The scoreboard is where games are officially won and lost, but they are largely decided by the team that wins the battles of yards per pass, yards per carry, penalty yards lost, first downs, and turnovers. For this reason, I created the following formula called the ?Trench Counter? to look at which team truly controls the game: (2x Yards per pass) + (2x Yards per carry) + (.5 First downs) - (Penalty yards/10) - (2.5 Turnovers) - (Opposing Team's Trench Counter) Click here for more information on the Trench Counter For the 2009 season, our weekly team rankings will be based solely off this formula. 1. New Orleans Saints: 16.0 The Saints are one win away from matching their best start in franchise history in 1991 when they opened 7-0. The '91 season was the middle season of Jim Mora's three-year playoff run, which was predicated on a defense ranked first in fewest points allowed more than the arm of Bobby Hebert. 2. Indianapolis Colts: 12.6 The Colts defense has not given up a touchdown in eight quarters and hasn't allowed one in the first half during the past four games. 3. Denver Broncos: 11.0 The Broncos come out of their bye week forced to travel to Baltimore to play a hungry Ravens team that also just had their bye. 4. Green Bay Packers: 10.6 The Packers will host Brett Favre this Sunday and unlike their Monday night game a few weeks ago, Dom Capers features a much-improved defense that has gone from 18th to 3rd. The offensive line also kept Aaron Rodgers from getting sacked in Sunday's 31-3 win over Cleveland. 5. New England Patriots: 10.6 Since losing to Josh McDaniels and the Broncos in overtime, the Patriots have outscored opponents by a margin of 94-7. 6. New York Giants: 7.8 Fans of the Giants and Yankees will be able to take in a doubleheader against the Eagles and Phillies in the city of cheesesteaks. After beginning the season 5-0, the Giants have lost two consecutive games and don't get a legitimate break in their schedule (other than the Week 10 bye) until they travel to Washington four days before Christmas. 7. Pittsburgh Steelers: 6.5 The LaMarr Woodley 77-yard fumble return and Keyaron Fox 82-yard pick-six showed the familiar face of Steelers' football as much as the 5.3 yards per rush average, which was +1.4 in comparison to Minnesota's 3.9. 8. Philadelphia Eagles: 5.8 Will Witherspoon ingratiated himself with Andy Reid and company by returning an interception for a touchdown while logging eight tackles, one sack and even a forced fumble. 9. Minnesota Vikings: 5.5 Winning games, especially on the road against the defending champs, is always difficult when turnovers happen while in red zone opportunities. 10. Dallas Cowboys: 3.8 Since Miles Austin barely averaged 20 yards per game over the first four weeks, we'll need one or two more big games to see if these 250 and 171 yard weeks will be a legitimate indicator of future success. 11. New York Jets: 3.5 One week after throwing 45 interceptions, Mark Sanchez gave the Jets a 9-for-15, zero INT afternoon in Oakland, staying out of the way of a running game that rushed 54 times for 316 yards. 12. Cincinnati Bengals: 3.4 The Bengals had been winning games with average outings from Carson Palmer, but he threw for five touchdowns and had a passer rating of 146.7 in their 45-10 win over Chicago, which could make them truly dangerous. 13. Houston Texans: 3.1 The Texans were unimpressive in the second half, sitting on a 21-0 lead over the 49ers that they nearly wasted. 14. Baltimore Ravens: 2.9 Coming out of the bye, Baltimore must do a better job defending the pass, beginning with shutting down Kyle Orton and the Broncos. 15. San Francisco 49ers: 0.9 I don't think we can routinely expect 118.6 passer rating games from Alex Smith, but since August it has been clear that he has significant more upside than Shaun Hill. The San Francisco defense isn't nearly good enough to offset a 'manage the game' quarterback. 16. San Diego Chargers: 0.8 After destroying the Chiefs on the road 37-7, San Diego will have another 'let's fatten up' game at home against Oakland. 17. Seattle Seahawks: 0.6 The Seahawks will have a difficult time making the playoffs if they can't get Walter Jones and Sean Locklear back onto the field. 18. Arizona Cardinals: 0.4 The Cardinals' 24-17 win in New York against the Giants was easily their most impressive road performance in any regular season game over the past two seasons. I think the Cardinals easily have the best shot in the NFC West. 19. Jacksonville Jaguars: -0.1 Maurice Jones-Drew averages 4.3 yards per carry regardless of win or loss, but he averages 8.3 yards per reception when the Jaguars win compared to 4.7 in losses. 20. Buffalo Bills: -0.6 Ryan Fitzpatrick's 82.2 rating on the road in Carolina was enough for the Bills to stick with him against Houston. How frequently does a team have quarterbacks out of Harvard and Stanford? 21. Atlanta Falcons: -1.3 By a very wide margin, the Falcons are the best team ranked in the 20s and are all but certain to finish the season in the top half of the Trench Counter. 22. Washington Redskins: -2.0 The sputtering Washington offense will have even more problems now that Chris Cooley is out for the season. 23. Miami Dolphins: -3.9 The Dolphins keep going to Ted Ginn, but his production has been consistently disappointing. 24. Chicago Bears: -4.5 The Bears have traditionally forced a lot of turnovers while taking good care of the ball offensively, but are -5 for the season, which ranks them 13th in the NFC. 25. Carolina Panthers: -5.7 Steve Smith rebounded with a 99 yard outing, but the end result was still a 20-9 loss to a mediocre Bills team. 26. Kansas City Chiefs: -7.7 The bye week couldn't happen at a better time for the Chiefs, where either Todd Haley or Larry Johnson, probably/hopefully both won't be back next season. 27. Detroit Lions: -8.7 A headline I'm not sure I would live long enough to see, 'Lions don't want to overlook Rams.' That gem was from the Detroit Free-Press and though no 1-5 team can pencil in any 'W', I do like their chances against St. Louis. 28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -9.0 I haven't looked this up to officially verify it, but Josh Freeman is the first quarterback to make his NFL debut on foreign land. He completed two of his four passes for 16 yards while being sacked twice in mop-up duty against the Patriots in London. 29. Tennessee Titans: -11.5 Bud Adams is pushing hard for Jeff Fisher to start Vince Young and it is impossible to argue against it given the hole Tennessee is presently in. 30. St. Louis Rams: -14.5 The Rams will get linebacker David Vobora back this week after being suspended for a substance abuse violation. 31. Cleveland Browns: -15.7 Given the mystery of why Eric Mangini would stubbornly stick with Derek Anderson, some have speculated that he doesn't want Brady Quinn to take 70% of the snaps, which would force Cleveland to pay $10.9 million in contract escalators. 32. Oakland Raiders: -16.4 Only 39,543 fans attended Sunday's game in Oakland against the Jets, which was the lowest number for the Raiders since 1968.