Our 2nd #1 vs. #2 battle of the young season was decided once again in favor of the #2 team. However, unlike last time, when the #2 Vikings beat the #1 49ers, the #2 team was not leapfrogged by a team ranked below them. This means your new #1 team is none other than the New Orleans Saints. The Giants’ loss caused them to fall to #6, and allowed each of the remaining 4 unbeaten teams to rise one spot. Speaking of unbeatens, Purdue QBs are now 16-0 this season, 11-0 as starters. The Falcons, who have 2 nice wins in the past 2 weeks, jumped ahead of the Giants for the #5 spot, and the Patriots destruction of the Oilers moved them up to #7, and back in the pack with the elite teams. I guess the Titans must have had a bye this week…
For the bottom 5, there isn’t much to talk about. The Bucs, Rams, and Titans all suck pretty hard, and the Chiefs climbed up 3 spots by getting their first win over the Redskins. They are replaced in the bottom by the Browns. Maybe the most surprising thing this week is the Raiders’ shocking win over the Eagles got them nowhere, but do I still feel they are a bottom 5 team? Probably.
The big gainers this week were the Cardinals for destroying a division rival and moving into tie or first, and Jaguars…which really confuses me since they beat the Rams. The biggest losers were the Ravens, who have lost 3 straight, and the Bengals, who got a reality check care of Houston (the Oilers? These AFL uniforms have me confused…)
BOLD PREDICTION
I noticed when doing these ranks that this has been kind of a boring season so far. I think 5 of the 8 divisions are already in the bag, and some teams are just pure awful. We are only 6 weeks into the season, and I am going to make the following predictions based on these ranks:
1. The top 7 teams are in a league of their own, and are playoff locks
2. the Bottom 11 teams have no chance in hell of making the playoffs, and will continue to be trampled by the top 21 teams.
3. That leaves the remaining 14 teams to battle it out for the final 5 playoff spots. That’s what to look forward to for the rest of the regular season. So using these criteria, in the NFC, the Vikings, Giants, and either Saints or Falcons are winning the division, with the other getting the Wild Card. That means either the 49ers or Cardinals win the west, and the last wild card spot is a fight between the Packers, Bears, Eagles, and Cowboys. In the AFC, the Colts, Broncos, and Patriots are winning the division. The AFC North will be a battle between the Bengals, Steelers, and Ravens, and 2 of those teams will battle it out with the Jaguars, Texans, Dolphins, Jets, and Chargers for the 2 wild card spots.
Here are the complete ranks:
1. Saints – 87.58 – +1
2. Vikings – 83.93 – +1
3. Colts – 83.44 – +1
4. Broncos – 82.61 – +1
5. Falcons – 73.82 – +2
6. Giants – 72.75 – -5
7. Patriots – 72.26 – +5
8. Packers – 64.37 – +3
9. Bears – 61.90 – Even
10. Eagles – 60.49 – -2
11. Cardinals – 59.11 – +7
12. Bengals – 58.95 – -6
13. Steelers – 58.82 – +3
14. 49ers – 55.64 – -1
15. Cowboys – 55.04 – -1
16. Jaguars – 50.93 – +7
17. Texans – 50.40 – +5
18. Ravens – 49.47 – -8
19. Dolphins – 45.91 – +1
20. Jets – 43.96 – -5
21. Chargers – 41.98 – -4
22. Seahawks – 39.45 – -1
23. Panthers – 36.48 – +3
24. Redskins – 36.30 – +5
25. Bills – 34.49 – +2
26. Chiefs – 32.58 – +3
27. Lions – 29.80 – -3
28. Raiders – 29.37 – Even
29. Browns – 25.82 – -4
30. Buccaneers – 18.20 – Even
31. Titans – 12.62 – Even
32. Rams – 10.05 – Even
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