A few weeks ago I rolled out the first-ever Sports in a Can NFL Rankings. For a complete explanation on how it works and the rankings after Week 6, click here.

If you just want to dive in to the latest set of rankings, here’s all you need to know: because one play can sometimes decide whether a team wins or loses, a close win or loss factors into each team’s ranking:

a win by 9+ points is worth 3 points
a win by 1-8 points is worth 2 points
a loss by 1-8 points is worth 1 point
a loss by 9+ points is worth 0 points

Any ties were broken by looking a little more in depth at the team’s slate of games to date. Other than that, the numbers speak for themselves.

Without further ado, here is the latest installment of the Sports in a Can NFL Rankings (the number in parentheses is the

After an unprecedented three straight weeks with six teams on a bye (giving us just 13 games per weekend), the NFL is finally at near-full strength this week, with only the Giants and Texans getting the week off. Next week the full slate of 16 games returns. So with the byes officially over after this week and my prognosticating skills severely diminished after a solid run to start the season, it's time to take a look at each game in detail this week.

Thursday Night Football

Chicago at San Francisco
Thursday Night Football is back--because with the byes mercifully almost over the NFL has a new way to mess up picking games as well as Fantasy Football rosters: Thursday Night Football. The Bears lost at Cincinnati 45-10 and to Arizona at home 41-21. The 49ers have lost four straight and five

In case you haven't heard, Brett Favre returns to Green Bay to face his former team this Sunday. He joins a long list of former players heading to the visitors' locker room at a stadium they once called home, but a short list of players who achieved icon status only to return dressed in enemy clothing.

Brett Favre's name was synonymous with the Green Bay Packers for 16 years. You couldn't help but think of one without the other during that time. He is a guaranteed first ballot Hall of Famer, and one of the most talked-about players of his era.

I came up with seven other examples on a par with Brett Favre--legendary local heroes returning to face their former teams. Some were cheered, some were booed. Some received both. But every return was anxiously awaited by the (formerly) home fans.

Here's

With the first set of BCS rankings released this week and more NFL Power Polls than you can shake a remote at available on the Internet, Sports in a Can has decided to get into the action. Welcome to the inaugural Sports in a Can NFL Rankings.

First, let's explain how the list came to be. I was trying to decide how good the Broncos are. They are 6-0 but the image of their opening week win--which only came to be because of one of the flukiest plays in NFL history--still gnaws at me every time I consider how good they are. That game clearly could have gone either way if you think about it. And really any NFL game decided by 8 points or less is one play away from going the other way.

That led to my realization that every team really has three sets of win totals: 1. their actual number of wins;

After devouring as much football as humanly possible during the NFL's glorious first weekend, one thing is clear: the NFL is the toughest sport by far to predict. I spent about 640 hours breaking down each team to put together my AFC and NFC previews, and in one week the 49ers and Broncos have each already won half as many games as I predicted they'd win all season, my top three AFC teams (Patriots, Chargers, and Colts) won by a combined 7 points, and injuries have already changed the landscape (specifically for the Bears and Eagles).

So as usual, you can't put too much stock in what you saw in Week 1. It's a long season. But let's try and piece through what we saw and improve upon the picks this week:

Carolina at Atlanta 

Jake Delhomme has 11 turnovers in his last two games. In between

Two years ago was one of the greatest regular seasons of all time. There was big game after big game and each encounter was memorable. Last season didn't quite have the same cache. So here's hoping this year's version of the NFL can match the 2007 version.

As we take a look at the NFC, there are a few things we need to keep in mind when predicting regular season records:

* Since 1997, 34 teams won 5 or more games than they won the year before. 27 of these teams won fewer games the next season, with only 2 winning more. NFC teams you can expect to have a worse record this year as opposed to last year are (win improvement and last year's record in parentheses): Carolina (+5, 12-4) and Atlanta (+7, 11-5).  

* 7 of the last 8 teams to lose the Super Bowl missed the playoffs