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. Indianapolis Colts: 10.7 Peyton Manning wills the Colts to victories unlike anyone else in the game; Indianapolis averaged just 2.7 yards per rush, but that 10.3 yards per pass average allowed the Colts to effectively extend drives against Jacksonville. 2. New Orleans Saints: 9.9 I thought the Saints' odds of winning the Super Bowl would increase if they lost a regular season game along the way and getting one out of their system against Dallas doesn't really cost them anything. Though it could awake a sleeping giant in Dallas that has experience winning in New Orleans in a winter month. 3. Green Bay Packers: 9.7 The Packers and Steelers combined to score 35 points in the 4th quarter alone on Sunday with four lead changes and unfortunately for Green Bay, Mike Wallace caught a 19-yard game winner. 4. New England Patriots: 7.4 The Patriots looked hardly dominant, especially with Tom Brady's 59.1 passer rating, but they essentially locked up the AFC East with Sunday's road win in Buffalo. 5. Pittsburgh Steelers: 7.1 Ben Roethlisberger threw for a staggering 503 yards, including 70 or more to five different receivers. The Steelers are one of 12 teams in the AFC to have a .500 or better record. 6. San Diego Chargers: 7.0 Vince Jackson is fully and officially a lethal weapon, as he caught five balls for 108 yards and two touchdowns against the Bengals. 7. Minnesota Vikings: 6.9 In seven of Adrian Peterson's previous eight games, he has averaged fewer than 3.9 yards per carry. Over the past three games, the Vikings have used him more frequently through the air, as he had 74 yards receiving against Carolina, 40 against the Bengals and 46 against Arizona. Brett Favre, meanwhile, hasn't had a passer rating over 80.0 in his previous three games. 8. Philadelphia Eagles: 6.3 The Eagles continue to force interceptions with 23 now on the season after they forced three from Alex Smith. 9. Baltimore Ravens: 6.2 Ray Rice has logged over 100 total yards from scrimmage in 11 of Baltimore's 14 games. 10. Dallas Cowboys: 5.5 The Dallas defense held Drew Brees and the Saints to a 1-for-7 mark on 3rd down, which is something we plainly don't see. 11. New York Giants: 4.4 After a little rough shot during that four-game losing streak, Eli Manning has put up three consecutive very good games with passer ratings of 88.9 against Dallas, 130.5 against Philadelphia and 144.4 against Washington. 12. Denver Broncos: 4.3 The Broncos couldn't stop the Oakland run and Elvis Dumervil was almost completely neutralized by the Raiders' offensive line. 13. Cincinnati Bengals: 3.0 The Bengals outplayed San Diego, on the road, just a few days after the death of teammate Chris Henry, so it was difficult to watch Nate Kaeding's 52-yarder at the buzzer crush what would have been a huge win. 14. New York Jets: 2.3 The Jets defense was stingy against a returning Matt Ryan, but going 0-for-3 in the red zone is inexcusable for Mark Sanchez and Brian Schottenheimer's offense. 15. Houston Texans: 1.4 He didn't reach the end zone, but nine catches for 196 yards just seems like another day at the office for Andre Johnson at this point. 16. Jacksonville Jaguars: 0.9 David Garrard has clearly been a first half quarterback, with a 94.2 passer rating in that part of the game, versus 76.2 in the second half. He has been sacked with far greater frequency (24.0 to 13.0) as well. 17. San Francisco 49ers: 0.5 The 49ers may have been 3-for-4 on 4th down, but were a horrible 0-for-11 on 3rd down. 18. Arizona Cardinals: 0.4 The Cardinals didn't look like worldbeaters late last season either, but at least it was at the hands of playoff/near-playoff teams and not the 49ers and Lions. 19. Washington Redskins: -0.5 Even though he didn't look like it on Monday against the Giants, I agree with the overall assessment from Ron Jaworski that the Redskins have a dependable quarterback already in place with Jason Campbell. 20. Tennessee Titans: -0.5 The Tennessee offense has fully become Chris Johnson, Vince Young, more Chris Johnson and a little bit to Bo Scaife, Justin Gage and Kenny Britt. 21. Atlanta Falcons: -1.3 Brent Grimes picked off two passes in Atlanta's 10-7 win at the Jets. 22. Miami Dolphins: -2.1 The Dolphins that won the AFC East a season ago took extremely good care of the ball, but they've had 25 turnovers this season, almost doubling last season's total. 23. Buffalo Bills: -2.4 A late touchdown to Lee Evans made Sunday's 17-10 victory over New England make the game look closer on Monday morning than it really was. Buffalo went a dreadful 2-for-12 on 3rd down and racked up 124 yards in penalties. 24. Carolina Panthers: -2.4 Matt Moore looked very impressive late in the game in Carolina's win over Minnesota, as he finish the game with a 123.2 passer rating. 25. Seattle Seahawks: -4.1 The Seattle defense didn't record a single sack on rookie quarterback Josh Freeman and only five hits on him. 26. Chicago Bears: -6.3 Not even Caleb Hanie's 8.3 passer rating can make Jay Cutler's 7.9 rating against the Ravens look respectable. 27. Kansas City Chiefs: -6.7 The Chiefs wasted Matt Cassel's first effective outing since the Pittsburgh overtime win by allowing two special teams TDs from Josh Cribbs. 28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -9.0 The Buccaneers are 2-1 when Josh Freeman finishes with a passer rating over 85.0, as he did in Seattle on Sunday. 29. Detroit Lions: -11.8 The logic of trading away Calvin Johnson is logical when you consider their 57.2 team passer rating, but it isn't as if Johnson is wasting his legs away as a running back. He has a dozen prime seasons remaining, at least. 30. St. Louis Rams: -13.3 Steven Jackson had 123 total yards of offense at the Rams' leading rusher and receiver in their 16-13 loss at home against the Texans. 31. Oakland Raiders: -16.7 The Raiders exhibited a return to that highly effective ground game we've seen in recent seasons, with 133 yards from Michael Bush and 74 from Darren McFadden. 32. Cleveland Browns: -16.8 Jerome Harrison's previous career high in rushing yards before Sunday's 286 was 121, which was the only other time in his career that he gained more than 100 yards. In other Cleveland 100 yard game news, the Browns have passed for less than 100 yards in six separate games, including Sunday.