NFL Power Rankings: Regular Season Week 3 From The Sports Mac

1.         Pittsburgh Steelers (LW: 4): That Steelers defense looks like it could be on par with the 2000 Ravens and is going to win a lot of games this year.

2.        Indianapolis Colts (LW: 3): After the opening week stumble, it’s been business as usual as Manning and Co. have the offense rolling again.

3.        Atlanta Falcons (LW: 5): After getting the big win in New Orleans, they’re the lead dog in the NFC South for now.

4.        New Orleans Saints (LW: 1): It looks like there is a kicking competition in the Deep South as they brought back 46 year old John Carney.

5.        Baltimore Ravens (LW: 7): The signs of life from the offense last week might disappear again this week against the Steelers.

6.        Cincinnati Bengals (LW: 8): Like the Colts, they have also made a nice recovery from the opening week stumbles with wins the last two weeks.

7.        Green Bay Packers (LW: 2): Setting a team record for penalties on national TV is not the way to endear yourself to the viewing public.

8.        Kansas City Chiefs (LW: 9): They’re now the most likely candidate for a worst to first move in their division this season.

9.        New York Jets (LW: 10): Amazingly, the Jets actually had big plays from the offense that led the way to the victory on Sunday night.

10.      Houston Texans (LW: 6): Maybe it was too much to ask of the young Texans to come up with a third big effort in a row to start the season.

11.      New England Patriots (LW: 11): The offense is humming along, but giving up 30 points to the Bills may be cause for alarm.

12.      Dallas Cowboys (LW: 13): They righted the ship last weekend, but you have to wonder how they respond to having the first bye week of the season?

13.      Philadelphia Eagles (LW: 15): Michael Vick looks like a much better QB at this point than at any time in Atlanta.

14.      Chicago Bears (LW: 19): Three wins by a combined 15 points so far may help them in any tight games in December.

15.      Tennessee Titans (LW: 16): It looks like Vince Young might have just had a bad day in Week 2 as he looked in control again beating the Giants.

16.      Minnesota Vikings (LW: 18): It was a division win and the first win of the season, but they look like they’re going to be Adrian Peterson heavy this year.

17.      Miami Dolphins (LW: 12): After being able to go up and down the field all night, you have to be able to score in the red zone with the game on the line.

18.      Seattle Seahawks (LW: 23): Well, we know one thing; Seahawks games will be exciting to watch each week because anything can happen.

19.      San Diego Chargers (LW: 14): The Chargers have given up more return yards (628) and return TDs (3) than they have rushing yards (349) and rushing TDs (2).

20.      New York Giants (LW: 17): The end of 2009 seems to be creeping into the beginning of 2010 and that’s not a good thing for Big Blue.

21.      Tampa Bay Buccaneers (LW: 22): Unfortunately, they had absolutely nothing on either side of the ball against the Steelers last week.

22.      Denver Broncos (LW: 24): The Broncos are going to turn into the old Houston Oilers Run N’ Shoot with no run if the game against Indy is any clue.

23.      Oakland Raiders (LW: 25): The Raiders had plenty of offense against Arizona and should have won, but their kicking was their downfall last week.

24.      Arizona Cardinals (LW: 27): The prime candidate for the shakiest 2-1 team in the league through 3 weeks of the 2010 season.

25.      San Francisco 49ers (LW: 20): The nightmare continues as the 49ers could be 0-5 by mid-October with Atlanta and Philadelphia the next two weeks.

26.      Washington Redskins (LW: 21): The enigma that is the Redskins are back; a great win over Dallas followed by two bad losses the next two games.

27.      Detroit Lions (LW: 26): You can almost see the Lions becoming a respectable team, but they’re not quite there yet.

28.      Jacksonville Jaguars (LW: 28): Averaging less than 2 TDs a game through the first three weeks is not a good sign for Jack Del Rio.

29.      Buffalo Bills (LW: 30): Even though they did not win, they have to be encouraged by scoring 30 points on the road against New England.

30.      Cleveland Browns (LW: 31): They can’t quite get over the hump so far this year; their 3 losses are by a combined 12 points so far.

31.      St. Louis Rams (LW: 32): To not only get your first win, but score the last 16 points and beat an NFC East team gets you off the bottom this week.

32.      Carolina Panthers (LW: 29):  2 TDs the last two weeks puts John Fox as the leading candidate for first firing this season.