B&T Power Rankings Week 13
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 Browns need eight turnovers to win by six, the Broncos continue to do work, Cam Newton puts up four TDs, and Colin Kaepernick makes Alex Smith expendable. The game continues to develop as we watch who will make the final push for the playoffs and who will fall by the wayside.
Hate ‘em? Love ‘em? Agree? Disagree? Leave it in the comments.
#1 [1] . Houston Texans, 10-1: Two overtime games in a row result in two victories for the Texans. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and think they overlooked the Jaguars on Sunday and were rattled going into the game against the Lions on Thursday. It was Detroit’s game, but the record doesn’t show it.
#2 [3]. San Francisco 49ers, 8-2-1: Colin Kaepernick? Alex Smith? I really don’t think Jim Harbaugh can do any wrong as head coach right now.
#3 [2]. Denver Broncos, 8-3: You have Peyton Manning and a top 10 defense. You do not let the worst team in the league get that close. Ever.
#4 [8]. New York Giants, 7-4: Eli pulled a statement win out of nowhere. Tom Coughlin is smiling somewhere and he is going to keep smiling as his team pushes to the playoffs yet again.
#5 [4]. Atlanta Falcons, 10-1: I’m not certain the Falcons win every close game when the playoffs finally roll around.
#6 [5]. New England Patriots, 8-3: Trouncing the Jets is nice but doesn’t do much in way of proving that the Patriots can squash the teams around them.
#7 [9]. Chicago Bears, 8-3: Burying their division competition has been a necessity for the Bears this season and they’ve done it well.
#8 [7]. Baltimore Ravens, 9-2: Can Joe Flacco get this team a Championship? I can only muster up a maybe.
#9 [6]. Green Bay Packers, 7-4: Five straight is tough to continue. The Pack is still vulnerable but oh so good!
#10 [15]. Cincinnati Bengals, 6-5: Andy Dalton is showing the maturity that made him such a good choice out of TCU last year. The kid has leadership oozing out of him and he is righting the ship at the right time.
#11[11]. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 6-5: Of the 6-5 teams, I see the Bucs as second only behind the hot Bengals. The Bucs will have to really fight to get in, but I like what I’m seeing still.
#12 [10]. Pittsburgh Steelers, 6-5: I don’t see the Steelers recovering to make the playoffs this year.
#13 [12]. Indianapolis Colts, 6-5: T.Y. Hilton is special and learning from one of the best in Reggie Wayne. The receiving corps for this team will be in good shape for years to come.
#14 [17]. Washington Redskins, 5-6: It would be nice to see RGIII and Andrew Luck both sneak into the playoffs in their first years. If Griffin can keep playing like he has the last couple weeks then I see it happening.
#15 [13]. New Orleans Saints, 5-6: The Saints have had a rough year. Their magical run to get to .500 had to end sometime.
#16 [14]. Minnesota Vikings, 6-5: No team has been plagued by bad coaching as much as the Vikings in the past few years. I like Leslie Frazier over Brad Childress, but man just hand the ball to Adrian Peterson!
#17 [16]. Seattle Seahawks, 6-5: Can this team make the playoffs? Can this team win in the playoffs if they aren’t playing at home? Can this team even win a game on the road in order to make it over .500?
#18 [21]. Miami Dolphins, 5-6: I still like the Dolphins this season even though they probably won’t make the playoffs. While other teams will gain more attention, the work new head coach Joe Philbin has been doing in Miami is solid and should pay dividends in the future.
#19 [18]. Dallas Cowboys, 5-6: America’s Team is pleading with the president to oust owner/GM Jerry Jones, that’s sad.
#20 [20]. Detroit Lions, 4-7: Jim Schwartz has got to be kicking himself for trying to challenge that scoring play. The Texans are pleased with him though.
#21 [22]. Cleveland Browns, 3-8: Congrats to the Browns for winning a game. They just needed eight turnovers to do it against an overly-injured team that is floundering.
#22 [25]. St. Louis Rams, 4-6-1: Jeff Fisher gets this team to do so much more than they should be able to. It’s not enough now, but we’ll see it develop into something special in the next few seasons.
#23 [19]. Arizona Cardinals, 4-7: This has got to be one of the greatest implosions in all of football. The Cardinals can’t wait for the offseason and their fans can’t either.
#24 [23]. San Diego Chargers, 4-7: The Chargers used to be a talented team with mediocre coaching, now they have mediocre coaching and mediocre talent.
#25 [26]. Buffalo Bills, 4-7: The Bills confuse me, but its obvious they need some changes on almost every front.
#26 [30]. Carolina Panthers, 3-8: Cam Newton finally broke the spell…at least for a game.
#27 [24]. New York Jets, 4-7: Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. At least Tim Tebow won as a starter….
#28 [29]. Jacksonville Jaguars, 2-9: For the second week in a row, Chad Henne has made this team much better than we thought they were. I’m starting to think it’s more than an aberration but at as Henne plays so will the team and that’s concerning.
#29 [27]. Tennessee Titans, 4-7: By losing to a division rival they should have beat they effectively killed any chance at the playoffs. Mike Munchak looked uncertain and confused on the sidelines all game.
#30 [28]. Philadelphia Eagles, 3-8: I really feel for Andy Reid, the guy is much better coach than this “dream team” reflects.
#31 [31]. Oakland Raiders, 3-8: Carson Palmer is not doing enough for this team and it sounds like the team may finally be starting to realize this.
#32 [32]. Kansas City Chiefs, 1-10: The Chiefs played much better than anticipated against a good Denver team, but they just aren’t good enough to hang against the better teams for long.