The NFL Blog: 2009 Week 12 Power Rankings

Power Rankings After Week 12

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

-Previous week’s ranking in parenthesis;

Big 3 Stays the Same: Once again there was no change among the top 3 teams in the power rankings. Any of the top 3 teams could be ranked #1 right now. The Colts, Vikings, and Saints all had impressive wins last week. The Colts just know how to win. On the road, against a decent team, the Colts went on a 35-3 to go from 17 down to 15 up before the Texans scored a meaningless TD with 18 seconds left. Minnesota hardly broke a sweat against the Bears. Barring an injury to Brett Favre or Adrian Peterson I don’t know if they will be stopped. The Saints embarrassed the Patriots at home on Monday night, making it look easy and unstoppable. It was a total non-contest and it could have been worse.

Moving Up: Only 2 teams climbed 3 spots or more in my rankings this week. The Broncos snapped their 4 game losing streak with a convincing win over the Giants on Thursday. I moved Denver up 3 spots in my rankings this week from 16th to 13th. The team that made the biggest jump in my power rankings this week was Tennessee. The Titans have been climbing for over a month now. They drove 99 yards to beat the Cardinals for their 5th straight win on Sunday. I moved the Titans up 4 spots in my rankings this week from 14th to 10th.

Going Down: There were also only 2 teams that fell as many as 3 spots in my rankings this week. Even though the Cardinals were without their starting QB and lost on the road by 3 points to a red hot team on the final play of the game, I still thought it was a very discouraging loss for Arizona. The Cardinals again appear to be taking the NFC West Division Title completely for granted and they probably don’t have anything at all to worry about. Still, it’s hard to think much of a team that isn’t going out and trying to do their best and improve each and every week. I know the whole world is suddenly acting like a concussion (or even a slight chance of a concussion) is the equivalent of contracting the HIV virus but Kurt Warner has now missed a game and a half because of a headache. It didn’t cost the Cardinals against St. Louis and they almost got away with it again against the Titans but in the end Warner’s extreme caution cost them a win. Once again Arizona looks like a team short on mental and physical toughness. There playoff run seemed like a sham to me at the time and it seems even more like one now. I dropped the Cardinals 3 spots in my rankings from 9th to 12th. The other team that fell 3 places in my power rankings this week was Miami. The Dolphins don’t have much room for error. They have to play very well in order to win and if they don’t play well they can be blown out at any time. Miami had a 14-7 lead on the Bills after 3 quarters of play but they were outscored 24-0 in the 4th quarter and lost 31-14 to a Buffalo team that is going absolutely nowhere. The Dolphins fell 3 spots in my rankings this week from 17th to 20th.

The Divide: The top 3 teams put more space between themselves and the rest of the league last week. It’s a jumbled up mix after the top 3. That should make for an extremely interesting stretch run, as 20 teams fight it out for a handful of playoff spots. But it might also make the early part of the postseason less exciting as we wait for the conference championship games. On the other hand, the conference championship games could end up feeling totally anticlimactic if one or more of the top 3 teams gets knocked off before then.