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. * The number in parenthesis represents each team's Trench Counter during their previous three games. 1. New Orleans Saints: 10.7 (9.3) If the Saints were going to lose a game to a team supremely less talented than they are, it probably was going to be against Washington, who had every opportunity to take advantage of New Orleans going 0-for-4 in the red zone and also having 102 yards in penalties. 2. Indianapolis Colts: 10.3 (5.9) Joseph Addai had his seventh career multi-touchdown game on Sunday and his third since the beginning of November. 3. Green Bay Packers: 8.7 (9.4) The Packers were 3-for-6 in red zone opportunities during their Monday win against Baltimore while almost completely neutralizing Baltimore's running game on the defensive side of things. 4. Minnesota Vikings: 7.4 (12.2) For as much as the Vikings are universally talented and just need Brett Favre to not throw interceptions and make the more simple throws, they need him to be excellent to win when playing good teams. He has had a sub-80.0 passer rating in three games, two of them were losses and the other one was the miracle in Week 3 against San Francisco. 5. San Diego Chargers: 7.1 (16.7) The Chargers have seemingly gone away from Antonio Gates over the past year and a half, but his 167 yards against Cleveland was a career high, beating out his two best career marks that were from 2005. 6. Pittsburgh Steelers: 6.6 (2.0) I continue to believe in the Steelers, but just reaching the playoffs will prove extremely difficult for this team that has now lost four in a row. 7. New England Patriots: 6.6 (-0.3) Randy Moss (1,058) and Wes Welker (1,053) are ranked first and second in receiving yards this season. While Moss is first in receptions of 20 or more yards with 16, Welker is tied for 64th with just six. 8. Philadelphia Eagles: 5.0 (8.0) The Eagles are now 3-1 when not committing a single turnover with the Week 6 loss in Oakland being the only blemish. 9. Dallas Cowboys: 4.7 (5.5) No December references here, at least not yet; the Cowboys are 25-4 when Tony Romo has a passer rating of over 100.0, which he did against the Giants. 10. Denver Broncos: 4.3 (4.8) Elvis Dumervil had another sack on Sunday, raising his NFL-best total to 15 through 12 games. 11. Cincinnati Bengals: 3.5 (1.8) The Benglas went 2-1 in a three-game stretch against Oakland, Cleveland and Detroit, though they looked far from dominant and now they face a difficult two-game road trip at Minnesota and San Diego. 12. New York Giants: 3.1 (-2.4) The Giants were greatly aided by two plays in their win against Dallas that they don't see weekly; a 79-yard punt return from Domenik Hixon and a 74-yard TD pass to Brandon Jacobs. 13. Baltimore Ravens: 1.7 (-2.1) Joe Flacco has a 93.9 passer rating at home and 75.2 on the road, something that must make the Ravens remember he is only in his second season. 14. Arizona Cardinals: 1.7 (4.4) I'm not sure the Cardinals can sustain the effort against the run week after week, but holding Adrian Peterson to 1.5 yards per rush is something to absolutely marvel at. 15. New York Jets: 1.3 (4.0) The Jets are 6-6 despite having a +41 point differential on the season, unlike the Dolphins who are also 5-5 but have a -18. 16. Jacksonville Jaguars: 1.2 (1.9) Since his brutal Week 8 against the Titans, David Garrard has been consistently excellent in Jacksonville's 4-1 stretch. 17. San Francisco 49ers: 0.0 (-1.3) Alex Smith had an excellent game (95.6 passer rating, two TDs, no INTs), but the 49ers couldn't get the running game going at all, rushing just 12 times for 53 yards. 18. Houston Texans: -0.4 (-8.2) Rex Grossman was 3-for-9 with a 5.6 passer rating while filling in temporarily for Matt Schaub. 19. Washington Redskins: -0.4 (0.9) There was no shock around the NFL when Shaun Suisham was released this week, but he has been a fairly accurate kicker this season. 20. Miami Dolphins: -1.6 (-5.3) The Dolphins continue to struggle against the pass, as they gave up 12.1 yards per pass to Tom Brady and the Patriots, but they did pick him off two separate times. 21. Atlanta Falcons: -1.7 (-6.2) The Falcons have been held to 90 yards or less in six separate games, something that happened just three times last season. 22. Buffalo Bills: -1.8 (1.6) Marshawn Lynch has been struggling since returning from his suspension, but he had an effective night against the Jets in Toronto, rushing six times for sixty yards with a TD. 23. Seattle Seahawks: -2.0 (-10.1) The Seahawks continue to struggle against the pass, ranking 6th worst in the NFL. 24. Chicago Bears: -3.1 (-3.3) The Bears are 4-1 when Jay Cutler has a passer rating over 95.0. 25. Carolina Panthers: -3.3 (-4.3) Behind a 26 carry outing from Jonathan Stewart, the Panthers averaged 5.9 yards per carry on a day when DeAngelo Williams was unavailable. 26. Tennessee Titans: -4.1 (2.8) Chris Johnson has rushed for over 100 yards in seven straight games, though his 4.2 average against the Colts was the first time in his career he has accomplished the feat under 5.0 yards per carry. 27. Kansas City Chiefs: -7.8 (-11.6) Glenn Dorsey's relatively disappointing first two seasons will garner a lot of attention between now and the draft thanks to Ndamukong Suh and Gerald McCoy garnering so much attention. 28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -8.4 (-6.8) Antonio Bryant (116 yards) and Kellen Winslow (69 yards) gave a glimpse of the kind of passing game Tampa Bay can have, but Josh Freeman (321 yards), absolutely needs to reduce the interceptions. 29. Detroit Lions: -9.0 (-4.0) It has largely been feast or famine for Calvin Johnson this season who sandwiched a 10 yard day on Thanksgiving against Green Bay with 161 yards in Week 11 and 123 last week against the Bengals. 30. St. Louis Rams: -9.7 (-6.7) With Sunday's loss to Chicago, the Rams have been held without a touchdown in four games. 31. Oakland Raiders: -14.9 (-10.6) Since it has only happened once, the Raiders are 1-0 when their quarterback has a passer rating over 100.0. 32. Cleveland Browns: -15.8 (-7.7) The Browns rushed for 115 yards on the ground despite no player having more than 40, with Josh Cribbs and Jerome Harrison rushing for 38 and 35 respectively.