NFL Power Ranks: Week 13

In case you were curious, this is what happens when the #2 team plays the #32 team (listen closely). It’s pretty hard to disagree with LenDale though…

Unlucky Week 13 was the end of the Jets’ 2 week run in the top 5 in the soaking wet Meadowlands. Favre and the boys gave up the #3 spot to Tampa, who rose 1 spot as they improved to 9-3. Relatively impressive wins by Carolina and Baltimore caused them over to leap over the relatively unimpressive Colts, who won this week despite not scoring an offensive TD. Maybe this is a good sign for the Colts though, since their fall from the top 5 wasn’t a violent drop like the rest of the their crazy ride through the ranks has been this year. The Giants and Titans remain the dominant forces in the NFL, keeping their strangelhold on the top 2 spots.

Congratulations to the San Francisco Bay Area. This is the first time since Week 5 that neither the 49ers or Raiders are in the bottom 5. The 49ers surprising win at Buffalo (the first win by a pacific time zone team in the eastern time zone) moved them up to #27 while the Raiders remained in #26 despite an awful loss to the Cheifs. The Chiefs did manage to rise 2 spots to #28 while the Bengals fell to #29 and the Seahawks to #30. The Rams and Lions…..wow…..horrible

The biggest gainers this week were Philadelphia, who got a nice win over Arizona to stay in the playoff hunt, Minnesota, who surged into 1st place in the NFC North, and Houston, who is playing pretty well a little too late. The biggest losers were the Jets, who came back to reality, and lost to a team that is only in first by default. Speaking of teams in first by default, the Cardinals dropped 4 spots.

Here are the projected playoff matchups:
NFC
1st Round Byes: #1 Giants, #3 Buccaneers
#4 Panthers @ #16 Cardinals
#8 Falcons @ #13 Vikings
Top 3 out of playoffs: #10 Cowboys, #12 Eagles, #15 Saints

AFC
1st Round Byes: #2 Titans, #5 Ravens
#6 Colts @ #18 Broncos
#7 Steelers @ #9 Jets
Top 3 out of playoffs: #11 Dolphins, #14 Patriots, #21 Texans

The Full Ranks:
1. Giants – 88.13 – Even
2. Titans – 80.64 – Even
3. Buccaneers – 74.58 – +1
4. Panthers – 71.45 – +2
5. Ravens – 69.95 – +3
6. Colts – 69.61 – -1
7. Steelers – 67.66 – +2
8. Falcons – 66.80 – -1
9. Jets – 64.44 – -6
10. Cowboys – 63.37 – +3
11. Dolphins – 62.04 – -1
12. Eagles – 57.48 – +5
13. Vikings – 57.41 – +5
14. Patriots – 53.27 – -3
15. Saints – 52.48 – Even
16. Cardinals – 50.99 – -4
17. Redskins – 50.81 – -3
18. Broncos – 47.90 – +4
19. Bears – 46.42 – -3
20. Packers – 45.16 – -1
21. Texans – 43.15 – +5
22. Browns – 42.97 – -1
23. Bills – 42.90 – -3
24. Chargers – 36.93 – Even
25. Jaguars – 36.51 – -2
26. Raiders – 32.72 – -1
27. 49ers – 31.83 – +1
28. Cheifs – 29.09 – +2
29. Bengals – 27.59 – -2
30. Seahawks – 19.60 – -1
31. Rams – 14.32 – Even
32. Lions – 10.56 – Even