NFL 2013 TABRankings: Week 3

Already, fans are clamoring about the potential crash course for a Broncos-Seahawks match-up in Super Bowl XLVIII. From the eye test, these two clearly look like the best teams in the league. According the TABRankings, this sentiment holds a lot of the truth. Denver and Seattle rank first and second in the rankings, respectively.

However, these two teams don’t have complete separation from the pack. In fact, the Patriots are playing near-elite football on one side of the ball, which puts them in third barely behind the Seahawks. Most aren’t noticing, though, because it’s the defense that stands out so far. Because Tom Brady owns a 79.4 passer rating, his relationships with his receivers currently grabs the headlines. New England still ranks 8th in Cold, Hard Football Facts’ Real Quarterback Rating, 6th in Relative Points Average, 7th in Third/Fourth Down Differential, 6th in Turnover Margin and 4th Time Ahead Average. It’s just not what most fans are used to, unless they were in slumber since 2007. Remember, the Patriots won three Super Bowls with a simple and efficient offense, but a dominant defense.

So those three teams are clearly the class of the NFL, and they share the headline for these rankings in Week 3. Who else shares the spotlight? Well, that would be the bottom three as well. The Giants?! The Steelers?! This season marks the first time since 1970 that both of these franchises started 0-3 for the year. However, the TABRankings-inspired fact that they stink like true 0-3 teams should shock everyone. After all, these teams have Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger for the 30th-ranked Giants and 31st-ranked Steelers, respectively. These stunning starts deserves a deeper look later this week.

Other than those headlines, we see some major changes. The Chiefs and 49ers more or less swap spots in the rankings, which seems fitting because the masses seem to be swapping their opinion on last year’s quarterback controversy between Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick. (I will not be one of them.) Meanwhile, the Texans and Packers were knocked down significantly closer to mediocrity. As for the Jets, they’re just happy to be mediocre, after their divisional win against Buffalo.

Now to the rankings. Remember, the formula for the 2013 TABRankings looks like so:

The TABRankings formula:
(Win Pct x 2)+(Pyth Pct)+(Div Pct x 0.5)+(Qual Pct x 0.5)+(3rd/4th Down Diff x 2.25)+(TO Margin x 3)-(FK Diff x 0.75)+(Sack Diff x 0.75)+(Time Ahead Avg x 1.2)+(Time Ahead Big Avg x 1.5)+(Real Quarterback Rating Diff x 1.25)+(Relative Pts Avg x 1.8)

While we’re getting close to it, the 2013 results are not fully reliable enough just yet. Therefore, these rankings will feature some TABR from 2012 and some TABR from 2013. The total from the above formula will be called the Raw TABR. Add in the 2012 TABR, and this will create the True TABR for Week 3. The 2012 TABR will have a decreasing influence over the first four weeks.

The TABRankings opponent adjustment for Week 3:
(Raw TABR * 0.75) + (2012 TABR * 0.25) = True TABR

With now all that put together, the results for Week 3 are available below. Make sure to check back in the upcoming weeks for the newest installments of the TABRankings . We will be publishing these results weekly!

The TABRankings top eight:
1, 2, 3, 4
5, 6, 7, 8

True TABRankings — Week 3