NFL Power Rankings: Ravens Are Not AFC’s Best, Chiefs Surging, Colts Suck for Luck
Can Joe Flacco take the Ravens to the Promised Land? If MNF is any indication. No.
This week wasn’t a great week for N.F.L. fans as there were a lot of bad games out there, but some of the games really spoke volumes about different teams. First of all, the Chiefs Clearly do not understand the concept of “suck for Luck”. So they have lost out. The Ravens whooped down the Jaguars, and the Jaguars are just plain ol’ bad. That’s one of the worst situations in the league right there and one of the teams most likely to be hiring a new coach after the season.
33. Me, as a handicapper
My third straight rough week in a row picking N.F.L games vs the spread. I was dominating early in the season, but now I might be slightly lower than .500. I absolutely embarrassed myself on two picks this week. The first really bad pick was thinking the Colts could keep it close vs the Saints. I also thought that the Raiders would cover the spread (4). Speaking of the Raiders…well what can you say. Yikes.
32. Indianapolis Colts (Previously Dolphins)
Obviously they weren’t going to go up in the power rankings. The only question is would they go down. I picked the Colts to cover the hefty spread vs the Saints because I thought this is a veteran team that is going to really play hard on prime-time and until they win a game. Oh well, guess I was wrong. The Colts will probably still win one or two games, but how many votes will Peyton Manning get as M.V.P this year while not even playing a game? He should win M.V.P. every year he plays until he retires if the Colts win 5 games or more. Anyone questioning his greatness now? All I’m saying is Brady out, Patriots go 11-5. Manning misses a season the Colts can’t even score 11 points.
31. Miami Dolphins ( Colts)
Matt Moore is terrible. Question. for thought. Who’s really having the worst season the Bills or the Dolphins. Ryan Fitzpatrick is going to trick the Bills into giving him a long term contract at about 10 million dollars per year, meanwhile the Dolphins are going to play terrible draft Andrew Luck and probably hire Bill Cowher as their head coach. They go up in the power rankings in a lost because at least they showed up on Sunday.
30. St. Louis Rams (Previously Rams)
And you’re new defensive coordinator for the New york Giants in 2012 is Steve Spagnulo. I know the talent isn’t there, but he has a really awful record as a head coach for the Rams. How long until he becomes the scapegoat? Their schedule gets much, much easier soon though. They’ve played the entire NFC East, Green Bay, and Baltimore. No Cake-walk there. This week they’ll lose to the Saints and then they get the Cardinals and Browns in back to back weeks to try and get on the board with their first win.
29. Arizona Cardinals (previously Minnesota Vikings)
The Cardinals are getting worse by the week, not better. You would think that with Kevin Kolb learning a new offensive system and their talented rookie class they’d get better by the week, but they’ve gotten blown out by Minnesota, and Pittsburgh the past two games.
28. Seattle Seahawks (Previously Denver Broncos)
Did you watch that game? I didn’t. Thank God. 3 points vs the Browns? There’s a lot of work the Seahawks need on both sides of the ball, starting with the quarterback position.
This is for certain, the Seahawks team is much more physical on both sides of the ball than they were in the recent past.
27. Jacksonville Jaguars (previously Arizona Cardinals )
Early returns on Christian Ponder are promising on Blaine Gabbert, meh. It doesn’t mean anything though both Peyton Manning and Eli Manning looked awful in their rookie years and they’ve turned out pretty well. The Jaguars clearly need more receiving options and probably a new head coach to get a fresh start. The Jaguars got back to their roots on Monday night with quality defense and a punishing ground game. Don’t take too much into account with that game. Teams seem to really step up on Monday Night Football.
26. Denver Broncos (previously Jacksonville Jaguars)
Tim Tebow’s comeback was impressive. The fact that they were down 15 points to the Dolphins was not. Do the Broncos have their quarterback of the future is a question that will need to be answered over the duration of the rest of the season. Does Tim Tebow want to win as much as anyone else in the National Football League? That I’m pretty sure we have the answer to.
25. Cleveland Browns (previously Kansas City Chiefs)
The Browns won but I’m knocking them down a few spots because of how they played and how the teams that were behind them played. The Browns are not better than the Panthers and the Chiefs all of a sudden are good winning three straight games this one handily on the road by what would have been the division leading Oakland Raiders had they won.
24. Minnesota Vikings (previously the Panthers)
The Vikings have talent, and with the reports coming out yesterday that the team thought Mcnabb was putting in the work during the week it explains a lot of their inconsistency. no one wants to go out and give their all to a quarterback they don’t believe in. Under Ponder we could see players not named Jared Allen and Adrian Peterson really pick up their play. Peterson and Allen have been good all year.
23. Carolina Panthers (previously Seattle Seahawks)
Nice win at home by the Panthers who took care of business to beat the Washington Redskins led by John Beck. Cam Newton is really good what else can you say? The Panthers still need to beef up their defensive line, and they should run the ball more. Another good WR wouldn’t hurt either, but definitely moving in the right direction. Oh an that ridiculous Charles Johnson contract? 6 sacks and 22 tackles through 11 games. Pretty good.
22. Tennessee Titans (previously Cleveland Browns)
What happened to this team, I thought they were supposed to be good. I still have them above two other 3-3 teams, but they’ve had two bad losses in a row. I have no idea who this team is. Are they any good? Are they terrible? It changes from one week to the next. I thought I got good value with Chris Johnson in my fantasy draft at 5th or 6th (can’t remember) but he hasn’t been the same this year and it’s hurt them. Matt Hasselbeck has certainly cooled off after an excellent start to the season.
21. Kansas City Chiefs (Previously Dallas Cowboys)
And where the heck did that come from? I thought for certain that they would compete for Luck, but Matt Cassel is doing the desperate and selfish thing of winning football games, how pathetic.
20. Philadelphia Eagles (Previously Eagles)
The Eagles were on a bye here’s what I said about them last week
They beat the Redskins in Washington which is good, but it took them four interceptions to do it and they still only won by a score. Vick leaves every game for at least a few plays and Vince Young…The problems they’ve had all year didn’t go away vs the Redskins (they did play better vs the run), they just ran into a team with a bigger problem: a team that has Rex Grossman as it’s quarterback. Another win and I’ll move them up a few more spots.
19. Washington Redskins (previously Redskins)
The Redskins have lost two games in a row with Rex Grossman and John Beck quarterback combo. The defense is still pretty good which makes what Cam Newton did even more impressive. The Redskins will host the Bills on Sunday in a big game for them. lose that game and might as well get ready for next season, win that game and there’s still a (slim) chance to turn things around. IT doesn’t help that Santana Moss is out for a few weeks with a hand injury. The Redskins need receivers and a quarterback and they can be pretty good.
18. Oakland Raiders (Previously NY Jets)
I’ve been their biggest supporter all season as a quality team and this is how they repay me? They looked like garbage. I think they threw more pick sixes then they completed passes. That’s not good. The injury to Daren McFadden completely changed the dynamics of the game and should relay to everyone how good an important he is to their success. M.V.P. like good.
17. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Previously Houston Texans)
Last year everyone was putting Josh Freeman ahead of Eli Manning in quarterback rankings. Kind of looks silly right now. Maybe it’ll even out by the end of the year, but right now 7 TD and 10 INT for an average yards per attempt at 6.4 doesn’t look nearly as good as 11 TD and 5 INT with an average yards per attempt at 9.1.
Freeman clearly has not takent he step forward everyone expected. Is he battling some under-reported injuries? I hope so. I was hoping he’d step his game up. This team is the second hardest team to get a handle on in the league (the Titans are the first) it seems like any week they could come out and destroy a good team or come out and lay a clunker.
16. Cincinnati Bengals (Previously New York Giants)
The Bengals were on a bye. Here’s what I said about them last week (and I still mean it)
The league’s most underrated team. I’m not fully trusting Andy Dalton yet, but this team has a very good tough defense and loads of playmakers on offense. Cedric Benson isn’t great, but A.J. Green is. Jermaine Greshman is good too. Jerome Simpson isn’t bad either. The offensive line is pretty good too. This team is going to be there at the end of the year.
Actually I should consider moving them up based on the fact that they just absolutely stole two high draft picks from the Raiders.
(rest continued on page two to break up the bandwidth a bit)