B&T Power Rankings – Week 9
By Luke Sims
Welcome to the B&T Power Rankings. The place where we rank the teams on their record, front office actions, and overall craziness. Expect some arbitrary explanations, some in-depth analysis, and your fair share of surprises.
The Falcons continue to sit on top, Peyton Manning is putting on a show in Denver, and the Indianapolis Colts would be playoff bound if the season ended today. We’re at the midway point and things are starting to settle down in the power rankings.
Hate ‘em? Love ‘em? Agree? Disagree? Leave it in the comments.
#1 [1]. Atlanta Falcons, 7-0: Matt Ryan could easily be MVP this year. Question the Falcons in the playoffs all you want, but right now they’re flying high.
#2 [2] . Houston Texans, 6-1: The Texans have the luxury of playing the Bills right after their bye. They’ll take advantage and continue to show new ways they can win.
#3 [3]. New York Giants, 6-2: Getting it done against division rivals is a necessity in the NFL. It may not have been pretty, but the Giants pulled it out and stopped themselves from causing a loss.
#4 [5]. New England Patriots, 5-3: Demolishing the Rams in London may not make for a fun game in the international market, but it put more eyes on how good the Pats are.
#5 [4]. Chicago Bears, 6-1: They’re lucky to come away from the Panthers game with a win. Records don’t reflect luck though, just wins and losses and the Bears will take it.
#6 [9]. Denver Broncos, 4-3: Peyton Manning has been stellar lately. This defense is a cohesive group that helps win games. They’ll be tough to slow down.
#7 [7]. San Francisco 49ers, 6-2: Responding to the Giants beat down last week is big for the Niners. The Seahawks are much more than a speed bump. That game was big for this team.
#8 [8]. Baltimore Ravens, 5-2: Coming off the bye week I have faith that Joe Flacco and company will come out hot.
#9 [6]. Green Bay Packers, 5-3: As the Packers climb out of their early season hole they must rely on more diverse ways to win games. The blocked punt for a touchdown was the deciding factor against the Jaguars. It’d be nice for the Packers to not have to rely on that type of play to beat the more mediocre teams in the league.
#10 [14]. Pittsburgh Steelers, 4-3: Remember that one time when the Steelers made the opposing quarterback with the highest completion percentage look worse than average? Me too. These guys still have it, they coud be hitting their stride at the right time.
#11 [17]. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 4-3: The Bucs continue to turn heads and could be surprising in the second half of the season. It’ll require work, but the strength of the roster is finally starting to shine through.
#12 [16]. Miami Dolphins, 4-3: A 30-9 victory over the Jets shouldn’t be overlooked. Ryan Tannehill is having a very good rookie season at QB and is making his team look good in the process. These Dolphins are more complete than fellow rebuilding teams Washington and Indianapolis
#13 [10]. Minnesota Vikings, 5-3: It may be time that the Vikings come crashing back to Earth. The Bucs simply outplayed the Vikes and made them look foolish. Christian Ponder needs to find his stride again.
#14 [11]. Seattle Seahawks, 4-4: Playing against a red-hot Matt Stafford makes winning difficult, but I still think this team has the talent to hang in their with the best of them.
#15 [22]. Detroit Lions, 3-4: If Matt Stafford can continue to play like he did this week then this team will start to win more games. He had 352 yards with only three catches by Megatron.
#16 [19]. Cincinnati Bengals, 3-4: Let’s hope this team can come off stronger following the bye week.
#17 [12]. Washington Redskins, 3-5: Field a defense and this team is much better than 3-5. RGIII is great but he can’t play defense.
#18 [13]. Dallas Cowboys, 3-4: How you give the ball away that many times and still come close to winning is beyond me. The ‘boys are struggling though and its obvious.
#19 [26]. Indianapolis Colts, 4-3: They probably won’t catch the Texans, but the Colts are calmly climbing out of the cellar and into the light. Andrew Luck may not be the flashiest #1 overall pick in a while but he’s getting it done in a major roster rebuild.
#20 [15]. Arizona Cardinals, 4-4: Reality hits the Cardinals hard as they continue their four game losing streak. A beat-down by the Niners doesn’t bode well for a team that is relying exclusively on its defense to be competitive.
#21 [18]. New York Jets, 3-5: Mark Sanchez is playing worse than any other quarterback in the league right now. I don’t care if you like Tim Tebow or hate him, change is good for New York.
#22 [20]. New Orleans Saints, 2-5: Joe Vitt has returned as interim head coach. As a result the Saints were trounced by the Denver Broncos. It’s apparent the offense can’t compete against stingier defenses.
#23 [23]. St. Louis Rams, 3-5: Brian Billick said it right when he sais the Rams are outplaying their talent. I agree and it isn’t sustainable. But right now I think that a blowout loss to the Patriots in London doesn’t rely give too much insight into a game we knew the team was going to lose.
#24 [21]. Tennessee Titans, 3-5: Trending toward the cellar in the AFC South will be rough for the Titans. I liked the talent of their roster before the season, but they are really not trending in a positive direction right now.
#25 [28]. Cleveland Browns, 2-6: The Browns won a tough game against the Bolts. Unfortunately I think it was mostly due to horrendous Chargers playing. Kudos to the team for running on a defense that has stopped most runners all season.
#26 [24]. San Diego Chargers, 3-4: Continuing their downward trend, the Chargers lost to the Browns this week. How you only score six points when you have Philip Rivers is beyond me.
#27 [25]. Philadelphia Eagles, 3-4: The Michael Vick experiment needs to end. This is getting away from Andy Reid level football and rapidly approaching ridiculousness.
#28 [31]. Oakland Raiders, 3-4: The Raiders have now strung together two straight wins. The Chiefs are a mess, but it’s winning that matters, right? They’re a game back from .500 with some momentum.
#29 [27]. Buffalo Bills, 3-4: Even on a bye week the Bills fall. They go up against the Texans next week and simply aren’t good enough to make it competitive.
#30 [29]. Carolina Panthers, 1-6: The Panthers came close to winning this week, but it’s time we recognized that last year’s surprising showing was more of an aberration than initially supposed. This team needs playmakers to sustain its stronger showings.
#31 [32]. Jacksonville Jaguars, 1-6: The MJD-less Jags did not play like a 1-6 team against the Green Bay Packers. This team is injured, near talentless, but it’s hungry. They’ll continue to play big the more QB Blaine Gabbert continues to string together big days.
#32 [30]. Kansas City Chiefs, 1-6: With Brady Quinn out, it’s back to Matt Cassell. Well that was a fast experiment.