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: 12.8 The Saints scored their fifth defensive touchdown in Monday's 35-27 win over division rival Atlanta. 2. Indianapolis Colts: 11.4 The Colts have only 35 yards lost due to sacks all season. 3. New England Patriots: 10.6 Tom Brady had a 79.9 passer rating in September and 121.7 in October as he continues to become more comfortable with his knee. 4. Green Bay Packers: 9.4 The Packers actually had the advantage in Sunday's loss to the Vikings in terms of the Trench Counter, but the special teams play from Percy Harvin makes that number lie since they were starting drives at an average of their own 46-yard line. 5. Denver Broncos: 9.0 Kyle Orton now has a passer rating of 100.1 in wins and 71.0 in Denver's lone loss. 6. Philadelphia Eagles: 6.7 The Eagles are +12 in the giveaway/takeaway department this season, which is tied with Green Bay for first overall. 7. Pittsburgh Steelers: 6.5 Whether or not safety Ryan Clark plays on Monday against Denver is the major story facing the Steelers coming out of the bye week. 8. New York Giants: 5.3 Eli Manning has a 54.4 passer rating over the past three games (all losses). 9. Dallas Cowboys: 4.7 During the Cowboys' three-game win streak, Tony Romo has a passer rating of over 100 in each game. Dallas has a tough two-game road trip at Philadelphia and at Green Bay before coming home in two gimmes against the Redskins and Raiders. 10. Minnesota Vikings: 4.6 Percy Harvin has five total touchdowns on the season while adding a breakout element that the Vikings didn't have outside of Adrian Peterson. His presence on special teams is almost solely the reason why the Trench Counter has been unfair to this team. 11. Houston Texans: 3.9 There was no prior indicator of the way Ryan Moats ran through Buffalo, unless you count his 278 yards (5.1 per carry average) he racked up during his rookie season in Philadelphia. 12. Cincinnati Bengals: 3.4 The Bengals are hoping the bye week will be heal up Cedric Benson and Bernard Scott. 13. Baltimore Ravens: 2.9 The Ravens have begun to abandon their running back by committee approach, with Ray Rice getting 23 carries for 84 yards in Sunday's win over the Broncos. 14. San Diego Chargers: 2.4 The Chargers did just enough with the running game (100 yards, 3.3 per carry) to free up Philip Rivers and the passing game (9.8 yards per pass). 15. New York Jets: 1.1 Despite their 4-4 record, the Jets are fifth in the AFC in point differential, ahead of the 5-2 Steelers and Bengals. 16. San Francisco 49ers: 0.2 The 49ers are 29th on 3rd down, going 26-for-92, which isn't a very good mark for teams trying to get into the playoffs. 17. Atlanta Falcons: -0.2 Take away the three interceptions and the 45.2% completion percentage and Matt Ryan would be left with 289 yards and a touchdown. 18. Jacksonville Jaguars: -0.2 Maurice Jones-Drew had 177 yards on just eight carries (22.1 per carry average), which begets the question of why isn't David Garrard handing the ball off to him even more. 19. Chicago Bears: -0.7 Matt Forte had a nice two touchdown game against Cleveland, but he has only had legitimately effective games against two of the NFL's worst in the Browns and Lions. 20. Seattle Seahawks: -0.9 The Seahawks allowed the Cowboys to be 3-for-3 in their red zone opportunities. 21. Arizona Cardinals: -1.0 Kurt Warner is attempting over 40 passes per game, putting him on pace to beat his career high of 598 from last season. 22. Miami Dolphins: -1.0 Three of Miami's four touchdowns came on kickoff returns or fumble returns. 23. Buffalo Bills: -1.8 Ryan Fitzpatrick's 41.4 passer rating should make giving Trent Edwards his job back when he's ready to go a supremely easy decision. 24. Washington Redskins: -2.0 In a season filled with imperfections, Shaun Suisham is a perfect 9-for-9 in his field goal attempts. 25. Carolina Panthers: -3.6 The strength of Carolina last season was in their running game and that finally broke out on Sunday with 270 total yards on 44 carries. 26 Kansas City Chiefs: -7.7 Larry Johnson became the ultimate wag the dog for embattled head coach Todd Haley. 27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -9.0 The Buccaneers have an even better kickoff yardage average than Minnesota with a mark of 28.1, largely thanks to Sammie Stroughter's 97-yard return for a touchdown a few weeks ago against the Panthers. 28. Detroit Lions: -9.2 Maurice Morris (4.5 yards per rush) was far more productive than Kevin Smith (2.8 yards per rush) in Detroit's loss to the previous winless Rams. 29. Tennessee Titans: -9.7 What does it mean when the NFL's two leaders in total rushing yards (Chris Johnson and Steven Jackson) are on teams that are ranked 29th and 30th on this list? 30. St. Louis Rams: -11.2 Maybe the Rams could begin to use Josh Brown at quarterback, who threw a 36-yard TD pass to Daniel Fells on a fake. 31. Oakland Raiders: -15.8 Per play averages of 3.7 for both the run and pass made life difficult for a Raiders team that was within striking distance of upsetting the Chargers. 32. Cleveland Browns: -16.5 The Browns were 1-for-11 on 3rd down and turned the ball over five times in Sunday's 30-6 loss to Chicago.