The Giants had the most impressive win of this early season on Sunday in San Francisco. New York has overcome injuries to win four of their last five games. They have an MVP candidate at quarterback. They are balanced. That's why they are No. 1 in the ATL entry of the NFL.com Power Poll this week despite a 4-2 record.
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The top of the league is flawed. It's been this way for years. Even when teams rack up 12 or 13 wins, teams have clearly definable problems. (Look at the defenses of the No. 1 seeds: New England and Green Bay.) The Ravens are 5-1, yet it feels like they are reeling.
A few unlucky bounces and they could be 2-4. The have been dominated on both lines of scrimmage in consecutive weeks. The defense is in shambles because of injuries. Yet the Ravens are absolutely a championship contender and one of the nine teams below we strongly believe are "good teams." The Broncos are borderline. After that, all bets are off.
That's the NFL 2012 in a nutshell.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
