Welcome back to the Power Rankings! The question today is about teams #2 and #3: Are the Vikings and Giants any good? Our rankings say yes, and twin 4-1 records support the case. The other 4-1 teams, the Chiefs, Bills, and Cowboys, are pretty convincing. Buffalo and Kansas City are Super Bowl contenders and have been for a while. Dallas I’m a little more dubious about, but that Micah Parsons led defense is really disruptive, currently standing seventh in yards allowed per game (311.4) and third in points per game allowed (14.4). They’re only 24th in scoring at 18.6 PPG, but they’re currently without Dak Prescott, so I’d imagine there’s room for improvement when Dak returns, which could be soon (he should begin throwing in practice this week).
But what about the Giants and Vikings? Their scoring offenses are on either end of middling (20th at 18.6 and 13th at 23.0 respectively), The Vikings are 14th in scoring defense (20.4) and the Giants are 9th (18.6). That makes Minnesota’s scoring differential 2.6 PPG and Dallas’ 2.0. How does that compare with their fellow A-tier teams? Buffalo is at 18.2 (!), Kansas City comes in at 6.8, and Dallas outscore their opponents by 4.2. That backs up my feel for the teams’ relative strength. Buffalo looks like, with apologies to the Eagles, the best team in the league. KC is elite on offense but a little suspect on defense. And Dallas is getting by on offense without their starting QB just enough thanks to their excellent D. Minnesota and N.Y. are each decent on one side of the ball (offense for the Vikes and defense for the fightin’ Daniel Joneses) and mediocre on the other. I think these teams are going to drift downward as the season progresses, although the Vikings have a decent shot at the playoffs due to a weak NFC North, whereas the #1 Eagles and the Cowboys are lurking in the NFC East.
Not much to say about Detroit’s no-show in New England. This was the worst game under the current regime, and by a long shot. Maybe this offense just had one of those days, thanks in part to failures in every 4th down attempt (two of which were clearly due to lack of trust in the kicking game). The defense was arguably a bit better, at least better than last week. Not that 29 points allowed is anything to be proud of. I don’t want to think about this one anymore. Next week is a bye, so the team has 2 weeks to get their shit together. I don’t want to give up on the Campbell era yet, but there’d better be some improvements before the Cowboys game, or the fan base is going to turn on this team in a hurry.
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