week?

30.  Miami Dolphins (28.9)

The Dolphins need to figure out how to win and fast.  Especially, with the Bills being off to a fast start.

31.  Kansas City Chiefs (30.5)

Finally a better effort, but the same result. If KC wants to get back in the race, they need to win these next two games.

32.  Indianapolis Colts (31.3)

Fought the good fight against a strong Steelers team, but with Manning out for the year it's going to be long and dreary in Indianapolis.