By Christopher Reina 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: 18.4 First round pick Malcom Jenkins has already made a huge impact on special teams with a forced fumble against the Eagles and again last week against Buffalo, which he also recovered. The kind of impact he's making on special teams will be what New Orleans can routinely expect purely on defense once he gains a little more experience. 2. Denver Broncos: 16.7 Eddie Royal has just 42 yards receiving, but with Brandon Stokley and Jabar Gafney averaging 26.2 and 14.6 yards per catch and Correll Buckhalter averaging 7.4 yards per rush, he hasn't been needed. Kyle Orton also has a 91.2 passer rating and has TD/INT ratio of 3/0. 3. Baltimore Ravens: 14.1 I've been more excited about the Ravens than any other team in the NFL, but two of their wins have come against the Chiefs and Browns, who are a combined 0-6. Regardless of who their opponents have been, however, Ray Rice and Willis McGahee have been excellent (5.1 and 5.9 yards per rush respectively) and Joe Flacco has begun to prove he truly is a franchise quarterback with a 65.4 completion percentage and a 101.4 rating. 4. Indianapolis Colts: 11.0 The Colts passing game hasn't missed anything without Marvin Harrison and Anthony Gonzalez, but the ground game remains legitimately concerning with an average rush of just 3.5 yards. 5. New York Giants: 10.8 Ahmad Bradshaw has done more with 35 carries (201 yards) than Brandon Jacobs has done with 58 (196). Steve Smith and Mario Manningham are each on pace for over 1,200 yards receiving as well. 6. Green Bay Packers: 8.1 Greg Jennings had just two catches on Sunday, but he racked up 103 yards with that action. He is always one of the NFL's best yards per catch receivers, but he is currently averaging 26.1 yards. 7. Minnesota Vikings: 7.5 Percy Harvin's instant impact has been every bit as big as Brett Favre; the rookie from Florida has two touchdowns receiving and Sunday's incredible 101-yard run against San Francisco. 8. Philadelphia Eagles: 7.2 Kevin Kolb has put up great fantasy numbers, but his 88.9 rating in light of the caliber of defense from New Orleans and Kansas City give reason to be cautious with optimism or to swiftly dismiss Donovan McNabb. 9. New York Jets: 5.9 The Jets will win a lot of games like the one on Sunday, where yards per pass were about a wash and yards per rush was in Tennessee's favor +1.5, but they were a +2 in giveaway/takeaways. 10. New England Patriots: 4.8 Tom Brady has sequentially decreased his pass attempts each week, throwing 53 against Buffalo, 47 against the Jets and 42 against Atlanta. The Patriots thankfully rushed the ball 39 times with an average of 4.3 yards. 11. Dallas Cowboys: 4.3 I absolutely love Felix Jones, but he may as well be wearing glass slippers out there given how fragile he is. Jones did have 11.8 yards per carry before he was forced out of the game, but Tashard Choice's workmanlike 82 yards for 18 carries is every bit as valuable. 12. San Francisco 49ers: 3.0 The absence of Frank Gore was particularly felt in the 4th quarter when they needed to get 1st downs and keep the ball out of Favre's hands; Glen Coffee rushed the ball 25 times for just 54 yards (2.2 average). 13. Tennessee Titans: 2.1 The Titans are one of the better 0-3 teams we have seen in recent memory, but they could conceivably go into their bye with a 1-5 record and still make the playoffs given how soft their final 10 are with four games against the NFC West. 14. Seattle Seahawks: 1.0 The Seahawks were in the red zone just two times on Sunday against Chicago and they don't have a strong enough defense or running game to offset a quarterback firmly in the 70s as far as passer rating. 15. Buffalo Bills: 0.2 Fred Jackson's three-game audition while Marshawn Lynch served his suspension was relatively successful, with 291 yards on 61 carries (4.8 average) and 134 yards receiving, making him Buffalo's leading receiver in receptions and yards. 16. San Diego Chargers: -0.2 Vincent Jackson has emerged as a legitimate star receiver, trailing only Reggie Wayne in yards with 317. 17. Washington Redskins: -0.5 Jason Campbell is ninth in quarterback rating with a mark of 92.5 and you can't blame him for the fact that Kevin Smith couldn't be stopped by the defense or the zero yards rushing Washington had in the first half. 18. Pittsburgh Steelers: -0.9 The Steelers averaged four more yards per pass than the Bengals, but the discrepancy running the ball and the interception return by Johnathan Joseph was enough to give the Bengals the upset. 19. Jacksonville Jaguars: -1.7 This was the Maurice Jones-Drew we expected to see this season, with 23 carries for 119 yards and three touchdowns against Houston. 20. Chicago Bears: -1.9 The Bears are an Aaron Rodgers to Greg Jennings touchdown away from being a fundamentally flawed 3-0; instead they're a surprising 2-1 without a dependable running game. 21. Cincinnati Bengals: -2.7 Roy Williams leads the Bengals in tackles with 23, followed by second-year linebacker Keith Rivers. 22. Atlanta Falcons: -3.3 The Falcons weren't quite ready for New England, as they held Matt Ryan to 200 yards and completely neutralized Tony Gonzalez. 23. Arizona Cardinals: -4.3 The difference between Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning on Sunday night was the Colts pass rush was able to get to the former while Arizona didn't sniff the latter whatsoever. 24. Houston Texans: -6.4 Steve Slaton finally had an effective game this season, as he lit up Jacksonville for 76 yards on 12 carries (6.3 average), plus three receptions for 37 yards, but the lack of a pass rush against David Garrard and of course the performance by Jones-Drew made winning an important home game difficult. 25. Kansas City Chiefs: -7.6 The Chiefs are just 7-for-36 in their 3rd down attempts, while their opponents have been successful 44.2% of the time. 26. Miami Dolphins: -9.6 Speaking of the 3rd down battle, Miami has converted on an amazing 24-for-44 of their attempts thanks to that ground game, but their defense has not been nearly stingy enough with opponents moving the chains in 44.4% of their chances. 27. Oakland Raiders: -9.8 Even though Buckhalter did a lot of the work, Kyle Orton unsurprisingly had a passer rating of 92.1 after spending the entire afternoon upright. 28. Carolina Panthers: -9.9 At this stage of Jake Delhomme's career, they need to run the ball more than just 16 times in a game that was just 10-7 going into the 4th quarter. 29. Detroit Lions: -11.1 Matthew Stafford's passer rating has jumped from 27.4 in Week 1 to 56.5 and 87.8 in the two weeks since. 30. St. Louis Rams: -12.3 Steven Jackson had 163 total yards from scrimmage, as he continues to prove he might be the NFL's best player in a hopeless situation. 31. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -14.5 The Kellen Winslow trade looks increasingly moronic with each passing week. 32. Cleveland Browns: -18.8 The Browns rank last in points allowed and second to last in points scored, which isn't something Derek Anderson will be able to do much to fix.