NFL Top 10 Power Rankings Through Week Six

Week Six had a lot of strange games with some strange outcomes.

For instance, the Jets racked up over 300 yards of rushing yards against the Bills and held Terrell Owens to three catches for 13 yards—both numbers usually coming when a team wins by something like a 35-7 score. Only, Mark Sanchez threw five interceptions and the Jets missed a dozen opportunities to win the game in overtime, which allowed the Bills to claim a 16-13 win.

The Chiefs and Redskins had a battle of the field goal kicking contest rather than play actual football where touchdowns are scored; that is until Todd Collins was sacked in the end zone for a safety and the Redskins allowed another winless team to get a win, this time in a 14-6 Chiefs victory.

But the one that takes the cake is the Eagles and their powerhouse offense coming into the Oakland Coliseum looking to take care of business and steamroll right over the Raiders, only to fall flat on their faces. The week before, the Giants demolished Oakland 44-7, so everyone, like myself, figured Philadelphia would have no problem. Oh, we were all wrong. The Raiders hold the Eagles to three field goals and no touchdowns in a 13-9 upset.

Oh, and apparently Donovan McNabb not only doesn't know in the NFL you can tie, but he forgets how many timeouts a team gets per half. Guess he isn't getting enough of his mama's Campbell's Chunky Soup back home.

Of the five undefeated teams, one got knocked off and went down in the rankings, while four undefeated teams still remain.

On the other side, the Rams, Buccaneers and Titans are all 0-6 and still without a win. At this point, which one of these teams packs it in first in order to get the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft?

Let's take a look at who is on top of the NFL through six weeks.

10. Arizona Cardinals (UR) (3-2, Won 27-3 over the Seattle Seahawks)

The Cardinals got off to a really rough start like a lot of teams who make the Super Bowl in their previous season do. It's known as "The Super Bowl Hangover." But Arizona is slowly coming out of it, because they are re-establishing their identity on offense.

Kurt Warner throws for 276 yards and two touchdown passes, one of which was to Larry Fitzgerald who caught 13 balls for 100 yards.

What was even more impressive from Arizona was holding the Seahawks to three points and virtually eliminating the Seattle running game. Julius Jones was held to five carries for five yards and Edgerrin James was held to three carries for three yards. Those are two former Pro Bowlers who looked anything but on Sunday.

The Cardinals travel to the Meadowlands for a national TV game against what will be a very angry Giants team that was embarrassed in their last game. One thing to keep in mind, Warner has never played well as a visitor in Giants Stadium. Not with the Rams or the Cardinals. And he wasn't fantastic in 2004 either with the Giants.

9. Pittsburgh Steelers (9) (4-2, Won 27-14 over the Cleveland Browns)

The Steelers look to be getting back to playing typical Pittsburgh football as they have won their third game in a row.

The Browns were never in this game, but the Steelers made a few turnovers and foolish plays that only allowed the Steelers to win by 13, otherwise, Cleveland should have lost by at least 30 against anyone else.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 417 yards and two touchdowns. Hines Ward caught eight passes for 159 yards and a touchdown and Santonio Holmes caught five passes for 104 yards.

Every week, Rashard Mendenhall looks like he was the right choice as he continues to have solid games, while Willie Parker is slowly being fazed out.

Next week, in a good contest, the Steelers have the Vikings come into Heinz Field. Big Ben vs. Favre. It should be quite a matchup to watch.

8. Cincinnati Bengals (6) (4-2, Lost 28-17 to the Houston Texans)

All right, so the Bengals are beatable after all.

Matt Schaub threw for 392 yards and four touchdowns and absolutely shredded the Bengals secondary in Sunday's game.

The Bengals were in the game and even were up 17-14 at halftime. But the Texans held the Bengals to zero points in the second half, which cost them a loss.

This one wasn't pretty at home for Cincinnati,and it won't get any easier for them if they want to continue staying in first place in the AFC North.

Next week, they will have the Bears come into their stadium and what should be a competitive game. Will Jay Cutler do what Schaub did to them next week, or will the Bengals be better prepared next time around?

7. New England Patriots (UR) (4-2, Won 59-0 over the Tennessee Titans)

In previous years, this was a great match-up on the schedule, because normally, both would be playoff contenders.

But on Sunday, this game wasn't even close.

The Patriots scored 45 points in the first half. Tom Brady threw 380 yards and six touchdowns, five of which came in the second quarter alone.

Wes Welker caught 10 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns and Randy Moss caught eight passes for 129 yards and three touchdowns.

The Patriots look to be back on track and with the Jets losing, New England goes back into first place like expected.

Kerry Collins was held to 2-for-12 and -7 passing yards. That's ugly.

The Patriots go to London, England in the NFL's third regular season game in London to face the winless Buccaneers next week. It could end up 59-0 again because Tampa Bay is awful and can't stop anyone.

6. Atlanta Falcons (7) (Won 21-14 over the Chicago Bears)

This was a close game on Sunday Night Football and a game with major implications in the NFC rankings.

The Falcons offense looked good in the first half as Matt Ryan threw two touchdowns to Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez, both who are becoming easy targets for Ryan to go to every week.

In the second half, it was a close game and came down to the wire, with Michael Turner scoring with three minutes to go to put Atlanta up by seven.

The Bears drove the field and attempted to tie the game, but couldn't finish the game and took the loss to the Falcons.

The Falcons needed this win to stay with the Saints in the NFC South, which is making for a interesting division race.

The Falcons will enter Cowboys Stadium and play the Cowboys next week in another good NFC matchup. This game could go either way and is a tough one to pick.

5. New York Giants (1) (Lost 48-27 to the New Orleans Saints)

This one was an ugly game for the Giants defense, who never stood a chance against Drew Brees and the Saints offense.

The Giants gave up 34 points alone in the first half and the Saints put up over 400 yards of offense.

The Giants did score 27 points, but it wasn't enough, because it seemed like every time the Saints had the ball, they were putting up touchdowns, something the Giants didn't do and it cost them.

One of the few bright spots for the Giants was rookie Hakeem Nicks continuing to play well, catching five passes for 114 yards and a touchdown. So far, Nicks is having a good rookie season. But other than that, the Giants offense couldn't keep up.

Next week, the will have the Cardinals at home on Sunday Night Football. Expect an angry and fired up Giants team, especially on defense. You can bet Tom Coughlin will not let his team forget how pitiful they played and they don't want a repeat of that lack of effort on national TV.

4. Denver Broncos (4) (6-0, Won 34-23 over the San Diego Chargers)

This was a game the Chargers needed in order to stay in the AFC West division race, but at 2-3, they are in a major hole, especially since the Broncos are now 6-0.

Eddie Royal was the star of the game with a 93 yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a 71 yard punt return for a touchdown. San Diego looked awful trying to make tackles on him, because they couldn't.

Kyle Orton has another good game, going 20-for-29 with 229 yards and two touchdowns, one of those touchdowns was an amazing 19 yard grab by Tony Scheffler where he had to jump up and reach for it in the third quarter.

The Broncos defense really won this game in the second half, as they held San Diego to a field goal in the half. That type of defense not only wins games, but wins championships.

Denver will have a bye next week, so they will remain undefeated at least for another week.

3. Minnesota Vikings (5) (6-0, Won 33-31 over the Baltimore Ravens)

Brett Favre was good in this game, but Joe Flacco was a little better on this day.

Favre went 21-for-29 for 278 yards and three touchdowns. Flacco went 28-for-43 with 385 yards and two touchdowns.

Yet this game came down to the field goal kickers. Ryan Longwell kicked a 31-yarder to put Minnesota up 33-31 with less than two minutes to go.

Baltimore got down into Minnesota territory and gave Steve Hauschka a chance to win the game with a 44 yard field goal.

But, Hauschka hooked it to the left and Minnesota escaped with a huge win to keep them undefeated. Sometimes, it's good to have luck on your side.

Minnesota has the second highest scoring offense in the NFL, so for now, bringing in Favre was a good move. They will travel to play the Steelers next week in another tough game. Trying to beat Pittsburgh at home is very difficult to do, so Favre needs to bring his A-game.

2. New Orleans Saints (3) (5-0, Won 48-27 over the New York Giants)

This was a game that would determine who was the best team in the NFC right now. After the game, it was clear that right now, that title belongs to the Saints.

Drew Brees went 23-for-30 for 369 yards and four touchdown passes and torched the Giants secondary all game.

In the first half alone, Brees had thrown for three of his four touchdowns and over 200-plus yards, which lead to 34 Saints points.

The running game was never a factor in this game, but Brees never needed to go to it, because his play-action passes were dominating.

Marques Colston caught eight passes for 166 yards and a touchdown, Lance Moore had six catches for 78 yards and a touchdown, Robert Meachem had two passes for 70 yards and a touchdown, and former Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey had four catches for 37 yards and a touchdown.

The Saints will go to Miami and play the Dolphins next week. Brees and company will probably be too much for the Dolphins to attempt to stop.

1. Indianapolis Colts (2) (5-0, Bye Week in Week Six)

The Colts are the new number one team in the NFL and they didn't even have to play a game to get into this spot, but can anyone argue that they don't belong here?

Peyton Manning is on his way to winning another MVP Award, as he's thrown for 1645 yards, 12 touchdowns and only four interceptions. His quarterback rating is 114.1 and he's only been sacked twice so far. The two sacks allowed is a major credit to the Colts offensive line doing a terrific job.

The Colts receivers have done a great job in 2009 and Manning is doing a great job distributing the ball. Reggie Wayne has 32 catches for 459 yards and four touchdowns. Dallas Clark as 35 catches for 441 yards and two touchdowns.

Newcomers Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon have done a great job with Marvin Harrison gone and Anthony Gonzalez injured. Collie has 20 catches for 228 yards and three touchdowns and Garcon has 11 catches for 216 yards and two touchdowns.

The Colts will play the Rams next week in what could be a game of the best team in the NFL against the worst team in the NFL. It's a huge mismatch of opponents and should be an easy win for the Colts.

That's it for the Top 10 Power Rankings in the NFL through this past week. With the Giants losing, it gave way for four teams to jump over them because they are still undefeated and changed the rankings up top.

As the NFL is getting closer to closing out the month of October, we're all starting to get a better picture of which teams are playoff teams, especially those who made this list. However, with 10 more weeks of the schedule left, anything can happen.

Hope everyone has a good week and we'll be back soon for more NFL games next weekend.