2011 NFL Power Rankings – Week 4

NFL Power Rankings 2011 Pre 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Playoffs

Here are our rankings going into Week 4:

Rank Team Comment
1 Green Bay Packers Another week, another impressive performance for Green Bay. The Packers are looking like the best overall team in the NFL right now and their next three opponents before the bye week are a combined 2-7. A 6-0 start is foreseeable.
2 New Orleans Saints After losing to GB in week one, the Saints have beaten two quality opponents and seem to be clicking right now (despite injury issues at WR). This team is starting to look like it did two years ago, which is bad news for the rest of the league.
3 Baltimore Ravens The Ravens smoked the once-touted Rams on Sunday, jumping out to a huge lead behind a breakout game from rookie WR Torrey Smith. They’re clearly one of the better teams in the league when they want to be. The question is: which Ravens will show up against the Jets on Sunday night?
4 Detroit Lions The Lions got dominated for the first half before mounting a furious comeback against the Vikings to win in OT. Megatron had 2 TDs as well as a fantastic catch in overtime to put the Lions in position for the game winning field goal.
5 New England Patriots For the first time since 2003, the Patriots lost to Buffalo, squandering a 21-0 lead and a huge day by receiver Wes Welker. New England will need a much better effort from their defense if they hope to achieve anything this season.
6 Buffalo Bills Maybe the new uniforms have had a legitimate hand in changing the fortunes of the Bills; at least so far this season. An incredible 34-31 comeback win over the Patriots leaves Buffalo unbeaten and in first place in the AFC East heading into a road game against listless Cincinnati.
7 San Diego Chargers The Chargers let Kansas City stick around longer than the Chiefs should have been in the game, but San Diego escaped with a 20-17 win nonetheless. The Bolts host the winless Dolphins next week.
8 New York Jets New York squandered an early lead on the road against Oakland and ended up losing 34-24 to the Raiders. Another tough road test awaits the Jets as they face the Ravens on Sunday Night Football next week.
9 Pittsburgh Steelers The Steelers continued their recovery from a Week 1 loss with too close for comfort win over the Manningless Colts.
10 Tampa Bay Bucs Tampa Bay got a leg up on division foe Atlanta with a win this past week. Although their stats indicate that they are a middle of the road team, they are scrappy and keep games close against all competition.
11 Houston Texans Houston’s first loss of the season came in a Superdome shoot-out against the Saints, losing 40-33. The Texans still lead the weak AFC South going into a big home game against the Steelers. A win over Houston this week, and they’ll set themselves up nicely going into a Tennessee-Jacksonville-Arizona cakewalk.
12 Oakland Raiders Oakland nearly gave the game away, but they did enough to hold on to a 34-24 victory over the visiting Jets. The Raiders hold the AFC West lead going into another home game against New England.
13 New York Giants The Giants roughed up Mike Vick and got their first division win this weekend. If Eli can keep the INTs to a minimum, they’ll be in good shape moving forward, especially with games against Seattle and Arizona coming up.
14 Philadelphia Eagles This might come as a shock, but Mike Vick is banged up again. The Dream Team will struggle if he can’t finish games.
15 Dallas Cowboys The Cowboys were fortunate to get a field goal only win against the Redskins on Monday night. With the Eagles slipping, they’ll be a serious contender for the division title if they can keep their offensive stars healthy.
16 Atlanta Falcons After a loss to Tampa Bay, Atlanta finds themselves in last place in the NFC South. The defense has been bad and QB Matt Ryan has 3 INTs and 4 fumbles to just 5 TDs. Not the start that the Falcons were expecting.
17 Tennessee Titans Despite a season-ending injury to Kenny Britt, Matt Hasselbeck rallied Tennessee to a 17-14 win over Denver. The Titans hit the road for a game in Cleveland next week hoping to keep their winning streak going.
18 Washington Redskins The Skins lost a winnable game in Dallas and remain an unknown quantity. The upcoming slate of games against the Rams, Eagles, Panthers and Bills will determine whether they’ll be in the hunt late in the season.
19 Chicago Bears The Bears lost their tie of the division lead after losing to the Packers at home. Carolina, no longer a pushover, is up next but the Bears did a better job protecting Cutler last week. When Jay has the time to find receivers, he is a dangerous QB.
20 San Francisco 49ers The 49ers bounced back from a tough OT loss last week to the Cowboys and are currently the NFC West leaders. Their offense has been pretty awful but their D is currently ranked 3rd against the run.
21 Cleveland Browns The Browns are tied for the division lead as of right now. The real test for them will come in December/January when they have 4 of 5 games against Ravens and Steelers.
22 Carolina Panthers Cam Newton got his first win against Jacksonville in a game that looked like it was played in flood waters. Carolina wasn’t expected to be a playoff team, but they’ve proven so far that they won’t be a practice squad for other teams to pound on this year.
23 Arizona Cardinals Losing to St. Louis hurts because the NFC West has a tough out of conference schedule this year. As Kevin Kolb continues to get comfortable, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this team emerge as the favorites in this division.
24 Seattle Seahawks Seattle pulled off a win against Arizona to avoid going down to 0-3 on the year. Former Vikings Tavaris Jackson (QB) and Sidney Rice (WR) hooked up for 8 receptions and 109 yards which gives the offense a glimmer of hope.
25 Cincinnati Bengals Cincinnati lost to San Francisco this weekend. It’s definitely a rebuilding year.
26 St. Louis Rams The team many experts picked to win this division are currently winless and at the bottom. Injuries have really hurt this team and Sam Bradford is not off to the same start he was last year. They should bounce back, but they don’t get to face a weak conference foe until week 9.
27 Jacksonville Jaguars In Blaine Gabbert’s first NFL start, the Jaguars were unable to prevent Carolina’s Cam Newton from picking up his first win, 16-10. Next week, Jacksonville faces a much tougher test from the NFC South when the Saints come to town.
28 Denver Broncos Going into the fourth quarter, the Broncos held a 14-10 lead; unfortunately, a late TD pass did them in for a 17-14 loss to Tennessee. It doesn’t get much easier for Denver as they travel to Lambeau Field to take on the Packers next Sunday.
29 Indianapolis Colts The Colts put up a better fight than most would have expected against the Steelers on Sunday Night Football, but losing Kerry Collins to a possible concussion and having to turn to Curtis Painter certainly doesn’t do much for hopes on the season. Next up is Monday Night Football on the road in Tampa Bay.
30 Miami Dolphins Miami remains among the few remaining winless teams in the NFL after giving up a late touchdown to the Browns and falling 17-16. The Dolphins’ chances of win number one seem poor next week when they travel cross-country to play San Diego.
31 Minnesota Vikings To copy/paste from last week: Vikings look great and dominate the first half, look like garbage and blow the game in the second half. Also winless KC is up this week and if the Vikings continue with their letting leads go trend, changes will be coming in Minnesota.
32 Kansas City Chiefs Kudos to the Chiefs for trying to rally and stay in their game against the Chargers after falling behind early; unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stave off defeat, as they lost 20-17. Kansas City will host the also-winless Vikings next weekend.

Commentary breakdown: Alex (AFC North, NFC East), Brian (AFC East/South/West), Pat (NFC North/South/West).

Alex Chalupka - Originally from the Baltimore-Washington area, Alex is a huge Baltimore Ravens and Maryland Terrapins fan who currently resides in Little Rock, Arkansas. He’s also an Orioles fan and follows the NBA and other sports as objectively as possible. He enjoys writing about all sports and is the founder/editor of theSportsGeeks.com. - Follow him on Twitter here - Visit his personal website

Brian Parker - Born in Maine, a state with no professional sports team, Brian Parker is nonetheless a huge statistics nerd and fan of the NFL and NHL, with some passing interest in the MLB. Regional ties see him as a Patriots and Red Sox fan, though a childhood of watching Patrick Roy tend the net as a Montreal Canadien puts him on the opposite side of his fellow New Englanders for that NHL rivalry. Brian has both an M.A. and a B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of Maine. - Follow him on Twitter here - Visit his personal website

Pat Lussenhop - Pat was born and raised in rural Minnesota and is currently living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He graduated from St. John's University (MN) with a degree in psychology and went on to get his masters in school psychology at the University of Northern Iowa. He's a lifetime sports fan and follows basketball and football the most. His favorite teams include any team that has "Minnesota" in it's name and he enjoys sports statistics and any good sporting debates. - Follow him on Twitter here

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