NFL Power Rankings heading into 2018’s fourth quarter

#2 New Orleans Saints (10-2)

This is a crucial point of the Saints season. They were riding high, winning their last ten following their season-opening loss to Tampa Bay, but they just got punched in the mouth by the Cowboys. You saw that you CAN guard Mike if you match him physically at the line of scrimmage instead of letting him operate in space. Byron Jones, who is having a phenomenal season, and to some degree Chidobe Awuzie got in his face from the get-go and New Orleans needed to look for a second and third option. All those touchdowns to undrafted free agents are cool, but the Saints’ only guy capable of being a serious number two is rookie Tre’Quan Smith and you’d like him to be a deep threat primarily. The thing that gets this New Orleans offense going is the physical O-line and that duo of Ingram and Kamara presenting inside and outside threats in the running game.

When they don’t control the time of possession and opponents can play tight man-coverage on Thomas they are not nearly the same team. With that being said, I trust in Sean Payton’s play-calling to put the attack back on track, by putting Thomas in stacks, finding a way to put the ball in the hands of his running backs and creating easy completions for Drew Brees. After all, a lot of his stats are in large part due to the scheming Payton to during the week. That’s also why I don’t have him as my MVP, despite several tight-window completions with pin-point accuracy on him part.

As far as the defense goes, they clearly have a major concern at the number two corner spot, looking at how Eli Apple got roasted on Thursday Night. Yet, their D-line with Cam Jordan, Sheldon Rankings, rookie Marcus Davenport and others is real, Demario Davis is having a career year and Marshon Lattimore is starting to look like the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year again.

With all that being said, this unit feeds off their offense controlling the clock and them being able to get after the passer, as they have the number one rushing defense and allow a league-low 3.5 yards a carry. The Saints are as complete a team as there is in the league not named the Rams, but they just took a big hit – how will they respond?

#3 Kansas City Chiefs (10-2)

As efficient as Drew Brees has been through the first twelve weeks, I never thought he was the MVP of the league. To me that clearly is Patrick Mahomes. He already has 41(!) touchdowns through the air and I don’t believe there is any other guy in the NFL that scares defenses more of breaking their neck by going over the top on every single play than this guy. The connection of him and Tyreek Hill is something that keeps defensive coordinators up at night because nobody runs as fast as the Cheetah and Mahomes is maybe the only guy who can hit him in stride at that speed. I have said several times that I think Travis Kelce is the best tight-end in football and he had another monster game Sunday. Add a former top-five pick in Sammy Watkins, a combine star in Chris Conley and some other guys to the mix and you have the most prolific aerial attack in football.

Obviously, the loss of Kareem Hunt hurts them on the field, but Spencer Ware came off a season with almost 1300 scrimmage yards before he got hurt in last year’s preseason. Andy Reid has done a phenomenal job creating confusion with constant movement and setting up easy yardage based off Mahomes’ threat of going deep. So let’s get to the obvious part – the defense. When you allow 33 points to a 2-10 Raiders team and let them creep back into the game despite Mahomes just shredding their defense it’s bad. Other than Kendall Fuller and to some degree Steven Nelson, when he can line up in the slot, I don’t trust a single defensive back on this team.

The Chiefs are dead-last in passing yards allowed and the only teams giving up more points than them are the Falcons missing three starters, the Bucs who have allowed a average QB rating of 139.3 to Trubisky, Dalton and Eli, two 2-10 teams in the Raiders and 49ers and the Bengals, who are on pace to breaking all kinds of records – the bad ones. I just don’t see a plan in their game-planning, but rather they just dial up different coverages on a play-by-play basis, and their run fits are off.

With all that being said, here are two reasons for hope – the trio of Dee Ford, Justin Houston and Chris Jones can get after the passer as well as any three-piece in the league when they get up early and their emotional leader Eric Berry practiced for the first time in over 100 days last week. If they hold on to that number one seed with Reid continuing to come up with new wrinkles and the defense stepping up a little with Berry in the line-up, it will be tough to keep up with the Chiefs at Arrowhead.