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Now that we’re a few legs into the race, some trends and patterns are beginning to emerge. We have a couple of teams that look to be head and shoulders above the competition, while others are showing that they can learn from history and avoid the sorts of mistakes that have impacted them in the past. After having recapped the most recent leg (and without a non-elimination!), here’s the way I see these teams stacking up.

1) David & Connor (Father/Son – Team Murphy’s Law) – This pair showed us the skill and ability that we saw during their first stint on the race. They were able to overcome a mistake that had them raft past their check-in point to win last week’s leg of the race. Now that they’re back in the winning habit, I wouldn’t expect to see anything deter them save a catastrophic injury. When facing adversity, they still collaborate and cooperate, and errors like the one they made last week are rare for them. They’d be the easy choice for #1 if it weren’t for…

2) Jet & Cord (Cowboys) – The brothers from Oklahoma are doing just about everything right this season. Like David & Connor, they don’t let adversity cause antipathy between them. They’ve made a lot of savvy moves, such as handing off their extra Express Pass to a team they knew would use it immediately, thereby putting it out of play. They still have their own Express Pass in their pockets, and they seem to have a natural ease when it comes to completing the challenges required of them on the Race. Last week, they had no trouble with the rapids, and the duo seems to be savvy when it comes to selecting the right tasks and/or person for the job. I think there’s a pretty clear separation between these top two and…

3) Leo & Jamal (Afghanimals) – I struggled with placing these guys in third because they annoy me and I’m not sure how much of their Race success to date is skill versus luck. So far, though, they have shown that they can learn from the mistakes they made in the previous game. They could easily have lied to the Cowboys in order to gain an advantage in the leg, but realized that such a short-term gain wasn’t worth the potential U-Turn that could follow at some point down the line. Additionally, they’re not nearly as abrasive this time around. Perhaps they’re just getting a better edit, but these two are coming off a lot better than they did during their first appearance on The Amazing Race. One other potential advantage is that they’re not encumbered with allies like the Ice Girls from the last game. Still, I’d say that Leo & Jamal are effectively tied with…

4) Flight Time & Big Easy (Harlem Globetrotters) – We know that this pair has the desire to win and the ability to be competitive, because they’ve absolutely shown those qualities in their previous seasons. This year, they haven’t been great and they haven’t been terrible. They’re strictly a middle-of-the-pack team. Of course, in every leg of the race, the real goal is simply “don’t be eliminated,” so they’re doing exactly what is required of them. It just feels like they’re playing it a little safe so far, but I wouldn’t rule out the idea that they might just be pacing themselves. Under any circumstance, I like their chances a lot better than…

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