I was recently listening to a podcast (no free plugs) and they talked about how Power Rankings don’t provide really much value and are somewhat meaningless because they are just another variation of current standings. While I find some merit to their argument, I disagree with a few things about it. One, I think it is important to having a ranking system of all teams besides just records week to week because there is so much more that goes into overall Power Rankings besides just overall records. This is because every team with the same record has a different story to tell. For example, the Bengals after this week have the same record as the Patriots, but I don’t think anyone would say the Bengals are as good as the Patriots after the Pats were able to beat the Chiefs on Sunday night. In addition, standings do not take injuries and suspensions into account. Like last week when the Falcons lost to the Steelers, they were missing three key defenders which helped contribute to their loss and made them 1-4. The standings suggest they are one of the worst teams in the NFL, but if you Power Rank and take into account their roster, game situations, and other factors all of the sudden they are a middle of the road team instead of the one of the worst. I do concede the point though that Power Rankings technically do not mean anything since they have no implications on playoff seeding, draft positions, etc.; but I think they are an important exercise that one can use to determine who they think is the leagues' best team and who is simply having a hot week.
So, since Power Rankings are an exercise, I figured I should stretch it to its limits. I should really see what I can do by making Power Rankings of everything in every game. I think it's time for a Power Rankingception (Power Rankings within Power Rankings, you know? Like Inception). How meaningless can we make these rankings? I think we should find out! I also want to try something different this week. I will be grouping by team based on who they played this week. That way I can give those teams credit for playing good teams and discredit those playing bad teams. On top of that it is just another way to spice up the rankings and make some changes. So to begin, let's start with Thursday Night:
My Power Rankings for Night Time Pro Football are as follows:
Sunday Night
Monday Night
Thursday Night
Saturday Night
Thursday night has been pretty decent this year, but the most recent one was real bad. Saturday seems pointless and takes away from more games on Sunday. I simply can't be in favor of that.
Now the games and rankings:
26. Seattle Seahawks and 32. Oakland Raiders, across the pond. I know that the NFL is popular in London and almost every game the NFL sends over there is a sellout, but can we please send them better ones? The Raiders couldn’t even muster a touchdown as their offense was beaten off the field. Derek Carr was injured and Amari Cooper was knocked out via concussion in the 2nd quarter. On the other side of the ball, the Seahawks offense looked like the British fleet in the 1800s as Russell Wilson sailed his team to victory in Wembley. Greatest Navy fleets in history are as follows.
USA Navy (modern day)
Chinese Navy (1430 AD)
British Royal Navy (1812)
Persian Naval Fleet under Alexander the Great
8. Philadelphia Eagles at 30. New York Giants. This game was reminiscent of old Thursday Night games. No color rush, no fun, big blowout. It also helped bring us back down to Earth and realize that the Eagles are in fact good. When they play a bad team they can turn on the gas and really run them off the field. The Giants also reminded us they are bad and filled with drama. Also it proves that many of us will be willing to hate on Odell Beckham Jr no matter what. He left the 1st half 10 seconds early to receive an IV and the media ripped him. This game reminded me that the Giants are bad at the Eagles are good. Not great, but certainly good.
9. Jacksonville Jaguars at 20. Dallas Cowboys. Before you ask the question, let me just tell you the answer is RPO (run/pass option). The Cowboys implemented this into their offense on Sunday and it gave Prescott a new dimension to his game as he was able to be mobile and constantly keep the threat of Ezekiel Elliot running alive. My only question is why was this not implemented sooner and will they implement it again? My next question is: what happened to Jacksonville? We expect their offense to be problematic (it was again), but not their defense! I think their struggles are a combination of two things. The first is that they have played on the road two games in a row which is always hard and exhausting for a team. Second, I think they can only play so well when their offense is this out of sync. It is demoralizing to try to get stops every single drive when you know your offense probably wont help you by scoring in return. I think the poor offense by the Jags two weeks in a row now helped beat them as much as the Cowboys' offense did. One last note: the Jags need Leonard Fournette back because he helps take pressure off of Bortles and the passing game.
30. Arizona Cardinals at 10. Minnesota Vikings. According to FOX the Vikings didn’t have their first rushing touchdown until Latavius Murray ran for a 25 yard touchdown on Sunday. How is that possible? Good thing Adam Thielen is the best receiver ever or else they wouldn’t have any offensive game. It's also fitting that Cousins also ran for a touchdown. They scored more rushing touchdowns today than they had all season! This was the first week I think that Rosen didn’t look that good. He had a good completion percentage, but he just couldn’t move the chains and convert on third down when they needed him most. That will come with time so I am not worried about him.
6. Los Angeles Chargers at 21. Cleveland Browns. The Chargers marched down field the first drive of the game and that basically sealed the game. This was the first game all year that I actually felt like the Browns couldn’t keep close! Which they didn’t. I still think the Browns are good, they just played a team whose defense has been playing at an elite level. Last week the Chargers limited the Raiders to 10 points and this week the Browns to 14 (6 points through 3 quarters). Yes, both of these teams have below average defenses, but this is exactly how a great defense should handle offenses. They should dominate them. This game also had some fun moments (not really) if you're a Browns fan, including (Power Ranking time):
Baker Mayfield injuring his ankle.
Baker then getting sacked on back to back plays post injury.
Jamie Collins getting blocked by Phil Rivers as Melvin Gordon ran for miles on the Browns' defense.
Also Baker missed a receiver deep on a Flea Flicker play that could have changed the momentum of the game
15. Carolina Panthers at 16. Washington Redskins. These are teams both destined to be .500 at the end of the season. They both love losing to good teams and enjoy barely beating mediocre to bad teams (this game was an example of that). This was a win that Carolina needed too. They play at Philly, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and in Pittsburgh over the next four weeks. Washington can just beat up on the NFC East in the meantime. Overall, I have no feel for either of these teams: At the top of these rankings are the:
Carolina Panthers
Washington Redskins (duh)
Tennessee Titans
Cincinnati Bengals
29. Buffalo Bills at 17. Houston Texans. I am going to say it. This may not be a popular opinion (actually it is), but Nathan Peterman is probably the worst QB in the history of the NFL. This year he has a 37% completion percentage and has a 3/11 touchdown to interception ratio. Both of these things are bad and now the Texans look like a good team because they beat the Bills. The Bills lost Josh Allen who was bound to get hurt this year because of the bad offensive line so their season is worse than it was projected to be already. One positive I took away from the Texans' performance was that Watson had more time to throw this week and wasn’t killed every play like last week. A step in the right direction I'd say. Now for the Power Ranking of steps:
The Right Step
Step Up 2: The Streets
1 Step Forward
2 Steps Back
22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 25. Atlanta Falcons. Winston had a good return start this week and the Bucs almost knocked off the Falcons to start a Winstmagic run! The Falcons did enough to win this one though as Julio Jones caught basically every big pass before another receiver caught the touchdown pass. On three separate drives, Julio Jones made the big catch and play before someone beside him scored the touchdown. He is number 2 in receiving yards at 707 yards with no touchdowns this year. That must be some record right? It is:
27. Indianapolis Colts at 24. New York Jets. I don’t really want to talk about the Colts here because they did the same thing that they do every week: compete hard, cause turnovers, have turnovers, and lose a close one. I think it is time to figure out how good Darnold is compared to other Jets' Quarterbacks. Not any QB though. The one who is the close, natural comparison: his Southern California brother, Mark Sanchez. Let's look at their numbers:
Clearly Darnold is better 6 weeks in. Their records are the same and only thing Sanchez had more of was attempts (somehow?). The difference is that we know Sanchez went with the Jets to the AFC title game in 2009 and I don’t see the Jets doing that this year. And if they do, is Darnold just Sanchez 2.0?
13. Pittsburgh Steelers and 7. Cincinnati Bengals. There are a couple things I learned from this game. The Bengals are pretty good, their biggest problem is that Big Ben owns them at home. He is 13-2 in Cincinnati and if he wins two more games he will officially own the franchise. James Connor had a big week as well and LeVeon Bell is once again on the outside looking in. AJ Green is also really good at catching the football in case that was ever in doubt again. For this game I have two Power Ranks, first best receivers:
Deandre Hopkins
AJ Green
Antonio Brown
Julio Jones
Second rankings, players who own opposing franchises:
Tom Brady and the Colts
LeBron James and the Raptors
Ben Roethlisberger and the Bengals
1. Los Angeles Rams at 19. Denver Broncos. The Rams keep getting tested each week and the Rams keep winning. The Rams once again proved their the best team in the NFL as they won another tough game on the road against a good defense. The Broncos had a good game offensively, but the big biggest difference was the level of offense on the Rams' side. Gurley proved once again that he's unstoppable and the best Runningback in the NFL (he ran for a career high 208 yards).
28. San Francisco 49ers at 12. Green Bay Packers. Redemption! Mason Crosby knocked down the clutch game winner (technically closer than an extra point) after missing 4 field goals last week. Aaron Rodgers kept the Packers in the game early as this game had all the makings of a shoot out after a 24-21 first half finish. He also masterfully engineering the final drive of the game to set up Crosby for the game winner. Their defense was still bad, but at least they are winning games now. San Francisco is doing a good job of hanging in these games, but they don’t have the talent to win. However, they have played well on their first of five upcoming nationally televised games. If they can keep this up we well hopefully get some exciting primetime games without Jimmy G.
11. Chicago Bears at 14. Miami Dolphins. Besides the Chiefs/Patriots, this was the best game of the day on Sunday. The first half was pretty boring but the second half featured a combined 52 points and an overtime game winning field goal. Unless your name was Jordan Howard or Kenyan Drake, every offensive player had a pretty good day! Osweiler, in for injured Tannehill had the best game of his career and Trubisky just couldn’t make plays when they needed him to. It seemed like either he wasn’t aggressive enough to win or the Bears play calling wasn’t aggressive enough to let him throw deep. Perhaps it was a combination of the two. I was high on the Bears two weeks ago, but they disappointed me today. If they want to be taken seriously as a team that can win the NFC North this year then they need to win games like these on the road.
4. Kansas City Chiefs at 2. New England Patriots. This game was far and away the best game of the day. This was a classic Big-12 shootout as we saw Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes put on their best shows that they could. In addition: Gronk had an iconic stiff arm, Tyreke Hill ran faster than life itself and then was flipped off by Patriots fans, and Gostkowski knocked down a game winning field goal. I really hope these two teams face again in the playoffs because this was a regular season classic.
Didn't play this week: Saints and Lions
Thank you for reading the Rankings of Rankings! In case you didn't notice, the games were ranked too. Read again to find out where your team fell!
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