NFL Computerized Power Ranks: Final

The 9-7 Giants are your Super Bowl Champions in a season where mediocrity ruled and the only theoretically good team, the Packers, showed their flawed defense was flawed enough to not win it all. Just think, the Super Bowl loser, the 13-3 Patriots, only beat ONE team with a winning record all season, the Ravens, in the AFC Championship game, thanks to a missed field goal.

So yes, the Giants are the champions, but who do the power ranks say the best team is?

drum roll....

It's the San Francisco 49ers. As a fan, it both hurts to see them end up as #1 without a Super Bowl title but also makes me feel good about their chances in the coming years. The Patriots loss in the Super Bowl knocked them out of the top spot, moving up the Niners. The Giants passed the Ravens for #3, but their 9-7 record made it basically impossible to catch either of the 13-3 teams that at least made it to their conference championship games.

The power ranks did pretty poorly predicting playoff game results this year, going only 6-5. In contrast, my randomly picking dog also went 6-5 and my 4 month old son went 7-4 by correctly picking the Giants in the Super Bowl. If nothing else, the playoffs were fun for watching his motor skills develop as he tried to pick up the helmets with his hands.

Here are the final ranks:

Way to go, Giants

As a writer of things sport related, I feel obligated to commend the New York Giants on their Super Bowl victory. So, congratulations on being tremendously lucky. Congratulations on having your mediocre season excused by playing in such a miserable division. Congratulations on catching Aaron Rodgers in the midst of his worst performance of the season. Congratulations on sneaking past the 49ers because of a couple of muffed punts. Congratulations on normally sure handed receivers dropping passes.
Congratulations on winning the Super Bowl. You really earned it.

NFL Computerized Power Ranks: Conference Championships

The AFC and NFC Championship games seem like ancient history now don't they? I'm not even that mad at Kyle Williams anymore. As both a White Sox and 49ers fan, the Williams family is destroying my fun as a sports fan (Kyle is White Sox GM Kenny Williams son, if you didn't know). Kyle fumbles away a trip to a Super Bowl, Kenny signs Adam Dunn to a long term contract. Fun, huh?

Anyway, I couldn't hate this Super Bowl matchup more. New York vs. Boston? Great. Plus we are dealing with an unbelievable amount of hate-ability and arrogance here. I don't even need to talk about Brady and the Patriots, and the Giants have got to be the most overconfident 9-7 team of all time, don't they? Plus, Eli Manning is technically the good guy here, but let's not forget that he and his dad threw a tantrum when the Chargers drafted him #1 over all, and his dad specifically wanted him to play for the Gaaaaahhhnts (stretch it out with a Mississippi accent). So yeah, Eli Manning is a douche too. But you know what, I'll watch it, because it's the Super Bowl. I've avoided as much of the hype as possible on TV, and it's felt great.

So let's just do the Power Rank picks right now. Last week, the ranks got the Patriots right but missed the 49ers, making the ranks a very average 6-4 in the playoffs. My 4 month old son also went 1-1 in the conference championships, so he is 6-4, and my dog went 0-2, so he is also 6-4. This week, my son picked the Giants and my dog picked the Patriots. The ranks pick...

#1 Patriots over #4 Giants

Not much of a surprise right?

Here are the full ranks:

I hate this Super Bowl

I hate the pending Super Bowl for three primary reasons. 1) The Patriots. 2) The Giants. 3) The Patriots playing the Giants. Oh? Expound? Surely.

1) As a Colts fan, the Patriots have been the biggest nemesis for the past decade or more. They are from Boston and were the first step in unleashing Boston sports arrogance to the masses. I mean, people used to LIKE Boston. Cheers! Now? Screw Boston. Screw the Patriots. Screw Tom Brady. Screw Bill Belichick. Screw their ruthless efficiency. I do not care for the New England Patriots.

2) Excuse me for saying it, but I am sick of the underdog. The underdog has lost it's luster, because in the NFL, the underdog wins a LOT. Look at the last 4 years. Three different times, a team that played Wild Card weekend made the Super Bowl, and twice, that team won. If the underdog can reach the Big Game 40% of the time, they aren't really an underdog, are they? And if they win that Super Bowl 2/3 times they make it, they aren't a freaking underdog! So I'm sorry, New York. You had a crappy season and got lucky in the end. That doesn't mean I can root for you.
Also, what about my being a Colts/Peyton Manning fan compels me to vote for Eli Manning? Just because Eli is Peyton's brother doesn't make him any less of a whiny twit who begged his way out of San Diego. What kind of douche wants to get out of San Diego?! You made Philip Rivers look good! So no, Eli, you and your Giants... no.

3) The networks really like to sell the Boston-New York rivalry when they get a chance, no matter the sport. It's compelling television, to be sure... if you are from Boston or New York. I'm sick of hearing about these teams. I feel ill that one of these two teams will be heralded as the best team in football all next season. I hate that the ticker tape parades and everything will last so much longer next year than they should, or at least, they will be covered in the media for much longer than they should be. I hate that this is a rematch, which is the most boring plot of any sporting event in the land. Just ask LSU and Alabama.

I hate this Super Bowl. But on the other hand, it's almost impossible for next year's game to be any worse than this. Bring on the bean dip!

NFL Power Ranks: Week 5

Week 5 was kind of a boring week for the top of the ranks. The 5 undefeated teams stayed undefeated, and in the Saints' case, they didn't even have to play. The Giants' gigantic win over the Raiders propelled them back into the #1 spot over those idle Saints, which sets up our 2nd #1 vs. #2 match-up of the season this weekend. The Vikings, Colts, and Broncos also won to hold their spots (a really nice win for the Broncos over the formerly #6 Patriots).

Since this is kind of a slow week, 1 thing that I would like to point out is that the 3 Purdue QBs that play in the NFL are a combined 14-0 to start the 2009 season, and as starters they are 9-0. Drew Brees (1997-2000) has been tearing it up for the Saints, leading them to a 4-0 record. Kyle Orton (2001-2004) has been doing what it takes to win big games, whether it be a miracle TD pass over the Bengals (who would be 5-0 if that didn't happen!!) or a 98 yard TD drive to beat the Patriots to lead the Broncos to a 5-0 record. Finally, Curtis Painter (2005-2008), who is the 3rd string QB for the Colts, has done absolutely nothing, maybe moral support?, to lead the Colts to a 5-0 record. Boiler Up!

There was a bit of a shakeup in the bottom 5, as the Browns won the ugliest game of the past quarter century to beat the Bills and the Panthers got their first win over the underrated awful Redskins (I'm disappointed the ranks haven't figured this out yet). These wins caused the Buccaneers and Raiders to fall back into the bottom 5. One thing you may notice in our logo box this week, is that I replaced the Bucs logo with their old flamboyant one from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. Their play on the field this year has really lived up to the tradition of that logo so I am going to leave it as that one until (if) they win a game. I can't wrap up this post without talking about the horrid Rams, who have only 9.17 out of a possible 100 points this week. This is about as low as any team could possibly get mathematically, we'll see if they can outdo themselves next week.

This week's big gainers were the Falcons, who blew out the 49ers in San Fran, the Bengals, who are a shocking 4-1 to climb all the way to #6, the Cardinals, who won on a nice goaline stand vs. Houston, and the Browns and Panthers, who climbed out of the dungeon. The big losers were the Jaguars, who got demolished by a bad team a week after demolishing a bad team and jumping too high in the ranks, the Patriots, who got beat by Kyle Orton, and the 49ers, who played a game outside the NFC West (eh...not feeling so good about this season now...).

Here are the full ranks:
1. Giants - 87.48 - +1
2. Saints - 86.78 - -1
3. Vikings - 86.77 - Even
4. Colts - 82.56 - Even
5. Broncos - 80.90 - Even
6. Bengals - 71.44 - +5
7. Falcons - 71.31 - +7
8. Eagles - 70.54 - +4
9. Bears - 68.10 - -1
10. Ravens - 60.29 - -1
11. Packers - 59.34 - +2
12. Patriots - 57.18 - -6
13. 49ers - 55.38 - -6
14. Cowboys - 54.67 - +1
15. Jets - 53.74 - -5
16. Steelers - 52.20 - +4
17. Chargers - 48.51 - Even
18. Cardinals - 47.28 - +5
19. Redskins - 47.07 - Even
20. Dolphins - 45.49 - +1
21. Seahawks - 44.90 - +4
22. Texans - 44.88 - -4
23. Jaguars - 43.18 - -7
24. Lions - 32.60 - -2
25. Browns - 28.87 - +5
26. Panthers - 26.64 - +5
27. Bills - 26.02 - -1
28. Raiders - 25.16 - -4
29. Chiefs - 21.11 - -1
30. Buccaneers - 16.70 - -3
31. Titans - 14.84 - -2
32. Rams - 9.17 - Even

NFL Power Rankings: Week 3

Eli and the boys in blue are back where they spent a few weeks early last season, the top of the computerized power rankings. Despite #2 Minnesota's last second win over #1 San Francisco, the formula was more impressed by the Giants shutout win over the Bucs, which caused them to leapfrog the Saints (who also won) and Vikings into the #1 spot. So far, I'd say the Giants deserve it, especially since the Vikings so far have beaten 3 times that combined to go 11-37 last year. The Vikings stay put at #2, while the Broncos, another team that hasn't beaten anyone that was even close to being good last year, move up 4 spots to #3. The Saints stayed even at #4, and the surprising 3-0 Jets move up to #5 after knocking off the free-falling Titans.

Around this time of year, the rankings really follow the standings pretty strongly. The 7 3-0 teams are in the top 7, the 9 2-1 teams follow, then you have the 9 1-2 teams, and finally the 7 0-3 teams. There is a pretty decent gap between each group of teams too. This is because the recent success stat hasn't kicked in yet since all games so far this season are recent, and the strength of schedule and divisional strength is not very well defined yet. There are also large gaps in winning percentage this early on that help split the teams more. As the season goes on, these gaps and the other stats will help the formula work its ranking magic...

The bad teams just keep getting worse. The formula must be pretty sure the Buccaneers are the 28th best team in the NFL, because that is exactly where they have been for the past 3 weeks. The Titans and Browns actually moved up this week because the Rams and Panthers were so awful that they dropped to #31 and #32, respectively.

This week's big winner was Dallas, who jumped 10 spots for whupping Carolina, while the Lions jumped 7 spots all the way to #20 for getting their first win in almost 2 years. On the flip side, the Falcons fell from #3 all the way to #15 after losing to New England, the Cardinals dropped 10 spots after being dominated at home by the Colts, and the 49ers dropped 9 spots to #10 after their narrow loss to the Vikings. Yes, the Lions are ranked above the Steelers.

Here are the complete ranks:
1. Giants - 82.28 - +4
2. Vikings - 79.38 - Even
3. Broncos - 78.82 - +4
4. Saints - 78.61 - Even
5. Jets - 77.85 - +1
6. Ravens - 77.71 - +2
7. Colts - 73.78 - +2
8. Packers - 69.85 - +3
9. Patriots - 66.34 - +1
10. 49ers - 64.16 - -9
11. Bengals - 60.86 - +2
12. Eagles - 60.19 - Even
13. Cowboys - 59.54 - +10
14. Chargers - 57.83 - +2
15. Falcons - 55.90 - -12
16. Bears - 54.85 - +6
17. Raiders - 41.85 - -3
18. Redskins - 41.78 - -1
19. Texans - 41.33 - +2
20. Lions - 41.25 - +2
21. Steelers - 40.73 - -1
22. Jaguars - 40.02 - +4
23. Bills - 39.75 - -5
24. Seahawks - 35.63 - -5
25. Cardinals - 33.66 - -10
26. Chiefs - 21.02 - +3
27. Dolphins - 18.91 - -3
28. Buccaneers - 17.76 - Even
29. Titans - 17.60 - +1
30. Browns - 15.65 - +2
31. Rams - 13.21 - -6
32. Panthers - 12.28 - -1

NFL Power Ranks: Week 12

The Titans aren't getting a break for getting their first loss of the season this week to the Jets. The Giants rocketed past them and now have a comfortable lead on the #1 spot. The G-Men just keep rolling after getting a pretty easy win over the surprising division leading Cardinals. The team that vanquished the Titans (last week's surprise #4...guess not too much of a surprise now), the Jets, have moved into the #3 spot with their huge win coupled with Carolina's loss to Atlanta. Carolina's loss dropped them into a tie for the division lead with Tampa Bay, who despite not having any strength of schedule help this week by beating Detroit, moved into the #4 spot.

The #5 team deserves their own paragraph: The Colts. They have had the craziest up and down season in these rankings. Their bad loss to the Bears in Week 1 started them at #29. They rose to #21 in week 2, but were back down to #28 after week 4. They then got hot and got all the way up to #6 after week 6, only to get cold again and drop all the way to #22 after week 8. Now they have looked good winning 4 in a row and have climbed all the way back to #5. In a way, this doesn't bode well for them, because they could be back around #20 by week 16 if they continue this trend.

The Bottom 5 still suck. Is there much more to talk about at this point? The Raiders nice win over the awful division leading Broncos moved them up 4 spots out of the bottom 5. Of course, they are replaced by that other bay area team, the 49ers.

There were no significant gainers this week. the Colts, Falcons, Steelers, Vikings, Bills, and Raiders all gained 4 positions, all for their dominant victories in Week 12. The Eagles and Packers were the big losers. The Eagles, who have always seemed to be inflated in these ranks this year, dropped 9 spots as their statistics finally are catching up to their quality of play on the field. The Packers huge loss to the Saints dropped them 7 spots and dealt a blow to their playoff hopes.

I'm going to start giving the power rank formula predicted playoff matchups each week for the rest of the year:

NFC
1st Round Byes: #1 Giants, #4 Buccaneers
#6 Panthers @ #16 Bears
#7 Falcons @ #12 Cardinals
Top 3 out of playoffs: #13 Cowboys, #14 Redskins, #15 Saints

AFC
1st Round Byes: #2 Titans, #3 Jets
#5 Colts @ #22 Broncos
#9 Steelers @ #8 Ravens
Top 3 out of playoffs: #10 Dolphins, #11 Patriots, #20 Bills

Here are the full ranks:
1. Giants - 87.62 - +1
2. Titans - 77.93 - -1
3. Jets - 74.40 - +1
4. Buccaneers - 68.94 - +2
5. Colts - 68.28 - +4
6. Panthers - 67.73 - -3
7. Falcons - 67.71 - +4
8. Ravens - 67.63 - +2
9. Steelers - 63.61 - +4
10. Dolphins - 60.93 - -5
11. Patriots - 60.91 - +3
12. Cardinals - 60.07 - -5
13. Cowboys - 58.49 - +3
14. Redskins - 58.20 - +1
15. Saints - 57.68 - +3
16. Bears - 57.64 - +1
17. Eagles - 53.39 - -9
18. Vikings - 53.01 - +4
19. Packers - 47.22 - -7
20. Bills - 46.31- +4
21. Browns - 42.40 - -2
22. Broncos - 40.82 - -2
23. Jaguars - 39.73 - -2
24. Chargers - 37.57 - -1
25. Raiders - 34.76 - +4
26. Texans - 33.75 - -1
27. Bengals - 28.10 - -1
28. 49ers - 25.40 - -1
29. Seahawks - 20.18 - 1
30. Chiefs - 20.13 - Even
31. Rams - 14.87 - Even
32. Lions - 10.76 - Even

NFL Power Ranks: Week 5

Another week, another dominant performance by the New York Football Giants. Their impressive win over Seattle this week vaulted them to an even higher score and gave them a little more breathing room over 5-0 Tennessee. Buffalo's drubbing in Arizona knocked them out of the #2 spot down to #7, and which allowed Washington, Carolina, and Dallas to move up after Tampa's close loss to the Broncos.

The bottom 4 remained unchanged, with the Lions falling even deeper into the pits, now with a score below 10 for the first time in the short history of my computerized power rankings. The Colts crazy comeback win over Houston allowed them to escape the bottom 5, being replaced by listless Seattle.

The big gainers this week were Arizona and New England, who jumped 8 and 7 spots respectively. Arizona got that big win over undefeated Buffalo while New England finally showed some life on offense as they beat the 49ers. The biggest losers were the former #1 Eagles who dropped 8 spots when they fell deeper into last in the powerful NFC East, and New Orleans, who dropped 11 spots after losing to Minnesota at home. New Orleans is looking like the Arizona of last year....a very up and down team that hovers around the 50-point total and in turn jumps a lot of teams and falls behind a lot of teams depending on what they do. Here are the complete ranks:

1. Giants - 88.40 - Even
2. Titans - 83.73 - +1
3. Redskins - 81.01 - +1
4. Panthers - 71.76 - +2
5. Cowboys - 68.15 - +2
6. Steelers - 65.89 - +3
7. Bills - 65.08 - -5
8. Buccaneers - 62.13 - -3
9. Patriots - 61.35 - +7
10. Broncos - 60.97 - +1
11. Falcons - 58.75 - +3
12. Bears - 58.58 - +6
13. Cardinals - 56.18 - +8
14 (tie). Dolphins - 55.64 - +6
14 (tie). Jets - 55.64 - -1
16. Eagles - 55.55 - -8
17. Chargers - 52.42 - -2
18. Ravens - 49.94 - -8
19. Jaguars - 48.36 - Even
20. Vikings - 48.05 - +7
21. Colts - 46.08 - +7
22. Packers - 44.55 - -5
23. Saints - 41.36 - -11
24. 49ers - 40.76 - -2
25. Browns - 34.77 - -1
26. Raiders - 34.33 - -3
27. Chiefs - 30.50 - -2
28. Seahawks - 27.60 - -2
29. Texans - 17.23 - Even
30. Bengals - 16.37 - Even
31. Rams - 11.85 - Even
32. Lions - 9.69 - Even

Weather: The anti homefield

Oh good. It's New York and Boston at the forefront of sports in America. That never happens. Ugh.

I think the interesting thing about the game was the weather. Yes, I am a meteorologist, why d you ask?
Anyways, the purported home field advantage put forth by the inclement weather in Foxboro and Green Bay seemed to work against both teams. New England's aerial assault was severely limited due to the gusty winds at the stadium today. Had the Chargers been playing Ladanian Tomlinson, things may have swung in the Chargers favor. In fact, I would venture to say a healthy LT would have made the Chargers the favorites in that game, given the conditions, as a strong running game would have turned the tables.
In Green Bay, you have to wonder, seriously, if the bitterly cold weather didn't cause Brett Favre to tighten up just a bit, maybe make him less than his best. Nobody was moving quickly out there, and it came down to field position and mistakes. Favre made them, and Eli Manning did not.
The bad news about the Super Bowl, other than the fact that it's New York and New England and omigod they'll never shut up, is that it's being played in Phoenix. There will be no redeeming weather to interest me either. Well, at least the Colts won last year. In the rain.