Week 7

One of the great aspects of the NFL is all the close games every week. Those of you who have been at a sports bar that shows all the games on Sunday know what it’s like in those minutes between the early and afternoon games when multiple contests come down to the wire and every direction you look is another exciting ending. This weekend was not one of those times. Only 2 of 13 games ended by a margin of less than 7 points while the average margin of victory was 22 points.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t surprises and excitement. The Cardinals traveled to New York to beat the Giants, the Bengals got back on track with their domination over the Bears, and the Saints started slow but eventually put up 46 to beat the Dolphins.

Those of you who followed these rankings last year know I like to look at what they say about which conference is doing better. As it stands right now, they appear to be even as the top 10 and the bottom 10 spots are split right down the middle between NFC and AFC teams. The inter-conference games tell the same story; split as even as they can get with the AFC edging out a 16-15 record.

I hope you enjoy the rankings.

Week 6

As explained in the archive section of this blog, these rankings make no claim to represent the accurate order of team quality. The Broncos have stood atop these ranking for two straight weeks but the Saints, Colts or possibly some other team might very well be the best team in football. However, since these rankings are determined based on wins, losses, and strength of schedule they do bring interesting facts to light; they help make observations that might otherwise go unnoticed.

For example, the 4-2 Steelers are sitting at 15th in our rankings, which is below the 2-3 Dolphins. Certainly, any self respecting Steelers fan would be forgiven for considering that placement ridiculous. But it forces us to examine why they are placed where they are. The Steelers have beaten the 1-5 Browns, 0-6 Titans, 2-3 Chargers, and the 1-5 Lions—not exactly a portfolio that should cause anyone to be impressed. So as you look at these rankings and you don’t agree take a moment to look at the schedules of the teams to figure out why they are placed where they are. Now, on to some of the Week 6 changes.

The Bengals tried to roar but all that was heard was a purr when the Texans came to town dropping the Bengals from 2nd to 5th in our rankings. Meanwhile, the Texans jumped 6 spots to take the 20th position. The Falcons moved a few spots from 8th to 5th as they picked up three ranking points, and some respect in the NFC, with their win against the Bears on Sunday night. Possibly the most surprising outcome of the day caused the Eagles to fall from 14th to 18th with their loss to the seemingly hopeless Raiders. For the Raiders part, they gained a few spots from 25 to 22. The Titans actually moved up from 30th to 29th only because they had the luxury of getting beat by the Patriots, a better team than the Rams, Redskins and Buccaneers were beat by, that is little consolation when the final score is 59 to 0.

I hope you enjoy.

Week 5

The Denver Broncos soared to the number one spot as they extended their unbeaten streak to 5 games with their win over the once dominating New England Patriots.

Even more surprisingly, not long ago the Cincinnati Bengals had more arrests in a season than wins. That time seems to be long in the past as they traveled to Baltimore this week to take down the Ravens. They have earned the number two spot in these rankings with an impressive 4-1 record.

The Giants continue to be the lowest ranked unbeaten team at 6th. This reflects the fact that their last three opponents have a combined record of 1-14. We will get to see if the Giants are for real when they travel to the Superdome on Sunday to take on the undefeated Saints, mark your calendar for that one!

The Vikings fell from 2nd place last week to 5th this week after they were not rewarded by these rankings for beating the last place Rams.

The Biggest movers of the week were the Falcons and the Dolphins moving from 15th to 8th and 21st to 14th respectively.

If you have something to say about these rankings, leave a comment! I hope you enjoy.

Week 4

Welcome to the 2009 NFL Ultimate Power Rankings! For all of you who followed these rankings last year, I hope you enjoy the new format. If you are new to these power rankings, there is a link under the Blog Archive that explains how they are calculated. Now on to the rankings....

The high flying offense of the Saints seems to have been blessed with a defense this year! They are sitting confidently on top of our rankings after the first quarter of football is complete.

A couple surprises appear, at least to me. The first is that the Giants are ranked so low. They are an undefeated team that is coming in tied for 7th. The reason is two of their 4 wins were against teams that have not won a game, while the other two wins were against the 2-2 Cowboys and the 2-2 Redskins. The Giants are probably going to rise in these rankings as the season goes on but to this point they haven't earned a higher spot due to strength of schedule. The other surprise is those lowly Lions sitting at 12th! Their story is the opposite of the Giants. The Lions are only 1-3 but two of their losses are to undefeated teams while their other loss is to the 3-1 Bears. The second half of the Bears game showed the Lions aren't ready for primetime but everyone should consider this team out of the basement. Enjoy the rankings.