After the Cleveland Browns' Week 1 loss to the Eagles, how would the team fare in the media's power rankings? Our parent network, SB Nation, actually bumped the Browns up a spot to No. 31 overall, thanks to how they at least stayed in the game against Philadelphia. Falling to last place were the Miami Dolphins. Here's what they said about Cleveland:
31. Cleveland Browns (LW: 32, 0-1): Better effort than I thought against the Eagles. And Trent Richardson is kind of a badass. Brandon Weeden, on the other hand, could use some help.
Here is how the AFC North fared in the rankings:
Baltimore: No. 1 (up from No. 4)
Pittsburgh: No. 8 (down from No. 5)
Cincinnati: No. 18 (down from No. 16)
Cleveland: No. 31 (up from No. 32)
I'm not a believer yet that the Ravens are the best team in football, but their offensive approach looked damn good against the Bengals, and the defense got tougher in the second half. The Steelers competed with the Broncos but seemed to play a vanilla defense without two of their top defenders, while Cincinnati had a lot of protection issues and are on the downswing. This might just be the perfect week to face the Bengals.
Feel free to go directly to the YouTube video below to defend the Browns in the comments section, as they ask if Cleveland deserves to be ranked ahead of Miami or not.