Week 2 of the 2018 season is a wrap, meaning it’s time to look at the San Francisco 49ers and all other 31 teams to see where they stand in Niner Noise’s NFL power rankings entering Week 3.
Who would have thought ties would become something of a regularity this early in 2018?
Last week, the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers ended with a 21-21 tie, only to be followed by a hyped-up 29-29 tie between quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers against their NFC North division rivals, the Minnesota Vikings.
Yeah, ties can throw some monkey wrenches in our NFL power rankings.
A number of teams managed to pull off their first wins of 2018. The San Francisco 49ers held onto a 30-27 victory over the visiting Detroit Lions who, despite a valiant fourth quarter, fell to 0-2 in head coach Matt Patricia’s inaugural season. The Dallas Cowboys pulled off a Sunday Night Football win over their rivals, the New York Giants, while the Atlanta Falcons dropped 31 points on the Carolina Panthers to end an early notion their offense was in trouble.
Needless to say, this will shift things up a bit in Niner Noise’s NFL power rankings compared to last week’s analysis.
So will losses by last season’s conference champions, the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots. Seeing those two teams lose, albeit in interesting fashion, spices up our analysis entering Week 3.
Yet we know there are some bad teams in the league right now, so let’s kick things off with a new cellar-dweller shut out in Week 2, the Arizona Cardinals.