How quickly can people’s opinions shift when it comes to NFL power rankings? I’m excited to see where the New England Patriots rank tomorrow in Marima’s Power Ranking Roundup because I’m guessing they’ll be all over the place.
Back in week 1, the Patriots ranked an average of 2.1, but that slipped to an average of 5.4 after week 2 and plummeted to an average of 11.5 after week 3’s demoralizing loss to the Detroit Lions.
As we all saw on Sunday, the reports of the Patriots death were greatly exaggerated as they walloped the Miami Dolphins. Defensive stalwarts Trey Flowers and Patrick Chung returned to the lineup, while Dont’a Hightower looked like his old self. On offense, Josh Gordon is learning the offense and Julian Edelman is back from his suspension.
Where do the Patriots deserve to be ranked after the first quarter of the regular season? They should be behind the undefeated Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs and it would be fair for them to trail the Jacksonville Jaguars because of the week 2 debacle.
But how many other teams would you rank ahead of the Patriots and their 2-2 record?
There are five teams with 3-1 records in the AFC, including the Dolphins and Jaguars. The other three are the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, and Tennessee Titans. The NFC only has two, in the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints. There aren’t any other teams I’d really consider being in the debate.
The Dolphins clearly shouldn’t rank ahead of the Patriots and I have a hard time putting the Titans and their three-straight victories of 3 points in front of New England, too.
At worst, I have the Patriots ranking eighth. At best, I have them ranking fourth. I would expect the average that Marima produces will have New England coming around fifth or sixth, just because some stragglers won’t be ready to admit that the week 2-3 Patriots were not representative of how good this team actually is.