It appears that the Chicago Bears have figured out a way to climb to the top of the NFL STOP Factor rankings: Don’t play.

The Bears defense takes over the top spot in this week’s rankings after having a bye last week. The Houston Texans “D” had occupied the No. 1 position on these rankings since the first week of the season.

However, last week the Texans defense was blistered by the Green Bay Packers offense. The Packers offense scored six touchdowns on 12 possessions. Prior to last week, the Texans had stopped their opponent's offense from scoring on 47 of 58 possessions, an 81.0 percentage. With the Packers offense scoring on half of its possessions last week, the Texans’ STOP Factor dropped to 74.3, still good enough for second place in the rankings.

The Bears defense has stopped its opponent's offense from scoring on 44 of 57 possessions, a 77.2 percentage. In the Bears’ four wins this season, their defense has stopped the opposition from scoring on 38 of 45 possessions, an eye-popping 84.4 percentage. Ironically, their only loss was to the Packers in Week 2 when the Packers offense scored in five of its 12 possessions. The Bears lost that game 23-10.

(The STOP Factor is based on the premise that it is the defense’s job to stop its opponents from scoring on each possession. To get a team’s STOP Factor, you divide the number of times a defense stops the offense from scoring—offensive unit TD or field goal—by the number of total possessions by the opposition.)

Following is each NFL team's STOP Factor. Listed is how many times each team stopped the opponents from scoring, the number of possessions its opponents had, and the percentage of possessions that each team prevented the other team from scoring (stats are through Week 6 games).

Team, Opponents' Scoreless Possessions/Opponents’ Possessions, STOP Percentage

1. Chicago 77.2 (44 stops in 57 possessions)

2. Houston 74.3 (52 stops in 70 possessions)

3. Seattle 74.2 (46 stops in 62 possessions)

4. Atlanta 72.3 (47 stops in 65 possessions)

5. Arizona 71.6 (53 stops in 74 possessions)

6. San Francisco 70.5 (43 stops in 61 possessions)

7. St. Louis 69.4 (43 stops in 62 possessions)

8. Tampa Bay 69.0 (40 stops in 58 possessions)

9. Miami 68.5 (50 stops in 73 possessions)

10. Minnesota 67.7 (42 stops in 62 possessions)

11. San Diego 67.2 (43 stops in 64 possessions)

12. New England 65.7 (44 stops in 67 possessions)

13. New York Giants 65.0 (39 stops in 60 possessions)

14. Cleveland 64.4 (47 stops in 73 possessions)

15. Philadelphia 64.3 (45 stops in 70 possessions)

16. Green Bay 63.6 (42 stops in 66 possessions)

17. Baltimore 62.7 (42 stops in 67 possessions)

18. Denver 62.5 (40 stops in 64 possessions)

19. Cincinnati 61.8 (42 stops in 68 possessions)

20. Dallas 60.4 (26 stops 43 possessions)

21. New York Jets 58.7 (37 stops in 63 possessions)

22. Washington 58.3 (42 stops in 72 possessions)

23. Detroit 58.0 (29 stops in 50 possessions)

24. Pittsburgh 56.5 (26 stops in 46 possessions)

25. Indianapolis 55.4 (31 stops in 56 possessions)

26. Jacksonville 54.7 (29 stops in 53 possessions)

27. Kansas City 53.1 (34 stops in 64 possessions)

28. Buffalo 52.9 (36 stops in 68 possessions)

29. New Orleans 51.8 (29 stops in 56 possessions)

30. Tennessee 49.2 (32 stops in 65 possessions)

31. Oakland 48.1 (25 stops in 52 possessions)

32. Carolina 47.1 (24 stops in 51 possessions)

Biggest gainers this week: New York Giants (up nine spots this week); Tampa Bay (up seven spots this week)

Biggest losers this week: Baltimore (down six spots this week); Dallas (down six spots this week)

Average league STOP Factor (through Week 6): 63.3

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