Friday, September 23, 2011

The NFL Blog: 2011 Power Rankings (After Week 2)

Power Rankings After Week 2

1. New England 2-0 (1st)

2. San Diego 1-1 (2nd)

3. Green Bay 2-0 (4th)

4. Philadelphia 1-1 (3rd)

5. New York Jets 2-0 (5th)

6. New Orleans 1-1 (7th)

7. Baltimore 1-1 (6th)

8. Pittsburgh 1-1 (8th)

9. Houston 2-0 (10th)

10. Chicago 1-1 (9th)

11. Atlanta 1-1 (11th)

12. New York Giants 1-1 (13th)

13. Dallas 1-1 (14th)

14. Detroit 2-0 (16th)

15. Tampa Bay 1-1 (17th)

16. Tennessee 1-1 (21st)

17. San Francisco 1-1 (22nd)

18. Oakland 1-1 (24th)

19. Washington 2-0 (26th)

20. Carolina 0-2 (20th)

21. Cincinnati 1-1 (25th)

22. Buffalo 2-0 (27th)

23. Arizona 1-1 (28th)

24. Miami 0-2 (15th)

25. St. Louis 0-2 (18th)

26. Cleveland 1-1 (30th)

27. Jacksonville 1-1 (29th)

28. Kansas City 0-2 (12th)

29. Indianapolis 0-2 (19th)

30. Denver 1-1 (32nd)

31. Minnesota 0-2 (23rd)

32. Seattle 0-2 (31st)

-Previous week’s rankings in parenthesis;

Love or Confusion? So much for patience. I think I can say without hesitation that these turned out to be the weirdest rankings I’ve ever done in the history of this blog. Things remained fairly calm at the top of my rankings, as all of the teams in last week’s top 10 remained at least in the top 10 this week. However, only 6 of the 32 teams remained in place this week.

Top 2 Remain Intact Despite Decisive Outcome in Showdown. My top two teams remained in place this week, with the Patriots staying at the top spot and the Chargers again ranked 2nd. This was despite the fact that the Patriots defeated the Chargers by 14 points on Sunday. I just couldn’t think of any team to move in front of San Diego.

Moving Up. 17 teams moved up in my rankings this week, with 12 of those moving up at least 2 spots. 8 different teams moved up at least 4 spots, and 6 of those climbed at least 5 spots. The team making the biggest jump was Washington, who climbed 7 spots in this week’s rankings from 26th to 19th.

Going the Wrong Way. 9 teams moved down in the rankings this week. Only 5 teams fell more than 1 spot this week, but each of those teams dropped at least 7 spots. St. Louis dropped 7 spots from 18th to 25th this week. Normally that would be more than enough to secure their hold on biggest free fall of the week. Not this week.

The Vikings dropped 8 spots, falling from 23rd all the way to 31st. The Dolphins had that beat, dropping 9 spots from 15th to 24th. Indianapolis managed a rare feat, dropping double digits in the standings, as they fell 10 spots from 19th to 29th.

However, the Chiefs took a truly historic fall this week. KC fell off 16 spots from 12th to 28th. I’m almost certain that’s a record for this blog.

Losing and Rising. The weirdest part about my rankings this week was that some of the teams making the biggest moves up the standings actually lost last weekend. Unfortunately, it almost seems like some kind of unconscious attempt to correct last week’s more tolerant rankings. And next week I will probably feel like there was overcorrection. But in any event, 5 different teams rose in my rankings this week after a loss in week 2. All of those teams rose at least 2 spots.

The hardest to explain was probably Jacksonville moving up 2 spots from 29th to 27th after getting rocked 32-3 by the Jets. This strange quirk was perhaps the result of some overcorrection on teams like the Chiefs and Colts. I wanted to wait a week and see how those two teams did in week 2. When the results were more or less the same as they were in week 1, I was fully convinced that they both suck balls.

The Bengals climbed 4 spots from 25th to 21st, despite losing to the Broncos last week. They won by 10 against the Browns in Cleveland in week 1, and they only lost by 2 points in Denver. Meanwhile, the Browns looked much better in week 2, beating Indy on the road, and that made the Bengals win over them look better.

Arizona moved 5 spots from 28th to 23rd despite losing to the Skins last week. There were a few reasons for this. First of all, they only lost by a point on the road against a Washington team that beat the Giants in week 1. In addition, Carolina’s play against the Packers validated Arizona’s win against them in week 1.

The Niners matched Arizona’s 5 spot climb in a loss, going from 22nd to 17th. They did blow a lead against the Cowboys, but they took a very talented Dallas team to OT and they are 1-1. In my opinion they already look better under Harbaugh than they did at any time under Singletary.

Finally, the Raiders made a 6 spot climb from 24th to 18th, despite losing a shootout at Buffalo. They have now played 2 road games and are 1-1 with an OT defeat. That’s a pretty big step forward for a team that hasn’t won more than 3 road games in a season since 2002.

A New Leader in Sucking. The Seahawks are absolutely awful. They were shutout by Pittsburgh on Sunday and have been outscored by 40 points in 2 games. They dropped a spot in my rankings this week to take over as the 32nd ranked team.

Other Notes. In week 1, the Ravens stunned everyone by destroying the Steelers, 35-7. It was easily the most impressive performance of opening week, but I only moved the Ravens up 1 spot in my rankings from 7th to 6th. In week 2, the Ravens went to Tennessee and got doubled up by the Titans, 26-13, a result every bit as stunning as their week 1 romp. I moved the Ravens back 1 spot to 6th. That might be the one thing that makes sense about my rankings through 2 weeks of the season…The Bills are the lowest ranked 2-0 team at 22nd. The Panthers are the highest ranked 0-2 team at 20th.

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