But in his Blog he ranked Denver 11 and SD 14. The espn power rankings are a total of all the assclowns on espn ranking the teams then taking the average. If you look at the breakdown over there at the 4 letter denver was ranked as high as 5 and as low as 15. Too me thats ok, screw em. Too me the only ranking that really matters is the one in the AFC West. Right now that is #1. To win the west is a guaranteed home playoff game no matter what

They beat the Redskins 16-7 at home in the opener, before the Reds got organized under Zorn. Their opponents since then have a combined record of 4-18. They got really stomped at Cleveland.

They do have a lot of injuries, including punter and TO’s ego. They signed Sam Paulescu to replace Mat McBriar at punter.

The NFC East is wildly overrated. The Bengals took the Giants to OT and pushed the Cowboys to the brink in regulation. The Browns blew out the Giants. The Rams beat the Redskins. Dig a little deeper and their records look far less impressive.

The Skins and Giants lose to two of the worst teams in pro football, but remain in the top three ahead of comparable powers with equal or better records? The Cowboys have no DBs and a back-up QB at the helm, but they’re still so highly regarded; by the way, they’re ranked 11 slots higher than the team with the same record that just beat them at closer to full strength than they are now. The Broncos beat the Bucs who in turn defeated the Panthers, yet their ranked in the inverse order expected. The Falcons are 4-2 after dropping the Bears to 3-3 (in a game they controlled for all but 10 seconds) and yet they’re seven slots behind. I’m tired of shifting through this, but I’m sure there’s more…

so I have about twenty minutes to spare to put up some thoughts on the current status of the power rankings…(I will go in the order that I personally had them ranked, so the refer to Zappa’s post above for the official MHR rankings).

TEN: Not only are they the only undefeated team but they have been doing EXACTLY what they needed to do. That said, they have one of the weaker opponent records, so in my mind, they haven’t faced a real tough test.
TB: These guys, on the other hand, have one of the toughest adjusted opponents records, and have been competitive in every one, keeping the score close either by keeping the game low scoring or keeping up on offense. When Denver beat them, Denver was ranked one point ahead of them, but TB put away a team on a roll this week, and we lost to a team on the ropes. We can’t do that and expect to hang in there with the big boys.
ARI: These guys are hot, hot, hot! They have the best opponents record by far, and though they were up and down, their play has been getting better pretty consistently. This is one team that I fully expect to maintain a spot in the top ten at the end of the year.
NYG: I agree with Ejruiz, strength of opponent for this team is easily in the bottom quarter of the league. But the wins they got were beyond convincing. The loss hits them hard and shows that staying at the top of the power poll isn’t a gift. Ya gotta earn it!
WAS: Watch this team slip right out of the top ten. They have played worse every week, from the previous game, including their Dallas win, adn it caught up with them in losing to the Rams. I expect a rally, but I don’t expect it to last long enough for this team to be considered a top team at the end of the year. They have a good strength of opponent score, and it has taken its toll on them. They need a couple of cupcakes to get their mojo back, but they already whiffed on the first one. Not a good sign.
BUF: Another team that started strong but has been declining from week to week. Another week like week five and they will be out of the top ten.
DAL: This team is a worse version of Buffalo, dropping just slightly faster, and with more serious problems. I have them on a 4 week slide right now, and it will be a real test to see if they can play even slightly better next week.
ATL: This team plays better every week. Every new challenge they have gone up against they have responded to positively. A loss in the coming weeks wouldn’t even be much of a setback since they still have room for improvement in their play, and can make forward strides even in a loss. Good time to be an ATL fan.
PHI: They have a strong schedule and do a good job of staying with opponents, so major drops and rises shouldn’t be expected with this team. Losses to teams that are playing well shouldn’t destroy teams, it should make them stronger.
CAR: Still playing much better than they were even just three weeks ago. A divisional loss hurts them bad in the standings, but not so much ina power poll.

That is the top ten. i’ll give my thoughts on some of the other teams a bit later. Off to work!

Here is my Top-10, and I really don’t look at record just at what I see on the field —

1. Tennessee
2. Pittsburgh
3. NY Giants
4. Indianapolis
5. New Orleans
6. Arizona
7. Buffalo
8. Washington
9. Dallas
10. Tampa Bay

I went ahead and made my own Power Rankings because I hate to raise questions without providing solutions. I based mine on team record (losses, really), average final margin (points in favor minus points against divided by games played), and key games (max of two wins and two losses). I tried to make sure that teams would not be ranked below teams that they defeated so long as they had similar records. I was surprised by some of the results and I’d love to have you guys tear them apart! Have at it:

1) Tennessee Titans
2) Buffalo Bills
3) Pittsburgh Steelers
4) New York Giants
5) Denver Broncos
6) Tampa Bay Bucaneers
7) Washington Redskins
8) New England Patriots
9) New York Jets
10) Arizona Cardinals
11) Dallas Cowboys
12) Carolina Panthers
13) Atlanta Falcons
14) Indianapolis Colts
15) Chicago Bears
16) Philadelphia Eagles
17) Jacksonville Jaguars
18) New Orleans Saints
19) Miami Dolphins
20) San Diego Chargers
21) Green Bay Packers
22) Minnesota Vikings
23) Cleveland Browns
24) Baltimore Ravens
25) San Francisco 49ers
26) Houston Texans
27) Seattle Seahawks
28) Oakland Raiders
29) Kansas City Chiefs
30) St. Louis Rams
31) Detroit Lions
32) Cincinnati Bengals

1. TEN
2. NYG
3. PIT
4. BUF
5. TB
6. WAS
7. ARI
8. DAL
9. CAR
10. IND
11. DEN
12. ATL
13. SD
14. JAX
15. NO
16. NE
17. PHI
18. CHI
19. NYJ
20. GB
21. BAL
22. MIN
23. MIA
24. CLE
25. SF
26. HOU
27. OAK
28. SEA
29. KC
30. STL
31. CIN
32. DET

I hope he hates all the way to the Super Bowl.