With a quarter of the season wrapped up, the favourites in the NFC are crystal clear.
But which 4-0 team is the king of an otherwise disappointing conference – the New Orleans Saints or the Seattle Seahawks?
On one hand, the Seahawks boast one of the most ferocious defences the NFL has seen in years. Dan Quinn’s unit has allowed just five touchdowns, forced the second-most turnovers (13) and has been the power behind all four of Seattle’s wins.
But the Seahawks’ offence has been less than impressive, especially in the passing game, mostly due to significant injuries to receiver Percy Harvin as well as several offensive linemen.
Sean Payton and Drew Brees’ offence, on the other hand, is one of the NFL’s most potent. In Jimmy Graham, Marques Colston and Darren Sproles, New Orleans has three of the best players at their respective positions.
But we knew that already. The part of New Orleans’ game that is really turning heads is the defence.
The Saints, who gave up an NFL record 7,042 yards last season and allowed 440.1 yards per game, have pulled off a complete 180 defensively. After week four, New Orleans ranks sixth in total yards allowed, sixth in passing defence and have allowed just six touchdowns in the first four games of the season.
They’re operating smoothly on both sides of the ball – and for that reason, the Saints are the top-ranking NFC team in this week’s power rankings.
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Soak it all in. Peyton Manning is spearheading one of the best offences in NFL history and we get to watch it unfold. No quarterback has ever gotten off to the start that Manning has in 2013 and only one other team has scored more points in the first four weeks of the season. The question isn’t who can stop this Broncos offence? No one can. The question is who can even slow this team down? |
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Drew Brees and the Saints’ offence look almost as unstoppable as Manning’s Broncos. Brees has tied an NFL record with nine straight 300-yard passing games. But more impressive is the continued dominance of Rob Ryan’s defence, they’re creating turnovers and doing an incredible job of getting to the quarterback despite being without their top-two pass rushers. |
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Week by week, Tom Brady is getting more in sync with his young receiving corps. This New England team is only going to get better, as it’s just a matter of time before Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola return to the lineup. The loss of Vince Wilfork could be devastating for the Pats’ defence, however. |
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Every road victory the Seahawks can get is a good one. This is a completely different team when it’s not playing in Seattle. Russell Wilson didn’t have the best of games this week but still showed that he is the most elusive player at his position. Richard Sherman is making a strong case for defensive player of the year. |
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Alex Smith had an uncharacteristic multi-interception week, but this new-look Chiefs team continues to flex its muscles in all facets of the game with a stout defence and power running game. Dexter McCluster can be a game-changer. His punt return touchdown in the third quarter changed the tide in Kansas City’s win over the Giants. |
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Reggie Bush makes the Lions’ offence click. Bush accounted from 173 of Detroit’s 387 offensive yards in his explosive return from injury, catapulting Detroit to 40 points. While No. 21 is the key to the Lions offence, Ndamukong Suh is the key to the defence, recording his first two sacks of the season Sunday and forcing a fumble that put the game out of reach of the Bears. |
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Andrew Luck and the Colts got off to a slow start against the Jags, then got everything under control in the second quarter. They’re 3-1, but Indy has been anything but impressive in the first four games and it only gets tougher with matchups against the Seahawks, Chargers, Broncos and Texans in the next quarter. By November we’ll know how good this team really is. |
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So much talk of how Jay Cutler has transformed in 2013, then he goes out and puts up a stinker in the Motor City. The Bears’ loss came down to turnovers and an inability to protect the quarterback-the same problems they struggled with in the Lovie Smith era, and now the Bears have lost the NFC North lead because of them. |
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Ryan Tannehill can play, but his costly turnovers led to two Drew Brees touchdowns and ultimately sunk the Dolphins. Miami’s troubles along the offensive line were amplified by the Saints, allowing four sacks Monday night and 18 on the season. The defence looked completely lost at times against the Saints dynamic passing attack. |
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Add Tennessee to the list of teams surprising the NFL in 2013. Following Alex Smith’s two interceptions on Sunday, the Titans are now the only team in the league that has yet to turn the ball over. Tennessee’s defence is massively improved and Jake Locker is finally breaking out. Unfortunately, he’s out for at least the next month. |
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After two weeks of looking absolutely miserable on both sides of the ball, the 49ers got back on track with a key divisional win over the Rams. Frank Gore and Anquan Boldin put up big games while the defence held the Rams to just 22 yards on the ground after giving up more than 340 in weeks two and three. |
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The Bengals answered a thrilling week three win over the Packers with a complete dud against the Browns Sunday. Andy Dalton and the offence were held without a touchdown despite throwing the ball 42 times. A.J. Green was completely contained by Joe Haden and Cincinnati could only muster 63 yards on the ground. |
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Houston got off to a great start against the NFL’s best defence but failed to keep that momentum going in the second half. Matt Schaub appears to be doing his best to lose the starting job, throwing a horrendous interception late in the fourth quarter that turned into the game-tying touchdown. Once again, the Texans are a high-calibre team held back by questionable quarterback play. |
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Philip Rivers continues to keep the Chargers relevant in the AFC. Rivers ranks second in touchdown passes, fourth in passing yards and is the only reason San Diego is winning games. The Chargers biggest problem the past two seasons has been blowing late leads but they were able to rally against the Cowboys, scoring the final 20 points to get the win. |
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The Cowboys came out firing on all cylinders in the first half against the Chargers with two Dez Bryant scores and a defensive touchdown from Sean Lee, but looked incredibly mediocre in the second half. The offence didn’t score any points and the defence suffered from it, allowing 20 straight points after halftime. Dallas is lucky the NFC East stinks. |
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The Ravens were lucky to have any shot at winning in Buffalo on Sunday after turning the ball over five times. The offence couldn’t get anything going on the ground and Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco looked anything but, throwing errant passes all day and paying for it against a depleted Bills’ secondary. |
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Aaron Rodgers and company got a much-needed week off after a tumultuous start to the season. Sitting at 1-3, the Packers are coming up on what may now be the most important part of their schedule, with three divisional games in the next four weeks. |
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For the third time this season, an inability to get it done in the red zone sunk Matt Ryan and the Falcons. How is it possible with Roddy White, Julio Jones and Tony Gonzalez that this team ranks 28th in the NFL in red zone scoring (38.89 percent)? After what could’ve been the toughest first-quarter schedule in the league, expect Atlanta to crawl back up the standings with some favourable matchups in the next six weeks. |
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The Cardinals were lucky to get out of Tampa Bay with the win. Carson Palmer and Arizona’s offence were mostly ineffective until the final four minutes of the game and the serious lack of a running game has got to be concerning. Patrick Peterson is emerging as a true shut down corner, intercepting Mike Glennon twice in the final minutes to seal the victory. |
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After a disappointing showing against the Jets in week three, the Bills answered Sunday with a character win at home. Buffalo’s young guns were on display in Orchard Park with EJ Manuel and Robert Woods showing off their strong connection and rookie linebacker Kiko Alonso leading the Bills defence with two interceptions. C.J. Spiller, however, continues to be a question mark as he was outplayed by Fred Jackson again. |
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I said it a couple of weeks ago, and I’ll say it again: The Jets will only go as far as Geno Smith takes them. On Sunday, Smith took the Jets to the losing column with two interceptions and two fumbles, including ‘Butt Fumble 2.0’. The Jets turned the ball over four times, all by Smith, and the Titans took advantage, scoring 28 of their 38 points on the ensuing possessions. |
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Two weeks removed from a 38-0 trouncing of the lowly Giants, Cam Newton and the Panthers will hope to continue their offensive success against teams with a combined first-quarter record of 4-13 over the next month of the season. If the Panthers keep it together, they could be in a good position to compete for a wild card spot. |
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It may not be pretty, but Brian Hoyer and the Browns are getting it done. Backed by a stout defence that ranks sixth in the NFL in total yards, Hoyer used Cleveland’s dynamic receivers Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron to lift his team into a tie for the AFC North lead. |
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Did the Eagles really ever stand a chance against the Broncos? We all know the answer, but some of us thought Chip Kelly high-flying offence might keep pace. Where has this vaunted offence gone anyway? The team that kicked off the season with such style is long gone and Sunday was the Eagles’ worst offensive showing yet. |
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Matt Cassel has to be the man under centre for the Vikings going forward. Thanks to solid play at quarterback, Greg Jennings had his first big game in a Vikings uniform and Adrian Peterson was able to put together a monster day on the ground. Most important, Cassel didn’t turn the ball over once. Christian Ponder should be sweating. |
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This team has been a major disappointment. The offensive line is really struggling in St. Louis, getting no push in the running game and failing to protect Sam Bradford. But that doesn’t mean Bradford shouldn’t carry some of the blame. He missed a couple of wide open passes that could’ve swung momentum in the Rams’ favour last Thursday. |
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Robert Griffin III finally got the monkey off his back in 2013, leading his team its first victory in Week 4, but it was far from convincing. The Redskins got off to yet another slow start but, thanks mostly to Matt Flynn, were able to climb back into the game. The struggling Washington defence came up big in the team’s first win. |
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Despite mixed reports, Terrelle Pryor didn’t start on Sunday and it helped confirm what many of us already knew: Matt Flynn isn’t good. The sixth-year pivot helped the Raiders amass a 14-point lead but did nothing after that. The injuries to Darren McFadden and Marcel Reece hurt the Raiders hope of any improvement on last season. |
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So Mike Glennon didn’t solve the Buccaneers problems? What a shocker. After scoring a field goal in the second quarter to make it 10-0, Tampa was unable to get anything going on offence and the defence continued to do what they’ve done all season: keep the Bucs in games. |
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Ben Roethlisberger said Sunday that his team is the NFL’s worst. While that may be a bit of an exaggeration (let’s not forget about Jacksonville), Big Ben is not far off. The Steelers offensive line has given up 15 sacks (third-most in the NFL) and the running game is non-existent. Most shocking of all is the leaky play of the defence, most notably against the run. |
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This team is terrible, it’s that simple. The Giants lack everything that have made Tom Coughlin’s teams so hard to play over the years. The defence isn’t physical and struggles to get to the quarterback, the running game is ranked 28th and Eli Manning leads the league in interceptions. At least Victor Cruz can still make plays. |
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The Jags hung around with the Colts for a while but eventually came back to reality and were blown out once again. Blaine Gabbert was back under centre Sunday and was just as ineffective as Chad Henne, while Maurice Jones-Drew has become completely irrelevant. It’s hard to think this team will win a game this season. |
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