Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The NFL Blog: 2009 Week 11 Power Rankings

Power Rankings After Week 11

1. Indianapolis 10-0 (1st)
2. Minnesota 9-1 (2nd)
3. New Orleans 10-0 (3rd)
4. New England 7-3 (5th)
5. San Diego 7-3 (7th)
6. Cincinnati 7-3 (4th)
7. Pittsburgh 6-4 (6th)
8. Baltimore 5-5 (9th)
9. Arizona 7-3 (10th)
10. Dallas 7-3 (11th)
11. Philadelphia 6-4 (12th)
12. New York Giants 6-4 (15th)
13. Atlanta 5-5 (13th)
14. Tennessee 4-6 (17th)
15. Houston 5-5 (8th)
16. Denver 6-4 (14th)
17. Miami 5-5 (19th)
18. Green Bay 6-4 (21st)
19. San Francisco 4-6 (20th)
20. Carolina 4-6 (16th)
21. New York Jets 4-6 (18th)
22. Jacksonville 6-4 (22nd)
23. Chicago 4-6 (23rd)
24. Kansas City 3-7 (27th)
25. Buffalo 3-7 (24th)
26. Washington 3-7 (26th)
27. Oakland 3-7 (28th)
28. Seattle 3-7 (25th)
29. St. Louis 1-9 (29th)
30. Detroit 2-8 (32nd)
31. Cleveland 1-9 (31st)
32. Tampa Bay 1-9 (30th)

-Previous week’s ranking in parenthesis;

No Change at the Top: Just about everyone’s top 3 teams are the Colts, Saints, and Vikings in some order. My top 3 spots stayed exactly the same this week. If I could move the Colts up any higher I would. They got it done again last week, pulling out a win on the road in Baltimore to stay undefeated. The Vikings and Saints did exactly what they were supposed to do, blowing out weak opponents. So my top 3 remained Indy, Minnesota, New Orleans, in that order.

Moving Up: 4 teams climbed 3 spots in my rankings this week. The Giants snapped their 4 game skid with an overtime victory over the Falcons at home and I bumped them up 3 spots from 15th to 12th. Green Bay hung on to beat the Niners at home but really it was the poor play of teams above the Packers that led me to move them up 3 spots from 21st to 18th. I moved the Titans up 3 spots from 17th to 14th following their huge win at Houston on Monday night, their 4th in a row following the 0-6 start. The Chiefs came up with a huge win over the defending Super Bowl champs at home last week. The OT win earned them a jump of 3 spots in my rankings this week from 27th to 24th.

Going Down: There were also 4 teams that fell at least 3 spots in my rankings this week. The Seahawks were again non-competitive last week, getting crushed by the Vikings in Minnesota. I dropped them 3 spots from 25th to 28th in this week’s rankings. The Jets lost decisively to the Patriots in Foxboro and right now I don’t think they are a very capable team due to the inexperience at the two most important spots: QB and head coach. I moved the Jets down 3 spots in my rankings from 18th to 21st. The Panthers turned into hens again last Thursday, losing at home to a Dolphins team playing without their main offensive cog. I moved Carolina down 4 spots in my rankings, dropping them from 16th to 20th. The team making by far the biggest move in my rankings this week was Houston. Maybe I was overly effected by the fact that they were the last team to lose in week 11 but they flat out peed down their leg against the Titans on Monday night. They had a chance to show that they could take care of business against a team they are supposed to be better than at home in front of the nation, but they fell on their faces. The Texans plummeted in my rankings this week, dropping 7 spots from 8th all the way to 15th.

The Divide: At this point, the biggest divide in the NFL is clearly at the top, where the 3 best teams in the league have elevated themselves into a different class. The Saints, Colts, and Vikings have 1 loss between the; each of the other 29 teams in the NFL has at least 3 losses. There are now only 4 teams out of 32 with less than 3 wins, as the bottom of the NFL has continued to move closer to the middle of the back. After the top 3 teams there is a second trio of teams who we can clearly separate from the rest of the pack. The Patriots, Chargers, and Bengals are not on the same level as the Saints, Vikings, and Colts but they look to be the only teams who might be capable of joining that elite group. Most of the teams in the NFL belong to the next group. From the 7th spot in my rankings through about the 23rd spot is a massive bulge of mediocrity. These teams are seemingly only separated by their respective schedules. Some teams have played relatively difficult schedules such as the Ravens and Falcons. Other teams have played relatively easy schedules such as the Cowboys and Jaguars. But these teams are hard to separate otherwise. The Cowboys may be 7-3 but they are not significantly better right now than the 4-6 Titans. I don’t think you can trust any of the NFC East teams. One of these teams may emerge from the pack and prove to be a contender but right now it isn’t obvious who the best candidate for such a move would be.

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