1/2

Giants

  6-1  

Reasons the Giants are back on top;

• Home victory over the Redskins (6-2)
• Road victory over the Steelers (5-2)
• Defending champs
• Given up the fewest points in the NFC
• Have won 13 of their last 14 games away from home– including postseason

2/1

Titans

7-0

Reasons the Titans are second;

• Undefeated
• Returning playoff team from last season
• Fewest points allowed in the league
• Finally beat the Colts in a meaningful game (no week 17 Colts mail in game like last season)… Not to mention the Colts’ offensive line was healthier Monday night than in any other game this season
• However, just one victory over a team with a record above .500 this season… That being Baltimore (4-3)… A game they were lucky to win.

3/3

Redskins

  6-2

Reasons the Redskins are third;

• Road win over Dallas with Tony Romo
• Road win at Philadelphia
• Wins over Arizona and New Orleans

4/5

Panthers

  6-2  

  Reasons the Panthers are fourth;

• Wins over Arizona, Chicago, and Atlanta
• Made up for loss at Tampa by beating Arizona who has a win over Dallas who has a win over Tampa

5/6

Cardinals

4-3

  Reasons the Cardinals are fifth with a (4-3) record;

• Two victories over 5 win teams (Dallas and a crushing of Buffalo). Made both of the above team’s quarterbacks miss games. Got to Romo more than any other team in recent memory
• Held a lead @Carolina for nearly 3 quarters while out-yarding the Panthers
• Nearly matched Redskins yard for yard in close loss @Washington

Cowboys

  5-3  

Reasons the Cowboys are sixth;

• Wins over Philadelphia, Green Bay, and Tampa Bay rank well
• If their defense plays like this when Romo comes back, look out

7/9

Eagles

4-3

Reasons the Eagles are seventh;

• Dominated the Steelers in week 3
• Scored 37 points at Dallas when the Cowboys were much healthier
• Lost by 1/2 an inch at the goal line in Chicago without Westbrook playing (grading as a win on a neutral field or in Philadelphia)
• Further passed Chicago in the rankings by virtue of beating Atlanta who beat Chicago

8/10

Steelers

  5-2

  Reasons the Steelers are eighth;

• Turned in incredible defensive performance against the champs with seemingly half the game played defending their red zone. But game might not have stayed that close on the road (although were without Parker and Holmes)
• Just one win against a team with a record above .500… That being Baltimore at home. A game the Steelers trailed most of the way
• Tied for second with the Ravens for giving up the fewest points in the league

Buccaneers

5-3

  Reasons the Buccaneers are ninth;

• Previous wins over Carolina, Atlanta, Green Bay, and @Chicago still rank highly
• But couldn’t beat the Romo-less Cowboys in Dallas

10/7

Bears

4-3

Reasons the Bears are tenth;

• Beat the Colts and Eagles (although both teams were missing key players at the time)
• Could easily be (6-1) or (7-0) against one of the toughest schedules in the NFL that includes extremely close losses @Carolina, @Atlanta, and in overtime to Tampa Bay

11/12

Falcons

4-3

  Wins over Chicago and at Green Bay were upsets and rate well. Losses at Carolina, at Tampa Bay, and at Philadelphia were to be expected.

12/11

Bills

5-2

* Special Alert #1 – reasons the Bills are 12th and haven’t cracked the top 10 of our rankings yet;

• Best wins are over San Diego and Jacksonville– and those teams are both under .500
• Lucky to survive the Raiders at home
• Wins over Seattle and Jacksonville occurred when both teams were riddled with injuries
• Trailed the pre-Haslett Rams in the 4th quarter
• Best two teams they have played are Arizona and Miami… The results were not pretty

13/13

Packers

4-3

  Week 7 blowout of the Colts looks even better after seeing how closely the Colts played at Tennessee without Addai and Sanders in their lineup.

14/16

Colts

  3-4  

  Costly decision to go for it on 4th down at mid-field Monday night @Tennessee might have cost the Colts the game– and even worse, perhaps a playoff spot. On the plus side, the Colts are healthier at offensive line and that’s bad news for next week’s opponent New England…

15/19

Ravens

  4-3

  Reasons the Ravens are fifteenth;

• Played to within three points of both Tennessee and Pittsburgh (coulda, shoulda, won both games)
• Couldn’t handle the anguish of blowing the above two games and proceeded to get blown out by the Colts
• Back above .500 with blowout over Oakland
• Tied with Pittsburgh for giving up the second fewest points in the league

16/17

Vikings

3-4

  Reasons the Vikings are sixteenth;

• Wins over Carolina and New Orleans rank well
• Close losses @Green Bay and to Indianapolis don’t overly destroy their ranking

17/18

Saints

4-4

Without Bush were able to get back to .500 with a win over the Chargers in London. Should be better than (4-4). Tough losses at Denver and to Minnesota are stingers.

18/22

Dolphins

  3-4

  Upset wins over the Bills, Chargers, and Patriots offset their week 1 loss to the Jets and their last second loss at Houston. You can’t overly beat up the fins for losses against Baltimore and Arizona.

19/14

Chargers

3-5

The Chargers fell to two games below .500 thanks to losing in London to the Saints. Freakish losses in the first two weeks to Carolina at home and at Denver are really starting to rear their ugly heads.

20/23

Browns

3-4

  * Special Alert #2 – reasons the Browns are 20th and surprisingly ahead of New England;

• Handed the defending champs their only post Super Bowl loss
• Played to within three points at Washington (6-2)
• Played to within four points against Pittsburgh (5-2)
• Lost to Dallas and Baltimore by fewer points than the Patriots lost to Miami and San Diego
• What would their record be if they played the Chiefs, Rams, and 49ers like the Patriots did instead of playing the Giants, Steelers, and Redskins? Probably (5-2) just like New England. I rest my case.

21/15

Patriots

  5-2  

  * Special Alert #3 – reasons the Patriots are 21st;

• Wins over the Chiefs (1-6), Rams (2-5), and @San Fran (2-6) just don’t rank that highly
• The 2 best teams they played were Miami (3-4) and San Diego (3-5)– both of which are under .500, and both of which blew the Patriots out by an avg. of 22.5 points
• Need to beat the Colts this week to truly relegitimize themselves

Jaguars

  3-4

  Fell at home to Cleveland. Like we’ve been saying all season, the Jaguars’ defense isn’t what it used to be. In fact, Cleveland was our money line underdog pick of the week. It paid +$270.

23/21

Broncos

  4-3  

  Reasons the Broncos are twenty-third;

• Dragged down by losses to Kansas City and their home loss to Jacksonville who themselves just lost at home to Cleveland
• Lucky home win over San Diego grades lower with the Chargers sitting at (3-5)
• Chargers blew out New England… New England blew out Denver
• Close home wins over Tampa and New Orleans at least keep the door open for a return trip up the power rankings ladder

24/25

Jets

4-3

At home the Jets barely beat the Chiefs as Favre threw three interceptions. The power rankings don’t approve.

25/24

Rams

2-5

  Played a competitive game at New England. Are now in a must win situation against division leader Arizona next week.

26/26

Texans

3-4

  Crushed the Bengals for their third victory in a row. Unfortunately, victories over low quality opponents don’t make it easy to rise when parity in the league is suddenly on the loose.

27/27

Raiders

2-5

  The Raiders fell back to three games below .500 with a blowout loss at Baltimore.

28/30

Seahawks

  2-5  

  Grabbed a road win against the self-destructing 49ers.

29/28

49ers

2-6

In Singletary’s first game the 49ers were blown out at home by the Seahawks. Major lineup shakeup is in play.

30/29

Bengals

0-8

Close games against the Giants and Cowboys are becoming a distant memory as the Bengals were clobbered at Houston for loss number eight.

Chiefs

1-6

  Almost pulled the upset against the Jets (Herm’s old team).

32/32

Lions

0-7

  Detroit was dramatically out-yarded in a home loss to Washington. Could they go winless?