NFL Power Rankings: Where Experts Ranked the New England Patriots

Experts aren’t exactly sure just how good the New England Patriots are, but they are certainly sure that they are good.

The team is 4-1 with one loss coming against the surprise Buffalo Bills on the road in Week 3.

Besides that seemingly fluke of a loss, the Pats have been rolling and lately have added a ground game to complement their incredible vertical passing attack.

The one knock on the team is their defense.

The Pats’ are ranked 32 overall, last in the NFL, and give up 433 yards per game on average. They also allow 23.8 points scored on average against them, and give up 6.8 yards per play.

This is largely due to their incredibly weak secondary, which gives up 326.6 of those yards each game and usually sees a QB against them pull in around a 93.0 rating.

Those are terrible numbers, and a big reason why experts are cautious of rating them too high.

Despite those facts, most people still believe that, because of their offense, the Patriots are a top five team in the NFL and a search of some of the top power ranking lists out there will reveal that.

Let’s take a look at where these experts are placing the Patriots on their power rankings.

2 - James Walker – ESPN

3 – Pete Prisco – CBSSports

4 – Joe Zarbano – WEEI

5 – Brian Billick – FoxSports

Almost all of the experts agree that the Patriots’ dynamic offense is what places them in the top five but their defense needs to improve to compete with the Packers for the top spot.

They also need to prove themselves to be better than the Lions, Ravens and Saints, who are generally considered equals at this point in the season.

It will be interesting to see if Bill Belichick can get his defense tuned up in time for the playoffs.