I hope all of the readers enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. Before I get into the Week 16 NFL power ranks, I’d just like to further elaborate on my pick of Purdue in the Motor City Bowl. I have to deal with Michiganders a lot at work, and I heard a lot of comments on how this game would be so close because of CMU’s “dynamic” spread offense. I just couldn’t understand this. Strategy will get you nowhere if there is a huge gap in talent like there is between these two teams. I definitely agree that Purdue’s coaches lack some intelligence, but once again Purdue is passing all over Central Michigan just as they did a few months ago solely based on the fact that their players have more talent. As I type this, Purdue just took a 27-6 lead and its still in the first half.
In the NFL, as we head into this final week, we have a new team in the top 5: the Chargers. They have quietly risen among the NFL elite over the past few weeks and capitalized on the Packers blowout loss to the Bears. Even though the Colts still at #1 is probably a glaring mistake in these ranks, all 12 of the playoff teams are currently in the top 13 spots, with only Minnesota still hanging on at #12 ahead of Tampa, who had an ugly loss to San Francisco this week. The bottom 5 remained unchanged. The biggest gainers this week were the Redskins, whose win over the Vikings put them in the drivers seat for a playoff spot, and the Giants, who clinched a playoff spot with a 4th quarter surge. The biggest losers were the Vikings, who blew a chance to clinch a playoff spot and now are at the mercy of Washington having to lose to a Dallas team with nothing to play for; the Browns, who also gave up their playoff spot to the Titans and now must rely on the Colts (who also have nothing to play for) beating the Titans to get in; and the Buccaneers, who lost to the Feisty-Niners, who can now play spoilers to the Browns next week. Here are the ranks…
1. Colts – 85.39 – Even
2. Patriots – 83.83 – Even
3. Cowboys – 74.29 – +1
4. Jaguars – 74.10 – +1
5. Chargers – 67.66 – +2
6. Packers – 66.71 – -3
7. Giants – 63.77 – +5
8. Seahawks – 61.51 – +2
9. Titans – 61.15 – +4
10. Redskins – 60.48 – +6
11. Steelers – 60.45 – -2
12. Vikings – 60.23 – -6
13. Buccaneers – 55.79 – -5
14. Eagles – 54.77 – +3
15. Texans – 53.10 – Even
16. Browns – 51.93 – -5
17. Saints – 45.92 – -3
18. Bengals – 45.89 – +2
19. Cardinals – 45.74 – +3
20. Bills – 43.46 – -2
21. Bears – 43.04 – Even
22. Panthers – 42.33 – -3
23. Lions – 40.10 – +2
24. 49ers – 37.47 – +2
25. Broncos – 34.40 – -1
26. Raiders – 30.54 – -3
27. Jets – 30.03 – Even
28. Rams – 28.18 – Even
29. Ravens – 26.69 – Even
30. Chiefs – 24.76 – Even
31. Dolphins – 22.20 – Even
32. Falcons – 20.28 – Even
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