Phantom's Weekly NFL PowerRankings

[Hostrauser]

Oh goodie!
Phantom thinks my Cowboys have the best defense! Yay! Well they do...stat-wise anyway.

Yeah, even though they kind of ascended to the position by default. The Bucs and Panthers didn't have great defensive performances this weekend, and for the Bucs that's the third time this season... but, the Cowboys have won 5 straight, and their defense is 4th in the NFL in points allowed, the most important stat of all.

[formermarcher]

With the Cowboys and the Bucs defense, and the offenses of both, I expect a good game. Possible game of the week,

I know I've been going on and on about the Cowboys, but I say that as a neutral spectator.

Any thoughts?

[jacjar1]

With the Cowboys and the Bucs defense, and the offenses of both, I expect a good game. Possible game of the week,

I know I've been going on and on about the Cowboys, but I say that as a neutral spectator.

Any thoughts?

With Sapp acting more and more like a true Adam Henry he has become a distraction. Brad Johnson- I thinks this is the real one. Mediocre at best. Cowboys are hot but this is a dont touch game. I have stayed away from it in my fantasy league.

[Hostrauser]

TOP 5 NFL TEAMS:
1. Kansas City Chiefs
2. New England Patriots
3. Indianapolis Colts
4. Tennessee Titans
5. St. Louis Rams

Top 5 NFL Offenses:
1. Tennessee Titans
2. Indianapolis Colts
3. St. Louis Rams
4. Green Bay Packers
5. Kansas City Chiefs

Top 5 NFL Defenses:
1. Miami Dolphins
2. Indianapolis Colts
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
4. Denver Broncos
5. Carolina Panthers

An "Extra-Stinky" Edition
(because there are some BAD teams this year)
Worst 10 NFL Teams:
23. San Francisco 49ers
24. Houston Texans
25. Chicago Bears
26. Arizona Cardinals
27. Pittsburgh Steelers
28. Jacksonville Jaguars
29. Oakland Raiders
30. San Diego Chargers
31. Detroit Lions
32. Atlanta Falcons[/quote]

[formermarcher]

I sort of expected my VCowboys to drop after that 16-0 loss against Tampa Bay.
Statistically, they fell from 4th ranked offense to 13th, though they still remain the top ranked defense overall.

[Personal]

TOP 5 NFL TEAMS:
1. Kansas City Chiefs
2. New England Patriots
3. Indianapolis Colts
4. Tennessee Titans
5. St. Louis Rams

Top 5 NFL Offenses:
1. Tennessee Titans
2. Indianapolis Colts
3. St. Louis Rams
4. Green Bay Packers
5. Kansas City Chiefs

Top 5 NFL Defenses:
1. Miami Dolphins
2. Indianapolis Colts
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
4. Denver Broncos
5. Carolina Panthers

An "Extra-Stinky" Edition
(because there are some BAD teams this year)
Worst 10 NFL Teams:
23. San Francisco 49ers
24. Houston Texans
25. Chicago Bears
26. Arizona Cardinals
27. Pittsburgh Steelers
28. Jacksonville Jaguars
29. Oakland Raiders
30. San Diego Chargers
31. Detroit Lions
32. Atlanta Falcons

[/quote]

Phantom, I am surpriseed that my Packs are not on the top 10 worst teams. Yeah, they have a great offense, but truthfully, they just are not doing all that well this year. Now that does not stop me from dawning my Cheese Head, Favre jersey, and drink Dr. Pepper from my GB mug, but quite frankly, they are doing horrible. But, I do trust you when it comes to football, so maybe you see something I don't this year.

[Hostrauser]

Phantom, I am surpriseed that my Packs are not on the top 10 worst teams. Yeah, they have a great offense, but truthfully, they just are not doing all that well this year. Now that does not stop me from dawning my Cheese Head, Favre jersey, and drink Dr. Pepper from my GB mug, but quite frankly, they are doing horrible. But, I do trust you when it comes to football, so maybe you see something I don't this year.

Yes, the Pack isn't doing too hot this year, and they were right on the cutline of the ten worst teams list. The thing is, there are a LOT of bad teams in the NFL this year, and this week I was able to think of ten teams that are still worse than the Packers. That might change after they lose to Minnesota this week, though.

[Personal]

Phantom, I am surpriseed that my Packs are not on the top 10 worst teams. Yeah, they have a great offense, but truthfully, they just are not doing all that well this year. Now that does not stop me from dawning my Cheese Head, Favre jersey, and drink Dr. Pepper from my GB mug, but quite frankly, they are doing horrible. But, I do trust you when it comes to football, so maybe you see something I don't this year.

Yes, the Pack isn't doing too hot this year, and they were right on the cutline of the ten worst teams list. The thing is, there are a LOT of bad teams in the NFL this year, and this week I was able to think of ten teams that are still worse than the Packers. That might change after they lose to Minnesota this week, though.

Yes, I understand exactly what you are saying. And yes, As much I hate to say so, they will more than likely lose to Minnesota, and I will never live it down.

[Hostrauser]

This week I decided to be more analytical about it, and (much like I do with Drum Corps during the summer) I developed a ratings formula to rank the best and worst teams. I took each team's overall record, record in their last four games, point spread + or - in the last four games, and their last four opponents combined winning percentage (to put it in perspective if they're feasting on loser teams or getting beat by Super Bowl contenders).

After each team I will list their "ranking points," the lower the total the better. Please note that the Top 10 and Bottom 10 were rated seperately this week, so a 27 in one ranking is not the same as a 27 in the other ranking. These "ranking points" should help give you an idea as to just how good or bad a team is playing.

I like the results, and I think I'll be continuing this formula in future weeks. In fact, I might end up doing "Power Rankings" each week for the entire NFL. Heck, I'm already 2/3 of the way there...

TOP 10 NFL TEAMS:
1. Kansas City Chiefs (9)
2. New England Patriots (11)
3. Tennessee Titans (12)
4. Indianapolis Colts (16)
5. Dallas Cowboys (20)
6. Baltimore Ravens (26)
7t. Carolina Panthers (27)
7t. St. Louis Rams (27)
7t. Seattle Seahawks (27)
10. Philadelphia Eagles (29)

WORST 10 NFL TEAMS:
23t. Cleveland Browns (17)
23t. Houston Texans (17)
25. New York Jets (18)
26. Washington Redskins (26)
27t. Jacksonville Jaguars (31)
27t. Oakland Raiders (31)
29. Pittsburgh Steelers (32)
30. Detroit Lions (33)
31. Atlanta Falcons (36)
32. San Diego Chargers (37)

[Personal]

The Packers beat the Vikings this week, AND, they were at the Metrodome. I was about to cry... I was so happy...

[Hostrauser]

Well, here's my first attempt at "total" rankings. The results were a little eye-opening. For example, despite being two games behind them in the division, Green Bay is ranked ahead of ice-cold Minnesota. Why? Both teams are 1-3 in their last four games, but Green Bay's been losing close games to very good teams (last four opponents combined record: 27-9, tops in the NFL) whereas Minnesota's been losing games to not so good teams (last four opponents: 15-21, towards the bottom of the NFL). The end result was that the Packers squeaked ahead of the Vikings, despite Minnesota's edge in overall record (the most important part of the ranking matrix). If there's any requests for it I'll post the whole matrix up, but for right now, here's the rankings (with ranking "point totals")

NFL RANKINGS -- The Top Ten:
1. Kansas City (49)
2. Tennessee (45)
3. New England (35)
4. Dallas (30)
5t. Indianapolis (25)
5t. Philadelphia (25)
7. St. Louis (23)
8. Carolina (22)
9. New Orleans (18)
10. San Francisco (17)

NFL RANKINGS -- The Also-Rans:
11. Seattle (16)
12t. Baltimore (15)
12t. Cincinnati (15)
14. Miami (13)
15. Green Bay (11)
16t. Minnesota (10)
16t. Tampa Bay (10)
16t. Denver (10)
19. New York Giants (8)
20. Arizona (4)
21t. Buffalo (3)
21t. Washington (3)
21t. Chicago (3)
21t. Pittsburgh (3)

NFL RANKINGS -- The Dregs:
25t. New York Jets (2)
25t. Houston (2)
27. Cleveland (-1)
28t. Jacksonville (-2)
28t. San Diego (-2)
30. Detroit (-3)
31t. Atlanta (-11)
31t. Oakland (-11)

[Hostrauser]

To try to eliminate a few of the ties in the rankings I implemented a tie-breaker. Only one tie breaker was applied: overall record.

NFL RANKINGS -- The Top Ten:
1. Tennessee (45)
2. Kansas City (44)
3. New England (43)
4. Philadelphia (31)
5t. Carolina (30)
5t. Indianapolis (30)
7. St. Louis (24)
8. San Francisco (24)
9. Seattle (22)
10. Cincinnati (22)

NFL RANKINGS -- The Also-Rans:
11. Dallas (21)
12. Miami (20)
13. New Orleans (19)
14. Green Bay (18)
15. Denver (17)
16. Baltimore (17)
17. Houston (12)
18. Tampa Bay (11)
19. Cleveland (9)
20. Washington (8)
21. Buffalo (6)
22. New York Giants (3)

NFL RANKINGS -- The Dregs:
23. Chicago (2)
24. New York Jets (1)
25. Jacksonville (1)
26. Minnesota (0)
27. Oakland (0)
28. Pittsburgh (-1)
29. Detroit (-3)
30. Atlanta (-6)
31. Arizona (-8)
32. San Diego (-11)

Stat of the Week:
Over the past four games, Minnesota and Philadelphia shared the easiest schedule in the NFL. Each of their last four opponents' combined records is 14-26. Philadelphia went 4-0, Minnesota went 0-4. (Going 0-4 against some of the NFL's worst teams is a big reason why Minnesota plummetted all the way to #26 this week)

[Hostrauser]

It's a close race at the top. A lot of teams have a valid argument to be the best in the NFL. Once again, to try to eliminate a few of the ties in the rankings I implemented a tie-breaker. Only one tie breaker was applied: overall record. This will become the standard method of breaking ties.

NFL RANKINGS -- The Top Ten:
1. Kansas City (48)
2. New England (46)
3. Tennessee (42)
4. Philadelphia (39)
5. Dallas (36)
6. Indianapolis (35)
7t. St. Louis (29)
7t. Carolina (29)
9. Green Bay (29)
10. Miami (26)

NFL RANKINGS -- The Also-Rans:
11. Seattle (23)
12. Cincinnati (23)
13. Baltimore (22)
14. San Francisco (18)
15. Denver (16)
16. Houston (15)
17. New Orleans (14)
18. Tampa Bay (12)
19. Minnesota (11)
20. Cleveland (11)
21. Chicago (10)
22. Washington (8)

NFL RANKINGS -- The Dregs:
23. Pittsburgh (7)
24. New York Jets (6)
25. Buffalo (5)
26. Oakland (3)
27. Detroit (1)
28. Jacksonville (1)
29. Atlanta (-2)
30. New York Giants (-4)
31. Arizona (-8)
32. San Diego (-9)

Stats of the Week:
Easiest schedules over past four games (with opponents' combined records):
1. Tennessee (13-31) (Won 4, Lost 0)
2. Minnesota (14-30) (Won 1, Lost 3)
3t. Kansas City (17-27) (Won 3, Lost 1)
3t. Philadelphia (17-27) (Won 4, Lost 0)
3t. Indianapolis (17-27) (Won 3, Lost 1)
3t. Seattle (17-27) (Won 2, Lost 2)

Hardest schedules over past four games (with opponents' combined records):
1. Buffalo (31-13) (Won 0, Lost 4)
2t. Miami (28-16) (Won 2, Lost 2)
2t. Jacksonville (28-16) (Won 1, Lost 3)
4t. Houston (27-17) (Won 2, Lost 2)
4t. Washington (27-17) (Won 1, Lost 3)

[Personal]

YES!! Green Bay finally made it int the top ten. I mean they have a great past couple of weeks. I am proud of where they have gone. I hope that they can keep up the winning. They might actually make it into the playoffs this year.

[formermarcher]

YES!! Green Bay finally made it int the top ten. I mean they have a great past couple of weeks. I am proud of where they have gone. I hope that they can keep up the winning. They might actually make it into the playoffs this year.

Cowboys are higher...Cowboys *will* make the playoffs...
Wouldn't that be something special for those die-hard Dallas fans who have had to endure years of taunting and booing...they might make the playoffs...they might *win* the NFC East...
This season is for the fans!