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I have decided to enable a weighted ranking system. I had been toying with the idea for a few weeks now, since I have the ranking history to begin lessening the wild swings from week to week. I figured since the Denver Broncos got hammered last week, it's probably as good a time as any to play with a new format.
NFL Power Rankings
Other NFL rankings from around SB Nation
So essentially, each week's ranking for each team is just added up and the lowest score wins. I will include this week's ranking in the last column of the table below as well, so you can see how good or bad your team fared this past week. Suffice to say, this gives me more flexibility to really punish or reward teams for their weekly performance. They'll always start where they were ranked the previous week and move up or down from there. I will not include the first three weeks of the season as those were heavily weighted by my pre-season biases.
This week, its all the Indianapolis Colts. Sure, they are 5-2, but unlike the 7-0 Kansas City Chiefs who have only had to contend with terrible teams (and barely succeeding at that!), the Colts have beaten the three main Super Bowl contenders of 2013. The aforementioned Broncos, the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. Andrew Luck is truly a dragon slayer.
Let's see how things got blown up this week in my NFL Rankings. Check out last week's power rankings here.
RNK |
TEAM |
TOP 5 TAKE & ONE LINERS |
WK |
1 |
Denver Broncos |
Average: 2.0 Being the consensus number one team in the league for many weeks now certainly helps, but the Broncos fall six spots in my new weekly ranking system. If they do not bounce back quickly, there is a backlog of top tier teams right behind them waiting in the wings. Really, only Chiefs and Saints fans would argue with this overall ranking. |
6 |
2 |
New Orleans Saints |
Average: 3.0 Due to most of the top teams winning this week, the Saints slipped to 5th over second place last week. They'll bounce back if they keep up their winning ways. Most experts are sleeping on the this team and I would take Drew Brees right now over every other quarterback in the NFC except for that guy in Green Bay. |
5 |
3 |
Seattle Seahawks |
Average: 3.4 As much as I hate putting the Seahawks anywhere in my top 5, they have been consistently good all season. They are not quite as dominate on the offensive side of the ball as the Saints, but they are definitely a contender. Unlike the Chiefs defense, I am a buying stock like crazy in how well the Seahawks defense plays ball. They do not need turnovers to shut down opponents. |
3 |
4 |
Kansas City Chiefs |
Average: 3.8 The biggest fraud of any team in the Top 8 has to be the Chiefs. This team looks almost exactly like the 2009 Broncos. They too started 6-0 then 8-2 mostly off of historically amazing defensive effort with insane turnover numbers and a mediocre offense. We all know the results of that, the season came unhinged once the randomness of turnovers drifted back towards historical averages. For now, however, they are 7-0 with most of us expecting them to lose every week. The lowly Texans almost took them down this week in Arrowhead. |
2 |
5 |
Indianapolis Colts |
Average: 5.8 The Colts are definitely a contender in that they are the only team in the league to take down the three big powerhouses. The one knock on them is they tend to play down to the competition, which reminds me of a certain San Diego Chargers team back in their heyday. Even so, that still makes them a very dangerous team in the playoffs. I almost like that the Broncos lost this game, because regular season losers tend to fare well in post-season rematches. Just ask the Ravens last year and also ask John Elway about the 1997 season. |
1 |
6 |
San Francisco 49ers |
Average: 7.2 The 49ers are still a contender. |
4 |
7 |
New England Patriots |
Average: 7.2 Tom Brady doing everything he can to help the Patriots. |
14 |
8 |
Cincinnati Bengals |
Average: 7.8 The Bengals are always scrapping for those wins. |
7 |
9 |
Green Bay Packers |
Average: 10 Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are the darkhorses in the NFC. |
8 |
10 |
Dallas Cowboys |
Average: 10.8 Tony Romo is finally getting it done for the Cowboys. |
9 |
11 |
Chicago Bears |
Average 10.8 The Bears are in trouble with another season crippling injury to Jay Cutler. |
15 |
12 |
Detroit Lions |
Average: 11.4 I hate the way the Lions only win when I pick against them. |
11 |
13 |
Miami Dolphins |
Average: 12.2 Buoyed by early season success, the Dolphins are tanking hard and fast. |
17 |
14 |
Baltimore Ravens |
Average: 12.8 The Ravens and Joe Flacco suffer greatly from inconsistency. |
13 |
15 |
San Diego Chargers |
Average: 15.6 Phillip Rivers seems to have recaptured his mojo and the Chargers are somewhat dangerous again. |
10 |
16 |
Tennessee Titans |
Average: 15.8 I still don't know what to make of the Titans. Jake Locker is back though. |
18 |
17 |
New York Jets |
Average: 18.2 Geno Smith is good rookie, bad rookie. The Jets are on the rise. |
12 |
18 |
Atlanta Falcons |
Average: 19.2 The Falcons season is ruined. |
22 |
19 |
Arizona Cardinals |
Average: 19.6 The Cardinals are marginally better than I expected. |
19 |
20 |
Carolina Panthers |
Average: 20.8 Cam Newton has strung together two impressive wins for the Panthers. |
16 |
21 |
St. Louis Rams |
Average: 21.6 Sam Bradford's injury spells doom for the Rams already fading season. |
20 |
22 |
Cleveland Browns |
Average: 21.8 The Browns defense is only reason they are ranked this high. |
21 |
23 |
Houston Texans |
Average: 22.2 The Texans close loss against the Chiefs would have been more impressive were the Chiefs not total frauds. |
29 |
24 |
Philadelphia Eagles |
Average: 22.8 Matt Barkley is just another typical USC quarterback and the Eagles found that out the hard way. |
23 |
25 |
Buffalo Bills |
Average: 23.0 Losing Fred Jackson hurts since the Bills have no idea how to properly use C.J. Spiller. |
24 |
26 |
Oakland Raiders |
Average: 24.8 The Raiders are far superior to my preseason predictions, which isn't saying much. |
27 |
27 |
Washington Redskins |
Average: 26.2 Robert Griffin III and the Redskins keep scoring points like that and this team could be rising quickly in the coming weeks. |
26 |
28 |
Pittsburgh Steelers |
Average: 27.8 The Steelers have won two straight and are clawing their way back to relevancy. |
25 |
29 |
Minnesota Vikings |
Average: 27.8 Trading for Josh Freeman (a first round bust) to replace Christian Ponder (another first round bust) isn't exactly a recipe for success, but don't tell the Vikings that. |
30 |
30 |
New York Giants |
Average: 30.4 Eli Manning and the Giants finally won a game. The long road to 2014 began last night. |
28 |
31 |
Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
Average: 30.4 If the Buccaneers players keep the quit in them like this, then the Jaguars will deserve this spot. |
31 |
32 |
Jacksonville Jaguars |
Average: 31.8 Worst in the league, but the heart still beats in these players. |
32 |