NFC Hierarchy/Obituary with Week 2 in the books

With Week 2 in the books, only three teams in the NFC remain unbeaten -- the Eagles, Panthers, and Cardinals. There are also three winless teams -- the Giants, Buccaneers, and (surprise!) the Saints. If the Raiders or Jaguars played in the NFC, I might be ready to write their obituaries, but I'm not really close yet with teams like the Giants or Bucs. The hierarchy:

3rd and 6, Giants ball, Giants leading by one against a team led by Drew Stanton, 10 minutes remaining in the game:

Ohhhhhh! That's just one of Cruz's league leading four drops, according to ProFootballFocus.

Remember when Victor Cruz was good? He tries to remember too:

The Buccaneers were dead last in the NFL last year in total offense, and they aren't much better this season, averaging less than 300 yards per game. I'm a little late on this, but here's new Bucs QB Josh McCown:

Over the last seven season, Adrian Peterson has averaged 1445 rushing yards on over five yards per carry, and 12.3 rushing touchdowns. With Peterson on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the Vikings instantly went from a running offense to an offense that will be forced to throw. That's obviously not ideal when your QB is Matt Cassel. The Vikings are in for a long season.

According to a #3 QB study by Dave Mangels published during the season last year, 67 third string quarterbacks were forced to start a game from 2008 to 2012. As you might expect, the combined stats for those QBs were not pretty:

So far so good for third string QB Austin Davis, who completed 22 of 29 passes for 235 yards and no interceptions last week against the Bucs. The Rams will face the Cowboys at home this week, and will have the chance to steal two straight games with their third QB, if Shaun Hill is not ready in time.

The Cowboys' defensive stats are interesting. They are only allowing 16 first downs per game, which is third best in the NFL, and they're only allowing 316.5 yards per game, which is 12th in the NFL. Those numbers might make you think, "Hey, this defense might not be as bad as we thought."

I'm certainly on board there so far. The Cowboys defense has most definitely looked better than I envisioned when the season began. They didn't allow a single drive lasting 10 plays against the Titans Week 2. Look at all the 3's, 4's and 5's in the "plays" column:

The Cowboys offense has also helped quite a bit. Ever since the Cowboys' horrible first half against the 49ers Week 1, their offense has done a great job keeping their defense off the field. For example, against the Titans Week 2:

• The Cowboys offense was 9 of 16 on third down.

• They ran the ball successfully with DeMarco Murray, as he carried the ball 29 times for 167 yards.

• They held the ball for over 41 minutes. In fact, the Cowboys lead the NFL in time of possession.

The one stat that remains very alarming for the Cowboys D is the 6.1 yards per play they're allowing, which is exactly what they allowed last season when they were the third worst defense in NFL history.

In Week 3, the Cowboys' defense will likely get a third string QB, as noted above.

Who's the #1 defense in the NFL?

Yes, disclaimer, they played the Texans and Jaguars, but obviously, like the Cowboys, the Redskins' defense is playing better than anyone could have reasonably anticipated so far.

The Falcons are an awesome fantasy football team. Unfortunately, defense is kind of important in the NFL. In Week 1, the Falcons allowed 472 yards to the Saints. In Week 2, they allowed 472 yards to the Bengals. If  they keep up that pace, they'll break the single season yards allowed record by 510 yards. Luckily for the Falcons, they'll face the woeful Buccaneers offense Week 3.

Good luck dealing with this distraction, Bears:

The Saints have lost to a pair of teams (Falcons, Browns) that had a combined record of 8-24 (.250) last season. According to USA Today, only 11.6% of teams starting 0-2 have made the playoffs since the league expanded to a playoff field of 12 teams in 1990.

On a side note, this past offseason the Saints handed Jairus Byrd a six year, $54 million contract, with $26.3 million guaranteed. Byrd has six solo tackles this season. According to ProFootballFocus, he has four missed tackles.

Above, we noted that the Redskins are the surprise #1 defense in the NFL after two weeks. Who's ranked #2? The Lions! In fact, the Lions are allowing just 57.5 rushing yards per game and 2.5 rushing yards per attempt.

The Panthers have allowed the fewest points in the NFL, and in Week 2, they held a very talented Lions offense to just seven points. The Panthers are winning because of turnovers. They are one of four teams that has not yet turned the ball over yet this season (the Bengals, Broncos, and Browns are the others), and they have produced six turnovers on defense. The Panthers' turnover differential of +6 leads the NFL.

The Cardinals were terrified to let backup QB Drew Stanton throw the ball down the field, and they did the right thing against the Giants. They played conservative on offense, waited for the Giants to make mistakes, and capitalized when those opportunities surfaced.

Bruce Arians spoke about Carson Palmer's injury on SiriusXM radio. "This one is weird. He's got a nerve that just won't fire, and it controls his throwing shoulder," said Arians. "It could be a day, it could be a month. We really don't know."

The conservative approach might have worked against the Giants, but the Cardinals are not going to win many games with Drew Stanton.

The Packers gave up 36 points to the Seahawks Week 1. In Week 2, they would have given up 31 to the Jets if Marty Morhinweg hadn't called timeout. This is simply not a good defense.

Both of the Niners' first two games have been unimpressive, and obviously, being outscored 21-0 in the fourth quarter against the Bears was a disaster.

Meanwhile, Ray McDonald is still allowed to play.

This is how I would sum up the Eagles so far:

It's worth noting that the Jaguars and Colts aren't exactly defensive juggernauts, but what the Eagles have been able to do offensively has been impressive considering it has not even really gotten on track yet.

The Seahawks got abused by the Chargers in San Diego Week 2, as they lost the time of possession battle 17:45 to 42:15. Of course, the Chargers also made some amazing plays along the way, like this...

And this...

The Seahawks are still perhaps the best team in the NFL, but they are far from invincible.

Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski