Week 4 kicks off tonight in Cincinnati as the Bengals take on the Dolphins in a matchup of 1-2 teams. I’ll give my thoughts and pick for the game a later on, but first I have to play a little catch-up from Week 3. I’m going to skip my best/worst of the week since its Thursday and you’ve probably all seen or read just about all the analysis you could handle. I will be updating my power rankings, and things have certainly shaken up since last week. As an added bonus, I’ll bring you my first batch of teams whose season has already bitten the dust.

Let’s talk power rankings for a moment. We saw quite a shift in power in the NFC this week. Minnesota overcame an early 10-0 deficit and put in a dominant defensive performance against Carolina. The defending NFC champs now sit at 1-2, and will have to grind the next few weeks to get back into the top of the conference. Minnesota, on the other hand, has the defense to play against anyone in the league and will go as far as Sam Bradford can take this team.

The AFC didn’t see quite the same shakeup that the NFC did, but one of the top teams caught a bad beatdown. Philadelphia shellacked Pittsburgh, my #2 team last week, on Sunday. The Steelers had no answer for the Eagles on either side of the ball. If you would have told me that Antonio Brown would have 12 catches for 140 yards, I would have said that the Steelers win that game by two touchdowns. Instead, Philly wins by 31, and that folks is why they play the game. It’s a tough loss for Pittsburgh early in the year especially with Baltimore sitting at 3-0 in the division (playing a light schedule though) and top dogs in the conference (New England and Denver) are looking strong at 3-0 as well.

That about covers the key news for my Top 5 from Week 3 and now lets take a look at my rankings heading into Week 4.

(1) New England Patriots (3-0) – Last Week: 1

Well Bill Belichick did it again. New England looked dominant against the upstart Texans. At a certain point I just don’t know how this team can lose once Brady comes back. This week, the Patriots face their old pal Rex Ryan and the Buffalo Bills, who are coming off an upset win over Arizona.

(2) Denver Broncos (3-0) – Last Week: 3

I think one of the more shocking results from Week 3 wasn’t that Denver got a win in Trevor Siemian’s first road start, but that Siemian threw for over 300 yards and 4 TDs. Cincinnati dared Siemian to beat them throwing deep and he obliged them, much to the Bengals’ dismay. I’m starting to believe that Siemian is capable enough to lead Denver into January. Denver goes on the road again this week to face Tampa Bay, a game which the Bucs will be desperate to win.

(3) Minnesota Vikings (3-0) – Last Week: 5

Now I already talked about the Vikings win over the Panthers. So I’m going to look ahead here for the Vikings. I truthfully believe this defense is playing the best of any in the NFC. If this team can get the running game going a little more, I think they will have a legitimate shot of making a deep run in the playoffs. This week, the Vikings host the Giants on Monday Night Football.

(4) Pittsburgh Steelers (2-1) – Last Week: 4

Yikes! That game got out of hand in a hurry in the second half against Philly. Don’t worry Steelers fans, it was just one bad game. Le’Veon Bell is back this week, just in time for a tough matchup against the Chiefs. This is still one of the top teams in the AFC, although they will have to take care of business in the division with Baltimore off to a hot start.

(5) Philadelphia Eagles (3-0) – Last Week: Unranked

All aboard the Wentz Wagon folks! I’ve been staring at that Pittsburgh game on the schedule all summer thinking, there’s only one way the Eagles had a chance to win the game. All out assault on Ben Roethlisberger and a sound gameplan on offense. Hey, what do you know? That’s exactly what happened. Now Wentz will have his struggles at some point, he is a rookie after all. The real focus should be this defense led by newly minted NFC Defensive Player of the Month, Fletcher Cox. This unit is averaging nine points allowed per game. It’ll be interesting to see how this team comes out of the bye week.

Watch List: Baltimore (3-0), Green Bay (2-1), Kansas City (2-1), Atlanta (2-1), Oakland (2-1)

While we are all trying to figure out the teams fighting for the top spot on the team, the first three weeks have given us a clear answer on some of the teams who won’t even make the playoffs. The following teams have already found themselves “eliminated”: Jacksonville (0-3), New Orleans (0-3), Cleveland (0-3), and Chicago (0-3). Historically, 0-3 is nearly impossible to comeback from and make the playoffs. The only real shock here is New Orleans, who has an offense to contend, but my goodness are the Saints incapable of playing any defense. It’s a shame to see Drew Brees wasting away there. He won’t be alone as there are still 16 teams who will meet the same fate as the Saints and the other three teams that are now “Eliminated.”

Okay so now quickly onto tonight’s game between the Dolphins and the Bengals. Off the bat, I’m not exactly excited about this matchup. Cincinnati will have a slight edge playing this one at home, but the line for this game just seems ridiculous (Bengals -8). I think the Bengals are the more talented team, but something seems to be off with them so far this season. Miami has played tough against its opponent’s but the overall lack of a running game puts way too much pressure on Ryan Tannehill to make me feel comfortable with them long-term. However, tonight they’ll be able to avoid the Bengals defensive strength due to the fact they can’t run the ball efficiently and will be forced to throw. I like Miami tonight with a backdoor cover (+8).

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with “No Huddle” featuring all of my picks for the weekend. Plus a look at the top college matchups on Saturday. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.