Week 3 BES Rankings

There’s a new team atop this week’s rankings. The Eagles (3-0) usurped the Vikings (3-0) for the No. 1 spot in BES Overall. Barely nudging the Vikings by 0.03 points, the Eagles dominant 34-3 victory of the Steelers (2-1) carried more weight with the BES than the Vikings’ impressive 22-10 road win over the Panthers (1-2). The Eagles now enter a Week 4 bye with the No. 1 BES Offense (3.38) and No. 2 BES Defense (3.39).

Newcomers to the BES Top-10 this week are the Chiefs (2-1) and Falcons (2-1). The No. 8 Chiefs defensively thrashed the Jets (1-2) 24-3, scoring all of their points off of eight turnovers. Individually, second-year Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters registered two interceptions, adding to his season total of four and 12 in his young career. Peters is a key cog in a unit that has now cracked the top-10 in BES Defense but burdened by an offense ranked 24th by the BES.

Conversely, the ninth-ranked Falcons boast a No. 4-ranked BES Offense and 29th-ranked defense. Particularly concerning is their Point Suppression score of 1.66 and Pass Pressure score of 1.15. If those figures don’t dramatically improve, it could mean a continued series of shootouts for the remainder of the season. They’d have to maintain their blistering 34.7 points per game just to survive from week-to-week, a dire scenario for a team trying to hold first place in the NFC South.

The Rams (2-1), after opening the season to a 28-0 disembowelment at the hands of the 49ers (1-2), find  themselves in first place in the NFC West and rightfully the highest ranked NFC West team in BES Overall. However, in Week 4, they travel to face the Cardinals (1-2) who will field the No. 6 BES Defense with a score of 3.04, a daunting number for the Rams’ 31st-ranked BES Offense.

At No. 5 in BES Overall are the Ravens (3-0) who have narrowly escaped the weakest SOS (1.37) of all 32 teams, winning by an average of four points. They have an interesting schedule over the next four weeks that includes two consecutive home games against the Raiders (2-1) and Redskins (1-2) before a two-week road trip to face the Jets and Giants. That quartet of contests has an average SOS of 2.33 so it’ll be interesting to see how the Ravens emerge from that stretch before their Week 8 bye.

Requisite Reads for Newcomers:

• About the BES
• BES Upgrades for 2016