Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The NFL Blog: 2011 Power Rankings (After Week 9)

Power Rankings After Week 9

1. Green Bay 8-0 (1st)

2. San Francisco 7-1 (3rd)

3. New Orleans 6-3 (5th)

4. Baltimore 6-2 (9th)

5. Pittsburgh 6-3 (2nd)

6. Houston 6-3 (6th)

7. New England 5-3 (4th)

8. Detroit 6-2 (8th)

9. Chicago 5-3 (11th)

10. New York Jets 5-3 (12th)

11. New York Giants 6-2 (17th)

12. Buffalo 5-3 (7th)

13. San Diego 4-4 (10th)

14. Atlanta 5-3 (15th)

15. Cincinnati 6-2 (20th)

16. Philadelphia 3-5 (13th)

17. Dallas 4-4 (16th)

18. Tampa Bay 4-4 (18th)

19. Tennessee 4-4 (21st)

20. Kansas City 4-4 (19th)

21. Oakland 4-4 (14th)

22. Carolina 2-6 (22nd)

23. Jacksonville 2-6 (23rd)

24. Arizona 2-6 (24th)

25. Minnesota 2-6 (25th)

26. Miami 1-7 (29th)

27. Washington 3-5 (26th)

28. Cleveland 3-5 (27th)

29. St. Louis 1-7 (28th)

30. Denver 3-5 (31st)

31. Seattle 2-6 (30th)

32. Indianapolis 0-9 (32nd)

-Previous week’s rankings in parenthesis;

Green Bay Halfway to Perfection. The Packers had to hang on to beat the Chargers in the rain on Sunday but they got it done to stay perfect on the year at 8-0. They are far and away the best team in the NFL and they are the #1 team in my rankings for the 7th straight week.

More Than Halfway to Inverse Perfection. The Indianapolis Colts have as big a lead on the rest of the league in terms of being the worst team in the NFL as the Packers have in terms of being the best. The Colts got ran over again last week, this time at home to the Falcons. They are now 0-9 and are without question the worst team in football. They are the #32 team in my rankings for a 2nd consecutive week.

Changes. It was another week of mass change in my rankings. 23 of 32 spots experienced change this week. 11 teams moved up in the rankings and 12 teams moved down, with 9 teams remaining in place. Of the 11 teams going up the rankings, 8 moved up at least 2 spots. Of the 12 teams going down, 6 dropped at least 2 spots.

Risers. Three different teams climbed at least 5 spots in the rankings this week. Baltimore ended week 9 with a last second touchdown to beat the Steelers at Heinz Field, completing a sweep of the season series with Pittsburgh. The Ravens moved up 5 spots in my rankings from #9 to #5.

Their AFC North rivals the Cincinnati Bengals also moved up 5 spots this week. The Bengals won at Tennessee last Sunday but it was really a buildup of several wins that led me to move them from #20 to #15 in my rankings.

However, the team making the biggest move up my rankings this week was the New York Football Giants. The G-Men have played an easy schedule this season; they’ve suffered a couple of very bad losses; and they’ve lucked out in several of their victories. For all of these reasons I have had the Giants ranked worse than you would normally expect a division leader to be. But their win at New England on Sunday was big time. They rose 6 spots this week from #17 to #11.

Fallers. I didn’t want to do it but I had to send the Buffalo Bills sliding down my rankings this week. The Bills were not very competitive in a loss to the Jets at home last week and I dropped them 5 spots from #7 to #12.

The Raiders took an even bigger fall. Again, I didn’t want to do it. Oakland simply forced me to do it. They got straight outmanned by Timmy Fucking Tebow and the Denver Broncos at home on Sunday. They blew a big lead and then got completely run over. Carson Palmer might be the best Oakland has until Jason Campbell can come back but he has looked positively dreadful at QB so far. I dropped the Raiders 7 spots in my rankings this week from #14 all the way down to #21.

Other Notes: The Packers are the only remaining undefeated team and are thus my highest ranked undefeated team. The Colts are the only remaining winless team and are thus my lowest ranked winless team. I suppose the Packers are also technically my lowest ranked undefeated team and the Colts are also my highest ranked winless team. I wonder how many more weeks I’ll be writing that. Not that last part, the first thing…The Eagles dropped 3 spots to #16 this week but they are still my highest ranked team with a losing record, despite the fact that they are now 2 games under .500 at 3-5. The Bengals are 4 games over .500 at 6-2, but they are just 1 spot above the Eagles at #15, coming in as my lowest ranked team with a winning record…At #21, the Raiders are my lowest ranked team with a .500 record. The Chargers are my highest ranked team with a .500 record at #13.

An Extra Other Note: Do these rankings always make enough sense for them to at least be defended? Perhaps not. But are my rankings at least always objective and free of personal bias? Actually that’s probably also false. I mean the Broncos beat Miami on the road just 3 weeks ago, they have 2 more wins than the Dolphins, and they are coming off of a road win against the Raiders, and yet I have them ranked #30 and the Dolphins ranked #26. So, yeah, that situation is probably at least in some small way influenced by my hatred of Tim Tebow.



No comments: