Since Baltimore’s first 2 opponents look like they could be bad teams, I’m not ready to send them to the playoffs yet. And game 3 is against Jacksonville, who we still don’t know if they are good or bad. Their next 2 games against Pittsburgh and Oakland should give us a better idea of how good they really are.

As for the Saints, it’s sad to see Drew Brees waste away like this. He has the 7th and 10th-best games on this list, yet has trailed in his games most of the way this year, and never really looked like they had a chance to win. Their next 2 games are at Carolina and at Miami. They might be able to win those, but I doubt it. The Saints have a good chance to start off 0-6.

That’s actually a really nice comparison. As you said, Cowher had three straight non-playoff seasons in 1998-2000. Steelers, stuck with him and their next five seasons were 13-3, 10-5-1, 6-10, 15-1, 11-5

The Ravens haven’t made the playoffs three out of four years since the Super Bowl win, but I don’t remember any serious question on Harbaugh’s job security.

This start may be a mirage (the Ravens started 3-0 last year too), but it feels different this year. Plus, the offense actually looks decent.