The NFL Blog: 2009 Week 14 Power Rankings

Power Rankings After Week 14

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

-Previous week’s ranking in parenthesis;

Big 3 Still Strong: The top 3 teams continued to separate themselves from the rest of the NFL in week 14. The Colts won fairly easily against a good Denver team to go to 13-0. The Saints survived a gutty effort by the hamstrung Falcons in Atlanta, winning 26-23 to run their record to 13-0. And the Vikings rebounded from the loss to Arizona by putting the Bengals away, 30-10. There’s no doubt that these are the top 3 teams in the NFL but the Chargers and Eagles seem to be making a case for inclusion into the top segment of the league.

Moving Up: This was not a big week for teams moving up my rankings. In fact, no team gained more than 2 spots in my power rankings this week.

Going Down: This wasn’t a big week for teams moving down my rankings either…except for the Steelers. The only team to fall more than 2 spots in my power rankings this week was Pittsburgh, who suffered yet another unthinkable loss last week, this time falling to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night. The Steelers have lost 5 games in a row and 3 of those losses have come against the Chiefs, Raiders, and Browns. Pittsburgh took a plunge in my rankings this week, dropping 8 spots from 14th to 22nd.

The Divide: While there is a clear elite class and a clear bottom class, there is still plenty of parity or close competition or whatever you want to call it in between. There are currently 14 teams who have between 6 and 8 wins on the season.