NFL Power Rankings, Week 3

This is going to shock you, so make sure you're sitting down when you read it. I don't care about US vs. the World in the Ryder Cup Golf. Never have been inspired by Old Glory flying over the golf course. Here's another observation, before we get into the rather grainy business of placing 32 NFL teams in proper marching order: Listening to Jaws and Tony Korn describing the Monday nighter, like a bunch of giddy teenage girls riding the Cyclone in Coney Island, just took me away from the game and made it hard to concentrate.

Now that the deck is cleared of impure thoughts, it's time to get serious. (Send comments to siwriters@simail.com)

NFL Power Rankings

1 Last Week: 1	Dallas Cowboys (2-0) Their cast of superstars is so deep that you lost track of some people Monday night. Tank Johnson, the ex-Bear, for instance. Could you tell he was on the field? And until the last Eagles series, when he put Donovan McNabb to flight, was DeMarcus Ware really a factor? OK, nobody's knocking the Cowboys, our top team for good reason, but I'll tell you why I'm not sold on them, Super Bowl-wise, and this is such a minor point that you will think I'm nuts. On a night in which offenses were uncontrollable, Wade Phillips could have gotten the ball back with a lot more than 39 seconds left at the end of the first half, had he been with it, in the timeout department. But this is not an action coach, such as Mike Shanahan, for instance. OK, they still put three on the board, but it could have been seven. Clock butchery always puts me in a bad mood.
2 Last Week: 2	New England Patriots (2-0) Laugh at me if you'd like, but let someone knock 'em off, then I'll move them down. Hey, how'd you like Adalius Thomas' 20-yard sack of Favre? A double sack. He brought down Leon Washington and Brett, all in the same package. If I'd have been on the stat crew, I'd have given him two for the price of one, three if he'd have managed to grab the ref's ankle, in passing, and tripped him up, too.
3 Last Week: 3	Philadelphia Eagles (1-1) Oh, you don't like their 1-1 record and want me to punish my Super Bowl team for the Dallas game, do you? Not today, champ. Thrilla Theater in the Big D, except that Donovan had a lot less to work with than Tony R. did, and you know something? Covering the old AFL in the early '60's, I used to see this kind of horserace every weekend.
4 Last Week: 4	Pittsburgh Steelers (2-0) Rainy, windswept night in Cleveland. Ugly, bruising game. Big Ben's shoulder not completely right but he toughed it out anyway. I wonder how banged up he really is, because he's got three physical teams coming up -- Eagles, Ravens, Jaguars, two of them on the road.
5 Last Week: 5	New York Giants (2-0) Tom Coughlin might have fallen into something without really knowing it. Three talented runners, each with a different style, each of whom put up numbers against the Rams. Jacobs, the monster (93 yards, 6.2 average); Ward, 228 pounds with the moves of a smaller man (58 yards, 7.3 average); and Bradshaw, a zippy little guy, a Dave Meggett type (52 yards, 10.4 average). Remember the Giants' old Baby Bulls? Frederickson, Thurlow and Koy of the '60s? No, of course, you don't because they came along when the club was in a down period, but there were times when they were all in the same backfield together, and it was a sight to see. See what happens when a team is coming off a blowout? Cranks up all the memory mechanisms in old farts such as myself.
6 Last Week: 6	Green Bay Packers (2-0) OK, they fell asleep and let the Lions back in the game (The LIONS?). Then they cranked it up and put the game away with 24 straight points. Made it interesting for the Lions fans, and what's so bad about that? I mean the poor devils need something for the thousand bucks or so the afternoon cost them.
7 Last Week: 7	Tennessee Titans (2-0) Ironic, isn't it? Kerry Collins, whose personal problems were so bad at one time that they almost drove him from the game, is now the steadying hand while Vince Young tries to get himself together. And these are the kind of numbers you put up when the QB position is not exactly the driving force of the team -- 41 rushes for 177 yards, 14 pass completions for 118. Bottom line: It was against the Bengals.
8 Last Week: 9	Buffalo Bills (2-0) You laughed at me when I put them at No. 9 last week. Yes you did, I heard you. And where do you think they'll be after Oakland at home next week, and then Saint Louie a week later, huh, huh? (You know something, this is exactly the arrogant, smartass kind of talk that precedes a major collapse).
9 Last Week: 10	Carolina Panthers (2-0) The Bears contest was known as a "character game." Steve Smith suspended, they rallied behind their QB and their rookie runner. I think I might have made a mistake, not picking this team for the playoffs.
10 Last Week: 13	Denver Broncos (2-0) Mike Shanahan is like the kid in the neighborhood who can beat you at anything you name, pitching pennies, flipping cards, curb ball, you call it, and half the time you're hollering, "Hey wait a minute, you changed the rules on me!" Remember last year, when he pulled that stunt, calling a time out just as the ball was snapped for a field goal? Got the rules committee all agitated, too, and sending out directives all over the place. So he went for the big two-point gamble against the Chargers because he had a worn out defensive team and he figured a lost coin flip in OT would be fatal. Why aren't other coaches that much on top of the game?
11 Last Week: 8	Chicago Bears (1-1) Kyle Orton was "careful and controlled" against the Colts. OK, things were different against Carolina. A little boldness was called for. Sorry, not today. One first down in the last six possessions. Never crossed midfield. Next case.
12 Last Week: 16	Indianapolis Colts (1-1) Yes, I have nothing but admiration for Peyton, the way he pulled the game out of the fire, but the way it looks now, he has one major problem. His go-to receiver for many years, Marvin Harrison, has come back from his knee problems as an old warrior who can't shake the coverage anymore. Of course, I could be too quick to judge, and maybe he needs only a little more time to get his game back. I sure hope so.
13 Last Week: 23	Washington Redskins (1-1) Tight end Chris Cooley apologized, and well he should have, for the website pictures of him, inadvertantly explaining playbook stuff in rather informal clothing. In fact none at all. Oh man, would I have loved to hear what the locker room was like after that. "Here's the way you run a naked reverse." "The bare facts of tight end play." "Winning football by Nude Rockne."
14 Last Week: 12	New Orleans Saints (1-1) Is this what we have to expect? First week, four lead changes. Won on a fourth quarter pass. Last weekend, blew a nine-point lead in the final period. The scariest part of all this is that they've given up 807 yards in two games.
15 Last Week: 14	Baltimore Ravens (1-0) This is my favorite Joe Flacco quote after his apparent joy at running for a 38-yard TD against the Bengals: "It's the same thing we've been doing for the last 20 years of our lives. We've been playing football." Let's see, he's 23. That means he must have played in some kind of shrimpy, teeny weeny league ball at age three. If I were a parent, I might have an issue with that.
16 Last Week: 15	San Diego Chargers (0-2) I actually heard Norv Turner ripped for calling Ed Hochuli's blown call "unacceptable." You know, the league always has had its collection of Fair Haired Boy officials. For many years it was Norm Schachter, the dean of them all. Then he blew a big one in the infamous Five Downs game between the Rams and Bears. Jim Tunney was almost God-like for awhile. But I stood next to him on the sidelines during the Eagles-Bears Fogbowl while he told league officials, over the phone, that there was no problem with vision on the field. No problem? I could barely make him out. Now it's Hochuli, with his pumped biceps and commanding presence on the field. It's the trouble with these showpiece officials. After a while they start thinking of themselves as minor deities. When they fall, they go down hard.
17 Last Week: 11	New York Jets (1-1) Well, the big postgame New York angle has been why didn't Mangini let Favre put it up at least once when they missed on three running plays, point blank, at the Patriots' goal line? Yeah, I'm asking it, too, but you'll notice one very interesting thing about the quotes from the offensive players. Not one of them said, "we shouldn't have run it three times," because to admit that is to admit that the new, power-packed O-line just doesn't have the oomph to punch it in.
18 Last Week: 25	Arizona Cardinals (2-0) This came to me, via email, care of Chris Melvin of the Arizona Cardinals: "Edgerrin James surpasses 15,000 yards from scrimmage." Just my luck. I missed that game.
19 Last Week: 19	Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-1) Earnest Graham fell into their laps as a free agent in 2003. He bounced around for a couple of years, taxi squad, activated, then the whole thing over again. Finally he made it. At 5-foot-9, 225, you wouldn't think of him as a guy who would break stopwatches, but look at his two-game stats, after his 68-yard run iced the Falcons game Sunday -- 25 carries, 207 yards, 8.3 average.
20 Last Week: 18	Minnesota Vikings (0-2) Well hidden star performance in Colts game was turned in by linebacker Chad Greenway, first round draft choice of two years ago. I know, plenty of more serious stuff is happening out there, but I just wanted to get this to you while the memory is fresh.
21 Last Week: 17	Cleveland Browns (0-2) Yeah, they're booing in the Dawg Pound. Big buildup with zip to show for it. Here's a basic problem. It's nice to have a tight end who's your main receiving threat, but it can't last, if there's no one to relieve the pressure. He takes too much of a beating. Kellen Winslow has been pulling the wagon, but Derek Anderson has to be able to go downfield with confidence. This was Braylon Edwards' performance against Pittsburgh -- nine balls thrown to him, one drop (better than the four he had in the opener), three catches for 13, 10 and nine yards, 32 total. OK for a spot player off the bench but dismal for the guy who was supposed to be the man, downfield.
22 Last Week: 20	Jacksonville Jaguars (0-2) This is the house that Jack Del Riobuilt -- sound line clearing the way for the twin hammers, Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, setting things up for David Garrard, and away we go. This is the way it's been. Both starting guards on injured reserve. Starting center still out with biceps injury. One tackle in the hospital after being gunned down in a parked car. Taylor and Jones-Drew averaging a collective 2.8. Garrard, three picks thrown, matching his total for 2007.
23 Last Week: 30	San Francisco 49ers (1-1) The Seahawks never saw the ball in OT. Biggest play, J.T. O'Sullivan to Isaac Bruce (remember him?) for 33 yards. Winning field goal drive was 57 yards. Are we seeing a mini-legend being born? O'Sullivan is 29 years old. He has bounced around on seven NFL teams, including every one in the NFC North. J.T. stands for Janos Tadeusz. No, just kidding. It's John Thomas, but here's an odd thing, namewise. Guess how many O'Sullivans there have been in the NFL's long and illustrious history? You're wrong. Wrong again. The answer is zero - until now.
24 Last Week: 32	Oakland Raiders (1-1) I don't like either reading nor writing about endless speculations concerning a working man's future. But I still have to take exception to Lane Kiffin's statement, "I don't worry about things I can't control." To me, those are precisely the things you DO worry about -- Alzheimer's, cancer, the stock market. If you can control them, then the worry is removed. Am I nuts here, or does this make some kind of sense?
25 Last Week: 24	Atlanta Falcons (1-1) Didn't last long, did it, that opening day euphoria? That's the tough thing about the NFL. There are always nasty teams around to do some ugly removal on your dreams.
26 Last Week: 27	Houston Texans (0-1) Staggering under the aftermath of Ike, the Texans try to focus on football and get ready to travel to Tennessee. Jacksonville the week after, then a return to...what? Reliant Stadium, maybe. Hopefully. "Don't worry about things you can't control," some genius said recently. Perfect. Don't worry. Well, I worry about them. I hope they come out of this OK, plus their families. The football part will come later.
27 Last Week: 21	Seattle Seahawks (0-2) I haven't seen them in action, so I can't tell whether they're still going hard, in Mike's lame duck year or whether they're just mailing it in. Sad notes for a once proud franchise.
28 Last Week: 22	Miami Dolphins (0-2) Now we're stepping into that ugly neighborhood where people stand around with their hands out. "Spare a quarter, chief?" Eleven straight L's, and things don't get better with a trip to Foxboro, to meet the Patriots, coming up.
29 Last Week: 26	Kansas City Chiefs (0-2) Larry Johnson, one of the few offensive weapons this team has, was frankly puzzled about why his afternoon ended in the third quarter with carry No. 12. Maybe somebody told him the age old, "We're going in a different direction." Backward. Going with Tyler Thigpen, who never had thrown an NFL pass and was subbing for Damon Huard, who exited early with dizziness problems. Frankly, they're making the old Doc dizzy.
30 Last Week: 28	Cincinnati Bengals (0-2) The field at Paul Brown Stadium was not a safe place last Sunday. Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck said a pretzel wrapper came sailing out of the stands, followed by a pizza box. "If I were a Bengals fan, I might have been throwing stuff, too," he said, risking a league fine for encouraging terrorism. Which reminds me of a story (what doesn't?). When Lou Holtz's Arkansas team was on its way to a victory that would clinch an Orange Bowl spot, the students started throwing oranges on the field. "Thank God we're not going to the Gator Bowl," Holtz said.
31 Last Week: 29	Detroit Lions (0-2) Let's find the leaks and plug them. Sacks, picks, yards allowed, for starters. It's a long road. Fourth 0-2 start in the last eight seasons. I see your impatience. OK, I'll move on.
32 Last Week: 31	St. Louis Rams (0-2) I've got some solid statistics to back up this selection. Last in the league in offense and last in defense. Marc Bulger also has been sacked 10 times. "Our quarterback can't be a piñata," tight end Randy McMichael said. "We've got to give him some protection." Well, you see, I've got these Corsican friends in the Bronx...

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