NFL Power Rankings: Week 4

Week 4 is never too exciting of a week in the power ranks. Sure, if there are a few 4-0 teams they will be scrambling for the top spot, but we are so early into the season that there is still too large of a spread among the winning percentages (1.000, .750, .500, .250, .000) and there is really no such thing as "recent success" since everything is recent. So right now all the teams that fall into those 5 winning percentage categories listed in the previous run-on sentence fit neatly into blocks in the ranks, but as the season progresses, the other factors of the formula, especially strength of division, offensive, defensive, and turnover stats, will cause some teams with lower records to leapfrog some teams with higher records.

With that said the undefeated team to crawl to the top of the mountain this week is the New Orleans Saints after their nice win over the previously undefeated Jets. The ironic thing here is when I first started doing these ranks in 2007, the Saints were ranked #31 after week 4 after an 0-4 start. Things can change quickly I guess...The Giants didn't do anything wrong to drop to #2, they just beat down an inferior opponent, which hurts your strength of schedule this early in the season. The Vikings also fell victim to the Saints' surge to first this week, dropping to #3, while the Colts are back in a familiar place at #4 after destroying Seattle. The Broncos fell to #5 despite beating the Cowboys. New England, San Francisco, and Chicago top the 3-1 group at 6, 7, and 8.

The teams in the bottom 5 seem to be right at home. The Rams sank to a new level of suck this week, dropping into last behind idle Carolina, while the Browns and Titans stayed put after a tough loss for the Browns, and a horrendous loss for the Titans (thanks for screwing my fantasy team this week, Tennessee Defense). We have a new entrant into the bottom 5, the Chiefs, who fell behind Tampa for losing in more pathetic fashion this week.

The big gainers this week were Chicago, who is starting to look like how some people predicting them this year, Jacksonville, who seem to be bouncing back, and Miami, who got a big first win over Buffalo. The big losers were the Raiders, who seemed to be ranked too high to begin with, the Jets, and Packers, who were both victims of 4-0 teams this week and dropped 5 spots each for it.

Here are the complete ranks:
1. Saints - 87.02 - +3
2. Giants - 85.25 - -1
3. Vikings - 84.80 - -1
4. Colts - 83.17 - +3
5. Broncos - 81.94 - -2
6. Patriots - 69.19 - +3
7. 49ers - 69.02 - +3
8. Bears - 68.75 - +8
9. Ravens - 67.88 - -3
10. Jets - 65.54 - -5
11. Bengals - 63.95 - Even
12. Eagles - 60.61 - Even
13. Packers - 59.72 - -5
14. Falcons - 56.85 - +1
15. Cowboys - 54.69 - -2
16. Jaguars - 54.26 - +6
17. Chargers - 50.47 - -3
18. Texans - 49.23 - +1
19. Redskins - 48.95 - -1
20. Steelers - 48.23 - +1
21. Dolphins - 36.77 - +6
22. Lions - 35.87 - -2
23. Cardinals -35.86 - +2
24. Raiders - 30.54 - -7
25. Seahawks - 29.86 - -1
26. Bills - 28.63 - -3
27. Buccaneers - 19.15 - +1
28. Chiefs - 18.73 - -2
29. Titans - 16.75 - Even
30. Browns - 15.36 - Even
31. Panthers - 11.89 - +1
32. Rams - 10.30 - -1