Tough week for our power rankings with eight of our Top 12 teams losing. It didn't spell bad bad performances all round however, with two teams even entering our Elite category.
ELITE
Two undefeated teams gave our top pairing a couple of tough matchups in Week 4. But both the Patriots and Chiefs saw off their opponent's challenge on the road and remain unchanged in our list heading into Week 5.
Slotting the Eagles and Saints behind the Packers and Cowboys was a tough decision but one based on the season as a whole. The Packers and Cowboys have been - and can continue to be - marginally more competitive than Philadelphia and New Orleans, who battle injuries.
What a way for Teddy Bridgewater to grab two wins in his two starts for Saints though, restoring his team's place among the league's best after Brees' injury.
It sure is competitive atop the NFC.
1) New England Patriots
(unchanged)
2) Kansas City Chiefs
(unchanged)
3) Dallas Cowboys
(unchanged)
4) Green Bay Packers
(unchanged)
5) Philadelphia Eagles
(up 1)
6) New Orleans Saints
(up 3)
ON THE EDGE
How this tier let us down. Upsets across the board saw each of these teams losing at home. Worst of all was Baltimore's defeat as they gave up control of the AFC North - along with a huge confidence boost - to the Browns.
Not much to analyse really. Th better tems won on the day. Nothing huge was exposed. Time to move on
7) Baltimore Ravens
(down 2)
8) Los Angeles Rams
(down 1)
9) Houston Texans
(down 1)
PLAYOFF CALIBRE WITH PROBLEMS
We keep saying the Falcons' offense has all the talent in the world but it failed to show again in Week 4 so we're forced to let them slide. They went up against one of the league's best defences in Tennessee but didn't show explosiveness outside the first quarter. Kirk Cousins is now jeopardising Minnesota's Super Bowl window, with Adam Thielen's post game comments summing up everyone's frustration in the Vikings' passing game.
The Lions move into this tier after an agonising defeat to the Chiefs. The team really felt like it could announce itself as a contender by beating KC in front of a pumped home crowd. While they didn't quite pull it off, they're trending in a much more positive direction than their rival Vikings. The bye comes at a bad time for them however.
The Chargers go up largely off the back of the Vikings and Falcons performances but also because of Melvin Gordon's return to the lineup. As bad as the offensive line looks, it hasn't affected the ground game. Along with that, the Chargers defence is giving up third-fewest points-per-game in the AFC despite all the injuries. It's a shaky formula the Chargers have, but it's keeping them interesting.
Finally a good result from the Browns, who go top of the AFC North four weeks later than we expected them to. Before anyone gets carried away however, let's realise it was the running game - namely Nick Chubb's hattrick - that was the deciding factor in this game and the Ravens don't have a good run defence. We're going to wait for OBJ and Jarvis Landry to arrive before putting them into the same tier as the Ravens; whose run offense, pass offense, quarterback and secondary have all looked better than the Browns' this year.
10) Cleveland Browns
(up 4)
11) Los Angeles Chargers
(up 2)
12) Indianapolis Colts
(unchanged)
13) Minnesota Vikings
(down 3)
14) Atlanta Falcons
(down 3)
15) Detroit Lions
(unchanged)
TENDING UP
As the Lions move up a tier, so do the Jaguars. The offence got off to a terribly slow in Week 4 until Gardner Minshew showed off some nimble footwork and the team started rolling from there. What really elevated them into this category was how they worked with a minute and a half to go to serve Denver a demoralising home loss. It's a huge vote-of-confidence in the young quarterback. This season is going as good as it could for Jacksonville all things considered.
The Bills had a predicatble loss on the weekend but Bill Belichick's relieved smile after the game tells you it came with more upside than downside. Even after conceding early and losing Josh Allen to an injury, Buffalo kept it to a one score game. Don't see the Bills keeping these games close if they had them week in and week out; but the fact is that's not how their schedule is set up.
16) San Francisco 49ers
(up 2)
17) Buffalo Bills
(down 2)
18) Jacksonville Jaguars
(up 5)
PROVE US WRONG
The Prove Us Wrong category did exactly that in Week 4 as every team that was here a week ago - not named Arizona - won. And they were some difficult road wins at that.
The story has to be about Mitchell Trubisky going down. Despite him proving to be very average this season, losing him hurts the team considering Chase Daniel is the back up. Daniel was serviceable against the Vikings in Week 4, and it was good to see Tarik Cohen get on the scoreboard. Making him a bigger part of the offence will definitely help the team. The defence almost serving a shut-out is a huge positive, but as we wrote above, the Vikings aren't firing on all cylinders.
Meanwhile the Giants won their first home game of the season and can feel much more comfortable that they have Daniel Jones - for this season at least - over Dwayne Haskins. Jones' ability to looks so good against his fellow rookie shows a huge mental advantage to learn the offence. Has the New York office called drafting him earlier a win yet?
Tampa Bay looked like it waited to beat biggest scalp it could so it could garner as much attention as possible. The biggest score in franchise history suggests Bruce Arians is doing something right after all, especially with Jamies Winston throwing more touchdowns in a four week span than he has since 2016. The defence we raved about went out the window, although Shaquil Barrett's sack put him at nine already this season -- the fourth time it's ever been done.
19) Carolina Panthers
(up 1)
20) Tennessee Titans
(up 2)
21) Seattle Seahawks
(unchanged)
22) Chicago Bears
(down 3)
23) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
(up 5)
24) Pittsburgh Steelers
(unchanged)
25) Oakland Raiders
(unchanged)
26) New York Giants
(unchanged)
JUST BETTER THAN THE WORST
It's still a case that the Cardinals promise more upside than the teams below them. It's just that fewer and fewer teams are below them than in Week 2 and 3. There's signs this offense could be fun to watch a year from now, but right now head coach Kliff Kingsbury is struggling to adjust to play-calling at the NFL level. He's doing the oppisite of the Minnesota Vikings and not giving the run game a chance.
The Bengals still look better than we expected them to, and Zac Taylor is getting a better version of Andy Dalton than we've seen of late. It helps that Joe Mixon is in the back field, but the wide receiver injuries are limiting what the team can hope to do.
28) Arizona Cardinals
(down 4)
27) Denver Broncos
(down 1)
29) Cincinnati Bengals
(unchanged)
BOTTOM OF THE PILE
The Jets move up while taking the week off. Why? 1) Sam Darnold is closer to coming back. 2) Dwayne Haskins' clearly isn't ready to play. 3) We're preparing for the Dolphins to move up a spot next week.
Wait what?
You read that correctly. Washington looked so bad this week that we could see them falling to the bottom of this list sooner rather than later. Pulling Case Keenum was a desperation move by the team that - whether right or wrong - from coaches battling for job security. Miami doesn't have that problem, and has looked better since Rosen came in.
30) New York Jets
(up 1)
31) Washington Redskins
(down 1)
32) Miami Dolphins
(unchanged)
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