Ravens' top competitors struggle out of the gate

There's about eight teams that have been favored to make it to the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Judging from their Week One performances, some would say that most of those teams won't even make the playoffs, as those eight combined to finish Week One with a 3-5 record, one of those wins coming against another member of the Elite Eight.

The New England Patriots had no issue moving the ball against the Pittsburgh Steelers in their win on last Thursday and the Packers should be fine with Aaron Rodgers showing no signs of rust without Jordy Nelson, even if the defense didn't perform as well as I thought it would.

It's the other six teams that didn't do as well, even the Dallas Cowboys, who walked away with a win on Sunday Night.

We've already documented the Ravens Week One performance, so I won't beat a dead horse here.

The Colts struggled against the Bills, as Andrew Luck was intercepted twice and the Colts couldn't score until well into the third quarter, at which point the Bills had already established a 24-0 lead. Not to mention the fact that the Colts were unable to stop the Bills rushing attack.

The Steelers couldn't stop the Patriots offense at all last Thursday and the Steelers offense had some struggles in the redzone for most of the game.

The Seattle Seahawks struggled on special teams, as the allowed Tavon Austin to return a punt for a touchdown and for their botched onside kick on the opening possession of overtime, the defense blew the lead after Seattle scored what appeared to be a game winning touchdown, and allowed Nick Foles to complete 18 of 27 passes for 297 yards and a touchdown. And the Seahawks offensive line was ineffective.

The Dallas Cowboys offense worked well during their final drive to win the game, but they looked listless during the rest of the game as they turned the ball over three times and could only gain 80 yards rushing off of 23 attempts.

The Philadelphia Eagles offense could only score 24 points against the Falcons and none of their prize offseason acquisitions were very good. Sam Bradford was 36 of 52 for 336 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. DeMarco Murray carried the ball eight times for nine yards and a touchdown, eight of which came on one run. Byron Maxwell allowed 10 receptions for 179 yards and a touchdown. Nelson Agholor had only one reception for five yards.

Now of course, these teams and their fanbases shouldn't panic too much. These teams are run by some of the best minds in football and most, if not all of these teams will make the playoffs.