The NFL Blog: 2010 Power Rankings (After Week 9)

Power Rankings After Week 9

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

-Previous week’s rankings in parenthesis;

A Short Stay at the Top for New England. The Patriots went to Cleveland and were soundly whipped by Colt McCoy’s Browns this Sunday. Thus, the Pats fell 3 spots in my rankings to 4th, and the Ravens moved back into the top spot. Still, the top 4 has consisted of the top 2 AFC East teams and the top 2 AFC North teams for several weeks now.

The Garbage Starting to Settle at the Bottom. 23 of the top 24 spots in the rankings changed this week. It was a different story at the bottom of the rankings, as the final 8 teams in the rankings stayed the same this week, with 5 of the 8 teams staying exactly in place.

Triple Fives. Three teams moved up 5 spots in the rankings this week. The Chargers finally got a road win, defeating the Texans for their second straight win over a decent opponent. San Diego went up 5 spots in my rankings from 22nd to 17th. Oakland pulled out a win over their division rivals from Kansas City on Sunday to get over .500 at 5-4. The Raiders moved up 5 spots from 23rd to 18th. As mentioned earlier, the Browns got a huge win over the Pats last week, and I moved Cleveland up 5 spots from 24th to 19th.

Pretenders Slide. The Dolphins and Texans took the biggest tumbles in my rankings this week, each dropping 9 spots. I moved Miami down from 13th to 22nd, as the Fish (or swimming mammals at least) got outclassed by the Ravens again, and then announced that Chad Pennington will now be the starter instead of Chad Henne. That’s a fairly significant development, as a lot of people thought that Henne was the answer for Miami at quarterback.

I moved the Texans down from 12th to 21st this week after they lost at home to San Diego to fall to 4-4. The Texans have now lost back to back games and 3 of their last 4. Reliant Stadium seemed like a major home field advantage just a few years ago, as the Texans won 14 out of 18 games there at one point. However, they are just 6-7 in their last 13 home games, and they have already lost at home 3 times this season.