NFL Power Ranks: Week 12

The big story of week 12 was the Saints' crushing defeat of New England on Monday Night Football. I never thought I would see the day where the Saints started a season 11-0. The Patriots' loss knocked them back 4 spots to #8, allowing the Chargers to move up to #4, while the quietly hot Packers moved up 3 spots to #5. Yep, the Pack have won 3 games in a row to improve to 7-4, and they've been doing it with a lot of offense and are excellent at hanging on to the ball (#1 in the NFL in turnover ratio).

The Bottom 5 did what they usually do, lost, and stayed put. In an interesting side note, the Bears, who I picked to win the NFC this year, are just barely outside the bottom 5 now.

The big gainers this week were the Falcons, who broke free of mediocrity on the winning side, despite some big injuries that will probably affect them in the coming weeks, and the 49ers, who got a huge win over the Jaguars and are still alive in the NFC Playoff picture. The big losers this week were the Dolphins, who basically let Terrell Owens knock them out of the playoffs.

I'm not sure if anyone out there noticed the NFL's interesting scheduling quirk in Weeks 10 and 11, and I forgot to mention it in last week's post. In a one-week span from Monday, November 16 to Monday, November 23, each of the 4 teams that moved away only to have a new team replace them in that city in the past 25 years played in their old city, and the team that moved won all 4 games. On the 16th, the Ravens beat the Browns in Cleveland. On the 22nd, the Colts beat the Ravens in Baltimore, and the Cardinals beat the Rams in St. Louis. On the 23rd, the Titans beat the Texans in Houston. There is always a lot of emotion when a team that moves comes back as a road team, so its interesting that the NFL packed all 4 games into a single week.

Projected Playoff Matchups
NFC
First Round Byes: #2 Saints, #3 Vikings
#9 Eagles @ #7 Cowboys
#5 Packers @ #11 Cardinals
Top 3 Out: #12 Falcons, #16 49ers, #18 Giants

AFC
First Round Byes: #1 Colts, #4 Chargers
#10 Ravens @ #8 Patriots
#13 Jaguars @ #6 Bengals
Top 3 Out: #14 Titans, #15 Broncos, #17 Texans

Full Ranks:
1. Colts - 87.68 - Even
2. Saints - 84.13 - Even
3. Vikings - 82.51 - Even
4. Chargers - 74.93 - +1
5. Packers - 68.61 - +3
6. Bengals - 67.96 - Even
7. Cowboys - 66.70 - Even
8. Patriots - 65.61 - -4
9. Eagles - 61.48 - Even
10. Ravens - 59.96 - +1
11. Cardinals - 58.62 - -1
12. Falcons - 55.19 - +6
13. Jaguars - 54.45 - -1
14. Titans - 54.16 - +1
15. Broncos - 52.38 - +4
16. 49ers - 50.37 - +6
17. Texans - 48.44 - -4
18. Giants - 48.13 - -1
19. Steelers - 47.85 - -3
20. Dolphins - 46.29 - -6
21. Jets - 44.18 - -1
22. Seahawks - 41.51 - +5
23. Bills - 39.59 - +3
24. Chiefs - 36.47 - -3
25. Panthers - 32.89 - -1
26. Redskins - 32.50 - -1
27. Bears - 30.21 - -4
28. Raiders - 27.29 - Even
29. Lions - 23.71 - Even
30. Buccaneers - 23.51 - Even
31. Rams - 20.60 - Even
32. Browns - 15.19 - Even