Final
Power Rankings
1. Baltimore 14-6 (11th)
2. San Francisco 13-5-1
(2nd)
3. Seattle 12-6 (1st)
4. New England 13-5 (3rd)
5. Denver 13-4 (4th)
6. Atlanta 14-4 (6th)
7. Green Bay 12-6 (5th)
8. Washington 10-7 (7th)
9. Houston 13-5 (10th)
10. Indianapolis 11-6 (8th)
11. Minnesota 10-7 (9th)
12. Chicago 10-6 (12th)
13. New York Giants 9-7
(13th)
14. Cincinnati 10-7 (14th)
15. Dallas 8-8 (15th)
16. Pittsburgh 8-8 (16th)
17. St. Louis 7-8-1 (17th)
18. Miami 7-9 (18th)
19. Carolina 7-9 (19th)
20. New Orleans 7-9 (20th)
21. Cleveland 5-11 (21st)
22. Tampa Bay 7-9 (22nd)
23. San Diego 7-9 (23rd)
24. Buffalo 6-10 (24th)
25. Tennessee 6-10 (25th)
26. New York Jets 6-10
(26th)
27. Detroit 4-12 (27th)
28. Jacksonville 2-14
(28th)
29. Philadelphia 4-12
(29th)
30. Arizona 5-11 (30th)
31. Oakland 4-12 (31st)
32. Kansas City 2-14
(32nd)
Comments:
This
is only my second year doing a post-Super Bowl edition of the power rankings
but I feel like it’s going to be necessary for the foreseeable future. I mean,
when was the last time that the top team from the AFC met the top team from the
NFC in the Super Bowl? Or for that matter, when was the last time that one of
the top two teams from the AFC met one of the top two teams from the NFC in the
Super Bowl?
Actually it hasn’t been
that long. In 2009 the #1 Colts met the #1 Saints in the Super Bowl. But 2009 notwithstanding
it seems like at least one of the teams in the Super Bowl comes from out of
nowhere every year. In 2005 it was #6 Pittsburgh winning it all. In 2006 the #3
Colts had slumped down the stretch and did not appear on the verge of finally
breaking through in the playoffs. In 2007 and 2011 the Giants barely made the
playoffs and had to win multiple road games to win the title. In 2008 Arizona
made the Super Bowl and I don’t need to go into too much detail as to why that
was a mind fuck. In 2010 the Packers snuck into the playoffs as a #6 seed but
won the whole thing. And finally you have this year’s Ravens team which
randomly played their best football in the most important 4 weeks of the
season.
So this final
post-postseason set of power rankings is going to be necessary to give a proper
view of how things ended up. It’s a little strange because on the one hand you
have 20 teams that haven’t played since week 17, and on the other hand you have
a handful of teams that have played multiple games. There’s not going to be any
movement amongst the non-playoff teams unless it’s due to some low ranked
playoff team moving ahead or moving behind them, and that’s not going to happen
much.
But again, I do think
this final edition is necessary. Just look at this season. There has to be some
kind of adjustment to reflect what the Ravens did over the past month. It
wouldn’t make sense to have them ranked #11 in the last edition of the power
rankings for 2012.
Anyway, these are the
final power rankings for 2012. Not surprisingly, when compared to every other
week of the season there wasn’t very much change in the rankings at all. Only 9
of 32 spots experienced change, with just 2 teams moving up in the rankings and
7 teams falling down. Only 1 team moved up the rankings more than 1 spot, while
4 of the 7 teams dropping in the rankings slipped by more than 1 spot.
Obviously, the Ravens
made by far the biggest move of any team in the rankings, vaulting 10 spots
from #11 to #1. On the other hand, 4 teams fell 2 spots in my final edition of
the power rankings: Seattle dropped 2 spots from #1 to #3; Green Bay fell 2
spots from #5 to #7; Indianapolis dropped 2 spots from #8 to #10; and Minnesota
moved down 2 spots from #9 to #11.
As mentioned earlier,
there was a change atop my power rankings in the final edition, as the Ravens
replaced Seattle at #1. The Seahawks’ stay atop the rankings lasted just 1
edition. The Ravens had not been ranked #1 in my power rankings all season. It
was a fitting end, as Baltimore was the 7th different team to hold
the #1 spot in the power rankings over the final 7 editions.
The Ravens entered the
playoffs with as many wins as the Bears (10) but they end the season as one of
only two teams with 14 wins.
With a final record of 14-4, my Atlanta Falcons
ended up with the best overall win percentage of any team this season. They
came up just a little bit short in the NFC title game and finished at #6 in the
rankings.
Despite keeping it
close against the Texans in the Wild Card Round, the Bengals didn’t move up in
my final rankings. They stayed at #14, the lowest ranked playoff team, behind a
pair of non-playoff teams (#13 New York Giants and #12 Chicago Bears). They
also remain the lowest ranked double digit win team.
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