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NFL Power Rankings: Giants On Top

Posted Sep 18, 2008 12:00PM By Michael David Smith (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Giants, NFL Power Rankings

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FanHouse's weekly look at all 32 NFL teams

I really hate the whole "We get no respect" thing that pro athletes just love to whine about, but I must say that the New York Giants really haven't gotten enough respect. They did, after all, win the Super Bowl, and yet no one was talking about them among the elite teams before the season.

Well, now they've won two games in impressive fashion, and I'm prepared to say it: The Giants are the best team in the league, and they're atop our FanHouse NFL power rankings.

  • 1. Giants (2-0) | Previous Week: 2
    Jeremy Shockey was traded to the Saints. Michael Strahan retired. Osi Umenyiora suffered a season-ending knee injury. And yet the defending champions look even better than last year. The Giants get three of their next four games at home, and the combined records of their next four opponents is 1-7. That means they should get off to a 6-0 start, heading into their October 26 game at Pittsburgh.
  • 2. Steelers (2-0) | Prev.: 1
    And that means Giants-Steelers should be a great October interconference game to rival Patriots-Cowboys last season. The Steelers looked a lot less impressive in their Week 2 win than they did in Week 1, but they still appear to be one of the league's most complete teams, as long as there's nothing to worry about with Ben Roethlisberger's shoulder.

  • 3. Cowboys (2-0) | Prev.: 3
    Dallas put on a great show on Monday Night Football -- a show that was the most-watched program in the history of cable television, which you know owner Jerry Jones has to like -- but I'd feel a little more confident in the Cowboys if I thought I could trust their secondary.
  • 4. Patriots (2-0) | Prev.: 11
    I'm probably rating the Patriots a little too high here -- are they really this good a team, even without Tom Brady? -- but I was impressed with the way they played against the Jets, and I figure they can only get better once Matt Cassel learns to stop under-throwing Randy Moss.
  • 5. Eagles (1-1) | Prev.: 4
    The Eagles dropped a tough loss to a good team on the road, so I'm not going to downgrade them too much for that. I'd like to downgrade them for DeSean Jackson's bonehead play of the year, but since Brian Westbrook bailed Jackson out on the next play, I won't penalize all of Philly.
  • 6. Packers (2-0) | Prev.: 5
    For trailing the woeful Lions in the fourth quarter, they probably deserve to be downgraded a bit, but Aaron Rodgers is playing extremely well through the first two games of his NFL career. How did so many NFL personnel geniuses think Alex Smith was going to be better than this guy?
  • 7. Bills (2-0) | Prev.: 8
    You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who thought the Bills would start 2-0. Now they're likely to start 4-0, with the Raiders coming to town followed by a trip to St. Louis. Second-year running back Fred Jackson is looking like one of the best receivers out of the backfield in the league.
  • 8. Colts (1-1) | Prev.: 9
    I heard someone say the win at Minnesota was the best game of Peyton Manning's career. That's an overstatement, but it was amazing that he even stayed upright, considering the combination of his knee injury and the woeful state of the Colts' offensive line.
  • 9. Panthers (2-0) | Prev.: 16
    I figure the Panthers have to be even better once Steve Smith reports for duty, and they're already looking plenty good. The bad news is that Julius Peppers just isn't the same player he used to be. If he could get some pressure on Gus Frerotte this weekend in Minnesota, that would be nice.
  • 10. Broncos (2-0) | Prev.: 6
    Jay Cutler throwing to Eddie Royal and Brandon Marshall is looking like the next generation of Peyton Manning throwing to Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. At least, it is through two games.
  • 11. Chargers (0-2) | Prev.: 12
    Yes, I moved them up after a loss. If Ed Hochuli had gotten the call right at the end of the game, the Chargers would have won at Denver, and if football games were 59 minutes long they'd be 2-0. Of course, if me auntie had bollocks she'd be me uncle. I do believe the Chargers are the best team in the AFC West, but I'm not sure they'll make up that two-game deficit with 14 games to go.
  • 12. Bears (1-1) | Prev.: 7
    Sorry, Bears fans, I know I've got them behind the Colts even though they went to Indianapolis and won handily, but I just have a hard time getting behind this team until I'm a little more persuaded by Kyle Orton.
  • 13. Saints (1-1) | Prev.: 13
    I really wish Reggie Bush would stop taunting so much, especially since he's, you know, not all that good of a running back. In other news, coach Sean Payton got a nice new deal right before he coached a dud of a game.
  • 14. Vikings (0-2) | Prev.: 14
    Tarvaris Jackson is the biggest reason this team is 0-2, and it was obviously the right move to bench him. It does raise the question, though, of why he was starting in the first place. Vikings coach Brad Childress took a team with a good defense and great running game and decided to trust it to Jackson, and that could cost him a playoff berth -- and his job.
  • 15. Ravens (1-0) | Prev.: 15
    Troy Smith is back at practice, but for now rookie Joe Flacco will remain the Ravens' starter. I'm skeptical that either Smith or Flacco is the kind of quarterback who can do anything more than play the same role that Trent Dilfer played for the Ravens in 2000, but then again they won the Super Bowl that year so maybe that'll be just fine.
  • 16. Titans (2-0) | Prev.: 17
    They've been so good so far on defense, but people aren't talking about that because the situation with Vince Young has dominated the headlines. I think Jeff Fisher was smart to say Kerry Collins will stay the starter as long as the Titans are winning, and with home games against Houston and Minnesota coming up, I think they'll keep winning for quite a while.
  • 17. Jaguars (0-2) | Prev.: 18
    Can you have a must-win game in Week 3? If you can, the Jaguars have it against the Colts. This was a team that thought it was ready to contend for the Super Bowl, but a loss would send them two games behind the Colts and at least two behind the Titans in the AFC South.
  • 18. Cardinals (2-0) | Prev.: 19
    Kurt Warner is so much better than Matt Leinart that it's absolutely ridiculous that Leinart was ever the starter in Arizona. I don't think the Cardinals are a good team from top to bottom, but I do think Warner throwing to a good set of wide receivers is enough to win the terrible NFC West.
  • 19. Redskins (1-1) | Prev.: 22
    The big question surrounding the Redskins this week isn't about last Sunday's game against the Saints or this Sunday's game against the Cardinals. No, it's this: Which is worse -- posting a picture of your playbook online, or posting a picture of your penis online?
  • 20. Jets (1-1) | Prev.: 10
    It's a strange thing about the Jets so far this season: They made the big trade to acquire Brett Favre, and yet they're having him play the same dink-and-dunk passing game that drove Jets fans nuts with Chad Pennington. What exactly did they think they were trading for?
  • 21. 49ers (1-1) | Prev.: 29
    When J.T. O'Sullivan is throwing for 321 yards and 127-year-old Isaac Bruce is catching passes for 153 yards, you know offensive coordinator Mike Martz is a miracle worker.
  • 22. Seahawks (0-2) | Prev.: 20
    I have a bad feeling that Mike Holmgren's final year as an NFL head coach is going to turn really ugly. It's not so much that the Seahawks are a bad team as that they're such an injury-plagued team that you wonder how they're going to make it to December.
  • 23. Buccaneers (1-1) | Prev.: 21
    Brian Griese is the man, at least until Jon Gruden changes his mind again, and for a week the Bucs looked impressive. I'm just not convinced the defense will look quite so impressive when it's playing a quarterback who's not a rookie.
  • 24. Falcons (1-1) | Prev.: 23
    Lawyer Milloy drowned his sorrows after the loss to the Bucs, and Falcons fans will be doing a lot of that this season (hopefully without driving home afterward). Atlanta is ahead of where it was last year, but they don't get to play the Lions every week.
  • 25. Browns (0-2) | Prev.: 24
    They've played the teams that are, in my view, the second and third-best teams in the NFL, so maybe I've got them too low. But when I look ahead at the Browns' schedule, keeping in mind that they're already 0-2 at home, I'm having a hard time finding eight wins.
  • 26. Texans (0-1) | Prev.: 25
    As the Texans' dig out after Hurricane Ike damaged their homes, they've got a tough stretch of three straight division games: At Tennessee, at Jacksonville, home against Indianapolis. This was a team I was optimistic about heading into the season, but I have a bad feeling that after that three-game stretch, we're going to forget about the Texans.
  • 27. Raiders (1-1) | Prev.: 31
    Lane Kiffin kept his job for another week, but you have to wonder: Does he even want this job? Wouldn't he rather be a college coach somewhere? It must be miserable to coach a bad team, work for an owner you can't stand and manage a staff of assistants you don't have the authority to fire.
  • 28. Bengals (0-2) | Prev.: 27
    Can anyone tell me what happened to Carson Palmer? The Football Outsiders stats say he's the worst quarterback in the NFL this year. It's sad to see how bad the Bengals are now.
  • 29. Dolphins (0-2) | Prev.: 28
    I didn't think the Dolphins would be good this year, but I did think they'd at least field a somewhat competitive team that played Bill Parcells' brand of football. Instead, we're all waiting for Chad Pennington to get benched for Chad Henne.
  • 30. Rams (0-2) | Prev.: 30
    Scott Linehan really needs to calm down before he addresses the media. I get it, his job is on the line and he's not happy that he has to answer a bunch of stupid questions about it, but that's part of the job he took, and it's not going to change until his team gets better or, you know, he gets fired.
  • 31. Chiefs (0-2) | Prev.: 26
    They just lost by 15 at home to the Raiders. Does it get any worse than that? Oh, yes, it does ...
  • 32. Lions (0-2) | Prev.: 32
    Fire Millen.


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