Patriots top Vegas Power Ranks

LAS VEGAS -- The Houston Texans remained undefeated with their 23-17 victory over the New York Jets on Monday night, but their non-covering performance was enough to knock them from the No. 1 spot in the Vegas NFL Bettors' Poll.

The New England Patriots are the new top team off their 31-21 win over the Denver Broncos. Our pollsters, including Teddy "Covers" Sevransky of sportsmemo.com, Sal Selvaggio of madduxsports.com and yours truly, Dave Tuley, upgraded the Patriots by half a point, while the Texans dropped half a point to swap places. The San Francisco 49ers also gained a half-point off their 45-3 win over the Buffalo Bills to tie the Texans at No. 2.

Each of the pollsters' scales are different, but I converted them all to look closer to NFL scores, though they're intended to compare the relative strengths of teams as they're performing right now as opposed to being actual predictions of scores. The goal is to compare the numbers and find value against the lines at your disposal.

(Note: The Washington Redskins' rating is based on the assumption that Robert Griffin III will be playing this week and would be lower if he was declared out and replaced by Kirk Cousins; meanwhile, the Titans' Jake Locker/Matt Hasselbeck and the Chiefs' Matt Cassel/Brady Quinn are seen as pretty much equal.).

To see the Vegas handicappers' power ratings of all 32 NFL teams, plus where the value is in the early lines this week, become an ESPN Insider today.

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Dave Tuley

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Dave Tuley has covered the Las Vegas race and sports book scene since 1998 and runs his own website, ViewFromVegas.com.