Our NFL Team Rankings are based entirely on the The Trench Counter, which is an objective formula measuring average yards per pass and run on both offense and defense, along with first downs registered and given up, turnovers for and against, and total penalty yards. 

Over time, The Trench Counter rankings begin to closely resemble the standings but goes even further to determine which teams are truly the best when on the line of scrimmage. 

The chief aim of the Trench Counter is to take the subjective out of the equation and even the somewhat fluky nature of teams actually scoring points, which is of course the whole point on a game-by-game basis.

The New England Patriots looked like the best team in football on Sunday afternoon with their very convincing victory over the Denver Broncos, but they only had a +1.5 in the Trench Counter. Bill Belichick's gameplan setup the Broncos for a ton of third and longs they couldn't quite convert, while Peyton Mannning also had a lot of garbage time yards without producing touchdowns. The eye test looks good for the Patriots right now, but they have a difficult remaining schedule and expectations should be tempered.

The Patriots could very well end up as the Wild Card with how the Miami Dolphins are playing. The Dolphins had a +31.8 in their win over the San Diego Chargers and are now ranked No. 1.

There has been a bit of a carousel with the top spot this season with the Vikings (after Week 1), Bengals (Week 2, 3, 4), Seahawks (Week 5), Ravens (Week 6, 7) and Broncos (Week 8) also holding it down. The Seahawks pretty much ran the table in the Trench Counter last season.

Week 9 Rankings

1. Miami Dolphins: 9.0
2. New Orleans Saints: 6.0
3. Denver Broncos: 5.0
4. Baltimore Ravens: 4.1
5. Seattle Seahawks: 4.1
6. San Francisco 49ers: 3.5
7. Indianapolis Colts: 3.3
8. Arizona Cardinals: 3.3
9. Dallas Cowboys: 2.8
10. Kansas City Chiefs: 2.3
11. Green Bay Packers: 2.3
12. Detroit Lions: 1.8
13. Cincinnati Bengals: 1.5
14. New England Patriots: 1.4
15. Chicago Bears: 1.1
16. Philadelphia Eagles: 0.9
17. Buffalo Bills: 0.8
18. Houston Texans: 0.5
19. Washington: 0.4
20. Cleveland Browns: 0.3
21. Pittsburgh Steelers: -0.2
22. Minnesota Vikings: -0.9
23. San Diego Chargers: -1.4
24. New York Giants: -2.3
25. Atlanta Falcons: -3.0
26. Carolina Panthers: -4.1
27. Jacksonville Jaguars: -4.2
28. Tennessee Titans: -5.3
29. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -6.2
30. New York Jets: -7.6
31. St. Louis Rams: -9.2
32. Oakland Raiders: -9.3