Heading into last season I thought the New England Patriots were the clear, far-and-away best team in the NFL – and while we weren’t doing the blog at that point, I still have the Las Vegas betting slip I bought in July picking them to win the Super Bowl as proof.

As this season began I didn’t have as clear a feeling but I did believe that the league’s top three – maybe four – teams resided in the AFC. In addition to the Patriots, I would have included San Diego, Indianapolis and maybe Jacksonville at the top of my list in front of all of the NFC teams.
Week one shot some major holes in that theory.

First, Tom Brady tore his ACL against Kansas City, leaving the league’s most physically talented team to play one of the league’s easiest schedules without its clear leader. Then those other three top-notch teams each laid eggs in week one, losing to teams I thought were clearly inferior.

Now, throw in news that San Diego’s Shawne Merriman has put brains over brawn and decided to undergo surgery to repair his knee and the Chargers are minus a major weapon as well.

I think the Colts will rebound now that Peyton Manning has a week of play under his belt. But whereas the top AFC contenders either lost key starters or just looked like junk in week one, the top teams in the NFC looked good starting the season.

I was going through security at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas during most of the Dallas/Cleveland game, but from everything I read they put on a workmanlike performance in which there was never a doubt which was the better team.

New Orleans, my favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl in February (Dallas is a more well-rounded team, but Tony Romo is 0-2 in the playoffs and I need to see more from him before I believe in him) withstood a solid Tampa Bay defense to get off to a better start than they did last year. And in so doing, they got three touchdown passes from Drew Brees and, finally, a game in which Reggie Bush looked like the threat he was supposed to coming out of college.

Finally, the Green Bay Packers, under new leadership as well, started well with a Lambeau Field performance in which the trendy Minnesota Vikings really never looked like a threat (this is based on media reports and my brother’s analysis – I was buying my wife a birthday dinner during most of this game – not sorry I missed most of it).

One week of football in the NFL is too little to make any major judgements about an entire season. But early on, anyway, it looks as though the balance of power may be swinging back in the direction of the NFC – if it hasn’t swung already.