NFL Power Rankings (After Week 12)


Other than the San Francisco 49ers' pounding of the Green Bay Packers, not a whole lot to talk about in this Top 10 again. The Top 4 are the same, New Orleans re-enters the Top 5, Green Bay slips back to No. 8 and Houston and Kansas City re-enters the Top 10.

 1. (1 last week) Baltimore (9-2): So after throwing for five touchdowns in that 45-6 rout of the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night, Lamar Jackson is not only the front-runner for the Most Valuable Player honor, but he's also the closest thing to the invention of sliced bread. He's having a special year.

2. (2) Seattle (9-2): Let's not forget about Russell Wilson. He's having a special year, too, even if he was just 13-of-25 passing with an interception, but he threw for 200 yards and a touchdown in a 17-9 win over Philadelphia. The Seahawks fought off the Eagles and weather elements last Sunday.

3. (3) San Francisco (10-1): Jimmy Garoppolo was Jimmy G. again, going 14-for-20 passing for 253 yards with two TDs, but more importantly, he had tight end George Kittle (six catches, 129 yards, one TD) back. This team is electrifying when all goes well.

4. (4) New England (10-1): The Patriots may have some concerns with their offense, but the Dallas Cowboys defense is pretty good like the Eagles' defense the week before. The weather conditions weren't all that good, either, but they outlasted the Cowboys, 13-9. Two horrible tripping calls against the Cowboys didn't hurt the Pats either.

5. (6) New Orleans (9-2): The Saints have been recovering well since that embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Carolina pushed the Saints as far as they could before Will Lutz's game-winning field goal at the gun decided matters on Sunday, 34-31. But the Saints have the Falcons again, this time in Atlanta on Thursday night. Will revenge take place this time?

6. (7) Minnesota (8-3): Whatever faults these Vikings may have, they have overcome them nicely. They won last week nicely -- they had a bye week. But now comes the challenge of heading to the Pacific Northwest for a Monday night game with the No. 2 Seahawks.

7. (8) Buffalo (8-3): The Bills' defense has been the star for most of the season. They made Brandon Allen's life miserable on Sunday with an interception and holding him to 82 yards passing. Meanwhile, the other Allen at QB in the game, Josh Allen was 15-of-25 for 182 yards and two TDs in beating the Denver Broncos. They get the late afternoon Thanksgiving game in Dallas against the Cowboys.

8. (5) Green Bay (8-3): The Packers sure had a bad week by the city by the bay against the 49ers in a 37-8 loss. Now they have to pick up the pieces and move on this week to New Jersey to face off with the miserable New York Giants.

9. (NEW) Houston (7-4): After getting reamed the week before by the hot Ravens, the Texans bounced back at home with a come-from-behind victory over the feisty Colts. Deshaun Watson threw for 298 yards and a late-game touchdown to DeAndre Hopkins. The Texans will be tasked with a Sunday night home game matchup with the No. 4 Patriots.

10 (NEW) Kansas City (7-4): The Chiefs started out 4-0, then struggled with three wins in the last seven games, but may have -- may have is the operative term -- found themselves in a 24-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers as Chargers QB Philip Rivers was finding every Chiefs' defensive secondary member with interceptions. The Chiefs have the rival Oakland Raiders at home Sunday.

Bye-bye baby, baby goodbye: Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NFL Power Rankings (After Week 14)

Image
Pittsburgh and Tennessee are back in the Top 10. Green Bay, Kansas City and Minnesota move back up in the Top 10. Buffalo stays in the Top 10 despite a loss. Seattle and New Orleans remain in the Top 5 though they lost, too. But the biggest story is who ISN'T in the Top 10 this week – for the first time in a long, long time, the New England Patriots do not reside in the Top 10 after back-to-back losses to Houston and Kansas City. It's odd without them here. And Baltimore makes it five straight weeks at No. 1 in the NFL Power Rankings. Here's that Top 10 list going into Week 15: 1. (1 last week) Baltimore (11-2): The Buffalo Bills hit the Ravens in the mouth and all the Ravens did was smirk back. The Ravens handled their business, 24-17, as Lamar Jackson threw for 145 yards and three touchdown passes and ran over the 1,000-yard mark for the season. The Ravens have won a franchise-record nine straight games and look formidable. 2 (3) San Francisco (12-1): It is u...
Read more

NFL Power Rankings (After Week 15)

Image
Another week went by and not a whole lot happened except Seattle and San Francisco swapped spots on the dance floor and New England reappeared at No. 9 as did Houston at No. 10, while Tennessee and Pittsburgh waved bye-bye to us. And in other news, Baltimore is No. 1 in the power rankings for the sixth consecutive week. Here's the rankings: 1 (1 last week) Baltimore (12-2): Ravens spoke early in the Week 15 competition with a resounding 42-21 Thursday win over the New York Jets. Business as usual. 2 (3) Seattle (11-3): The Seahawks had a nice bounce-back win after the loss to the Los Angeles Rams and took care of the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte. Setting up for the second Seattle-San Fran game rather soon. 3 (2) San Francisco (12-2): The 49ers couldn't hang on at the end of the game last Sunday against Atlanta. How that works against them going forward remains to be seen. This week, it's the Saturday night special with the Rams. Next week, it's the finale...
Read more

NFL Power Rankings (After Week 6)

Image
The top of the NFL Power Rankings remains the same in the three places: No. 1 New England (6-0), No. 2 New Orleans (5-1) and No. 3 San Francisco (5-0). After that, teams move up (with the exception of the flailing Kansas City Chiefs at No. 10). The big movers belong to the Seattle Seahawks at No. 5 and the Carolina Panthers at No. 7, both up three spots. Here's my rankings after the sixth week of the season. 1. (1 last week) New England Patriots (6-0): The New York Giants, rejuvenated and all, gave the Patriots a dance or two in the first half. Then they got exhausted from doing the Fonz's Kazatsky dance to "Hava Nagila" and hit the floor hard ("Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah!"). The Patriots just march to their own beat. 2. (2) New Orleans Saints (5-1): The Saints came upon a tough defense in the Jacksonville Jaguars. Still, the Jaguars have struggled on offense and the Saints' defense is a unit that isn't quite talked about enough. Saints were 1...
Read more