NFL Computerized Power Ranks: Week 5

Week 5 is in the books, and this is usually the time of the year where the "recent success" attribute in the calculation starts to make a difference, as you will see. Dare I try to make playoff projections based on these ranks? Sure, I'll start them this week. You probably won't be browsing the bottom of the October archives come January if they are ridiculously wrong.

This week was interesting in that the 5 five mostly remained in tact. The #1 Lions, #2 Packers, and #4 Bills all won this week, while the #3 Ravens were idle. Even the former #5 Patriots won, but they were passed by yet another surprising team that hasn't made the playoffs in a while....the 49ers, who took over the #5 spot after beating Tampa in their biggest blowout win since the days of Montana and Rice, 1987.

The bottom 5 had a little bit of movement. The Vikings destroyed the Cardinals to get their first win of the year and move out of the bottom 5. Also, the Chiefs got their 2nd win of the year over the lowly Colts to move up. Replacing them are the awful Cardinals and the Jaguars, whose win over the Titans in week 1 looks like an anomaly.

The biggest gainer this week were the Vikings, who jumped 8 spots with a dominating first win. The Steelers jumped 7 spots for beating the Titans and getting back on track. The biggest losers were the Cardinals, for the reasons mentioned above, and the Texans, who lost to an emotional Raiders team playing for Al Davis.

Playoff Projections:
AFC
Byes:#3 Ravens, #4 Bills
#12 Bengals @ #9 Chargers
#6 Patriots @#10 Titans
Top 5 Out: #13 Texans, #14 Steelers, #15 Raiders, #19 Browns, #21 Jets

NFC
Byes: #1 Packers, #5 49ers
#11 Giants @ #7 Saints
#2 Lions @ #8 Redskins
Top 5 Out: #16 Buccaneers, #17 Cowboys, #18 Bears, #20 Vikings, #22 Falcons

Full Ranks:

NFL Computerized Power Ranks: Week 3

Week 3 is in the books and only 3 3-0 teams are left standing. Those teams include the defending Super Bowl champs and 2 teams that haven't made the playoffs since the 90s. What's going on here? The Lions beat another admittedly bad team in the Vikings but the Bills knocked off New England for the first time in 8 years. Those 3 teams make up the top 3 again this week, with the Lions hanging onto 1st, the Packers 2nd (up from 4th), and the Bills 3rd (up from 6th). The Ravens and Giants also moved into the top 5 as the best 2-1 teams so far (with the 49ers at #6?!? ok...). The Redskins, Jets, and Patriots fell out of the top 5 after losses to the Cowboys, Raiders, and Bills.

In the bottom 5, the horrible, horrible Chiefs actually moved up to #31 this week after their close loss. Replacing them are the Rams, who got blown out by the Ravens, have a ton of injuries, are 0-3, and yet are still most people's favorites to win the NFC West. The Dolphins fell down to #30, while the Colts and Vikings also joined the bottom 5 for dropping to 0-3. The Seahawks and Panthers climbed out of the bottom 5 by getting their first wins of the season.

The biggest gainers this week were the Panthers, who got their first win and jumped over a bunch of bad teams, moving up 8 spots. The Browns and Chargers also moved up 7 spots for improving to 2-1. The biggest losers were the Bengals, who got shut down by the 49ers and fell 11 spots, and the Patriots, who dropped 10 spots after their loss to the Bills.

Here are the full ranks:
1. Lions - 86.86 - Even
2. Packers - 81.34 - +2
3. Bills - 78.28 - +3
4. Ravens - 68.44 - +4
5. Giants - 67.90 - +6
6. 49ers - 67.43 - +6
7. Redskins - 66.58 - -2
8. Texans - 64.20 - -1
9. Cowboys - 63.49 - +5
10. Raiders - 63.16 - +3
11. Jets - 61.81 - -9
12. Buccaneers - 61.54 - +3
13. Patriots - 60.84 - -10
14. Titans - 58.19 - +3
15. Saints - 55.86 - +3
16. Browns - 54.78 - +7
17. Chargers - 51.29 - +7
18. Steelers - 49.58 - +4
19. Bears - 44.69 - -9
20. Bengals - 43.90 - -11
21. Panthers - 38.78 - +8
22. Cardinals - 37.11 - -6
23. Eagles - 35.97 - -4
24. Falcons - 35.73 - -3
25. Broncos - 34.63 - -5
26. Seahawks - 32.73 - +5
27. Jaguars - 32.69 - -2
28. Vikings - 28.22 - -2
29. Colts - 20.42 - -2
30. Dolphins - 18.40 - -2
31. Chiefs - 13.28 - +1
32. Rams - 13.22 - -2

NFL Computerized Power Ranks: Week 2

What exactly is going on this NFL season? After week 2, we have 2 teams that went the entire decade of the 2000s without making the playoffs, the Lions and Bills, that are both 2-0. It can be argued that so far the Lions actually look the most impressive these first 2 weeks, and the computerized power rankings agree. Yes, believe it or not, the Detroit Lions are the #1 ranked team this week Following the Lions are the Jets, who blew out feeble Jacksonville. #3 are the Patriots, who have also looked very impressive after the first 2 weeks, led by Tom Brady and his nearly 1000 passing yards. The defending champ Packers remained at #4, and the surprising 2-0 Redskins elevated to #5.

Falling out of the top 5 are the Bills, who improved to 2-0 but won a nail biter over the Raiders, and the Ravens, who inexplicably lost to Tennessee this week.

Four out of five of last week's bottom 5 turned it around by winning this week. However, the on team that remained, the Chiefs, looked about as awful as can be, and are deeply rooted already as #32. Joining the Chiefs in the bottom 5 are 3 other teams that have looked just awful so far (Seahawks, Rams, and Dolphins) and 1 team that has shown some promise in Cam Newton's early career play, but is being punished for last season's stats still (Panthers).

This week, the biggest gainers were the Giants and Falcons, who turned around bad week 1 losses and gained 11 spots. The Saints also jumped 10 spots by blowing out the Bears. The Chargers dropped 11 spots for losing to New England, and the Jaguars and Vikings each dropped 9 spots.

My 49ers only dropped 2 spots this week, but they still have me nervous. Only 1 of their remaining 14 games will be against Tarvaris Jackson or a QB with only 1 healthy lung. Imagine the kind of damage that a QB that isn't Jackson with 2 healthy lungs can do against them?

Here are the full ranks:
1. Lions - 88.10 - +2
2. Jets - 84.14 - +4
3. Patriots - 80.35 - +2
4. Packers - 79.72 - Even
5. Redskins - 76.99 - +6
6. Bills - 76.64 - -4
7. Texans - 74.19 - +5
8. Ravens - 58.87 - -7
9. Bengals - 57.26 - -1
10. Bears - 54.31 - -3
11. Giants - 52.80 - +11
12. 49ers - 52.39 - -2
13. Raiders - 52.28 - -4
14. Cowboys - 52.07 - +4
15. Buccaneers - 51.98 - +8
16. Cardinals - 50.05 - -2
17. Titans - 49.03 - +2
18. Saints - 47.06 - +10
19. Eagles - 45.94 - -4
20. Broncos - 44.62 - +4
21. Falcons - 44.07 - +11
22. Steelers - 42.82 - +7
23. Browns - 42.66 - +7
24. Chargers - 42.04 - -11
25. Jaguars - 40.89 - -9
26. Vikings - 29.48 - -9
27. Colts - 24.92 - -7
28. Dolphins - 24.14 - -7
29. Panthers - 19.31 - -2
30. Rams - 18.44 - -4
31. Seahawks - 16.18 - -6
32. Chiefs - 13.66 - -1