by Aaron Schatz

If the Week 2 DVOA ratings look strange to your eye, it's probably just because we don't yet include opponent adjustments. Otherwise, our early ratings match what the naked eye has seen on the field. None of the undefeated teams are ranked lower than 12th, with one exception. None of the winless teams are ranked higher than 24th, with one exception. All of the 1-1 teams are ranked between eighth (Tennessee) and 23rd (Houston).

The two exceptions both have to do with a game from Week 2. The 0-2 Los Angeles Chargers are 13th in DVOA, ahead of most of the 1-1 teams, while the 1-0 Miami Dolphins are way down at No. 25, below all the 1-1 teams. With Miami's victory over the Chargers on Sunday, we got our first game this season where the DVOA output was very different from the final score. The Chargers ended up with 19.3% DVOA and Miami was at -28.7% DVOA.

A closer look at the gamebook shows why our system rated the Chargers above the Dolphins for this game. The Chargers had 6.8 yards per offensive play compared to just 4.9 yards on average for the Dolphins. The Chargers had more first downs, 24 to 21. Both teams made it to the red zone three times, but the Chargers scored twice while the Dolphins kicked field goals all three times. Neither team turned the ball over, so that doesn't even out the ratings. What did even out the ratings somewhat was special teams performance. We all know Younghoe Koo missed a 44-yard field goal at the end that would have won the game for the Chargers, but he also missed a 43-yard field goal earlier on in the game. The Dolphins also got an average of 23.7 yards on kick returns from Kenyan Drake while the Chargers (with Austin Ekeler and Desmond King) averaged 16.5 yards on kick returns.

The Chargers have now lost two games by less than a field goal, and two games where they had the higher DVOA rating. It was a lot closer in Week 1, but the Chargers at 1.0% were higher than Denver at -5.5%. This result is also part of why the Broncos are ranked much lower than many readers might expect. At No. 12, they are the lowest of the 2-0 teams, but remember: they had a negative DVOA rating in Week 1 and there are no opponent adjustments yet to lift their statement win over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 2.

(Since this is sure to be asked: Yes, one of the ideas on my massive list of to-do projects is to work on a way to translate preseason projections to opponent adjustments, then figure how strong those should be early in the season. I would certainly like to do this so we can have more accurate ratings early in the year when a team such as the Rams clobbers a team such as the Colts. However, we don't know for sure yet which teams are good or bad, so we don't want to install opponent adjustments that are too strong.)

Another team whose rating is probably confusing for many readers is New England. Surely after a big win over New Orleans, the Patriots should have risen higher than just No. 22, right? As it turns out, New England ended up with surprisingly low 2.0% DVOA for the win over the Saints. The Patriots don't have much of an advantage on offense (50.0%) over defense (36.6%). The gap of 7.7 yards per play (Patriots) vs. 6.8 yards per play (Saints) isn't that big, and there were no turnovers. As powerful as it was, the Patriots offense slowed down in the red zone, forcing Stephen Gostkowski to kick three field goals under 30 yards. Meanwhile, the Patriots defense was having real problems. In the second half, the Saints were successful on 56 percent of their plays by our baselines. That's terrible defense. Yes, the Patriots were nursing a lead, but allowing points and first downs with a big lead is still an indication of defensive issues. If you don't believe me, ask the Atlanta Falcons. There was also a rare game for Patriots special teams. Stephen Gostkowski missed the first extra point try, the Saints' Alvin Kamara and Trey Edmunds combined to average 22.8 yards on five kick returns, and Thomas Morstead's three punts had a net average of 40.3 yards while Ryan Allen's three punts averaged a net of just 31.7 yards.

A couple of unforced errors for the Saints (an aborted snap, a missed field goal) mean the Saints' DVOA is more negative (-27.7%) than the Patriots' DVOA is positive (2.0%).

The lack of opponent adjustments shows itself in the order of the 2-0 teams. Just as Denver is not bumped up because it beat a good Dallas team, Atlanta is not bumped up because it beat a good Green Bay team. Of course, as I noted above: after just two weeks of the season, we don't know for sure if those opponents are as tough as we think they are. Meanwhile, Baltimore is No. 1 after two weeks because the system isn't punishing them for "only" demolishing Cleveland and Cincinnati. However, even considering who they've beat, the Ravens defense has been phenomenal so far. How good? The Baltimore Ravens have the best defensive DVOA after Week 2 of any team since 1989. No team had ever managed a DVOA under -70% in its first two games. Most of the teams that came close went on to have strong defenses all year; the big exception is the crazy 2002 San Diego team that started the season 6-1 and then finished 2-7. Remember, none of the Week 1-2 ratings listed here include opponent adjustments:

Best Defensive DVOA in Weeks 1-2, 1989-2017 Year Team DVOA W-L Final DVOA Final Rank Results 2017 BAL -70.8% 2-0 -- -- 20-0 at CIN, 24-10 vs. CLE 1989 CLE1 -69.5% 2-0 -16.9% 3 51-0 at PIT, 38-24 vs. NYJ 2006 BAL -68.7% 2-0 -23.0% 1 27-0 at TB, 28-6 vs. OAK 2002 SD -64.5% 2-0 2.4% 22 34-6 at CIN, 24-3 vs. HOU 2012 HOU -60.1% 2-0 -14.2% 4 30-10 vs. MIA, 27-7 at JAC 2005 TB -54.5% 2-0 -8.6% 8 24-13 at MIN, 19-3 vs. BUF 1999 TB -54.1% 1-1 -19.4% 2 13-17 vs. NYG (L), 19-5 at PHI 1991 PHI -52.8% 1-1 -42.4% 1 20-3 at GB, 10-26 vs. PHX (L) 1996 DEN -52.6% 2-0 -15.3% 3 31-6 vs. NYJ, 30-20 at SEA 1996 GB -51.7% 2-0 -19.3% 1 34-3 at TB, 39-13 vs. PHI

(By the way, the ranking stops at 1989 because we haven't gone back and done 1986-1988 DVOA as of certain weeks of each season.)

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Once again this season, we have teamed up with EA Sports to bring Football Outsiders-branded player content to Madden 18. This year, our content for Madden Ultimate Team on consoles comes monthly, while our content for Madden Mobile comes weekly. Come back to each Tuesday's DVOA commentary article for a list of players who stood out during the previous weekend's games. Those players will get special Madden Mobile items branded as "Powerline, powered by Football Outsiders," beginning at 11am Eastern on Friday. We will also tweet out images of these players from the @fboutsiders Twitter account on most Fridays.

Since we've received a few questions about this, we want to let readers know how finding Football Outsiders players is different for Madden Mobile compared to Madden Ultimate Team on consoles. All Powerline players are in packs starting Friday, but you can also get a Powerline player with a Powerline Live Event in the game on Fridays. You can upgrade from a regular Gold Powerline player to the Elite Hero of the week with 120 "Power Cells" collected while playing Madden Mobile.

The Football Outsiders stars for Week 2 are:

C Alex Mack, ATL (HERO) : Helped lead Falcons RB to 25 carries for 126 yards, with no blown pass blocks.

: Helped lead Falcons RB to 25 carries for 126 yards, with no blown pass blocks. CB Brandon Carr, BAL : Allowed only 2 completions on 8 targets for 15 yards with an interception and 4 PDs.

: Allowed only 2 completions on 8 targets for 15 yards with an interception and 4 PDs. DE Chris Jones, KC: 3 sacks, 2 FF, interception.

3 sacks, 2 FF, interception. SS Derrick Kindred, CLE : 3 TFL and tackle to prevent third-down conversion.

: 3 TFL and tackle to prevent third-down conversion. G Brandon Scherff, WAS: Helped lead Redskins RB to 36 carries for 222 yards.

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All stats pages are now updated through Week 2 of 2017. That includes for the first time offensive lines and defensive lines. Snap counts and playoff odds are also fully updated. The FO Premium DVOA database is also updated through Week 2. Because Miami and Tampa Bay have only played one game apiece, we're going to wait one more week before we switch over the Matchup View from 2016 full-season splits to 2017 partial-season splits.

We also now have 2016 stats finally added to player pages for both offensive and defensive players. That includes not just DVOA and DYAR but our individual defense stats such as cornerback coverage, hurries, average yardage of tackles, and defeats. However, there's a lot of housekeeping that we're behind on with all our various stats pages. My apologies for being stuck so far behind. One of the issues we're working on for future offseasons is automating more of our processes so that it doesn't take so much time to update things. Meanwhile, we have a whole bunch of changes and additions we mean to get to in the next couple of months, including:

Updating similarity scores on player pages for the first time in two years.

Adding 1986-1990 stats to player pages.

Adding 1986-1988 to the premium DVOA database.

Updating "last year" listing on 1989 stats pages now that 1988 is done.

Adding drive stats prior to 1996.

Updating quarterback stats pages to reflect a minimum of 200 attempts to be ranked (instead of 100) and updated ESPN QBR with opponent adjustments.

Updating adjusted line yards pages based on the new system of normalizing to each year's ALY to that year's average yards per carry instead of a generic multiyear average of yards per carry.

Fixing the premium DVOA database to make it easier to search for historical stats from teams that have changed cities.

We know that's a lot, but we're working on it!

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These are the Football Outsiders team efficiency ratings through two weeks of 2017, measured by our proprietary Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) system that breaks down every single play and compares a team's performance to the league average based on situation in order to determine value over average. (Explained further here.)

OFFENSE and DEFENSE DVOA are adjusted to consider all fumbles, kept or lost, as equal value. SPECIAL TEAMS DVOA is adjusted for type of stadium (warm, cold, dome, Denver) and week of season. As always, positive numbers represent more points so DEFENSE is better when it is NEGATIVE.

Please note that there are no opponent adjustments in DVOA until after Week 4. (It's still listed as DVOA instead of VOA because I don't feel like going through and changing all the tables manually.) In addition, our second weekly table which includes schedule strength, variation, and Estimated Wins will appear beginning after Week 4.

DAVE is a formula which combines our preseason projection with current DVOA to get a more accurate forecast of how a team will play the rest of the season. Right now, the preseason projection makes up 80 percent of DAVE for most teams (90 percent for Miami and Tampa Bay).

To save people some time, please use the following format for all complaints:

<team> is clearly ranked <too high/too low> because <reason unrelated to DVOA>. <subjective ranking system> is way better than this. <unrelated team-supporting or -denigrating comment, preferably with poor spelling and/or chat-acceptable spelling>