I've been using, and constantly tweaking, a power ranking formula for the past few years to help me in my office pool. Basically I wanted to help myself look past the record and reputation of a team and place a little more value on the strength of their opponents. Using a formula that is probably approaching BCS complexity, sheer ridiculousness and inaccuracies, I share it here for your amusement as well as collective scorn and ridicule. ------------------------------ Included is the "power points" each team has earned this year based on who they've beaten, when, who they've lost to, and whether or not they've covered the spread. In () is last week's ranking. Enjoy. 1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10.279 (2) 3 of the 4 teams that Tampa had already beaten this season got wins in Week 7, which improved the strength of those victories elevating Tampa to the top spot this week. I'm still not convinced there is a true #1 team in football yet this year. 2 Tennessee Titans 10.095 (3) 6-0 but getting there by beating 3-3 Jacksonville, 0-7 Cincinnati, 2-4 Houston, 3-4 Minnesota, 3-3 Baltimore and 1-5 Kansas City is keeping Tennessee from seizing that top spot. But their tests are coming in the next 5 games against teams that are all currently .500 or better. 3 Washington Redskins 9.402 (4) That close Week 6 loss to St. Louis doesn't sting quite as much after watching Dallas get dismantled by them this week. 4 Carolina Panthers 8.950 (5) They rebounded nicely after getting manhandled by #1 Tampa last week. 5 Arizona Cardinals 8.269 (1) In a purely mathematical system, you lose ground in a bye week. But no one thought they were #1 last week anyway, including myself. 6 Buffalo Bills 7.929 (10) They still haven't beaten a +.500 team yet. Though beating a resurgent San Diego was impressive. 7 New York Giants 7.571 (9) Should be a good matchup this weekend against #8 Pittsburgh. We'll really see where these two 5-1 teams are at. The only team the Giants have played that is + .500 was in Week 1 against the Redskins who didn't get the memo that the regular season had started. 8 Pittsburgh Steelers 7.333 (6) See above. The Steelers haven't played a + .500 team yet this season. 9 Atlanta Falcons 6.800 (7) Another good matchup this weekend against Philly, let's see if this team can keep the momentum going after the bye week. 10 New England Patriots 5.840 (19) Biggest riser this week. They looked dominant against what was a very good Denver Bronco team. 11 Chicago Bears 5.786 (18) 12 Philadelphia Eagles 5.238 (13) 13 Green Bay Packers 5.095 (21) 14 Denver Broncos 5.048 (11) 15 Dallas Cowboys 4.662 (12) 16 San Diego Chargers 4.110 (14) 17 Baltimore Ravens 4.000 (23) 18 Jacksonville Jaguars 3.995 (8) Biggest drop this week. They were a bit inflated last week, and the bye week helped the correction. They should get on a roll over the next 3 weeks against 2-4 Cleveland, 0-7 Cincinnati, and 0-6 Detroit. 19 New Orleans Saints 3.976 (16) 20 Minnesota Vikings 3.750 (15) 21 St. Louis Rams 3.448 (25) 22 Indianapolis Colts 3.310 (20) 23 New York Jets 3.193 (17) 24 Miami Dolphins 1.979 (22) Oh Miami, how you teased us. With two games coming up against impressive foes, we'll see if the Henne watch begins. 25 Cleveland Browns 1.762 (24) 26 Oakland Raiders 1.310 (29) 27 Houston Texans 1.167 (27) 28 Kansas City Chiefs 0.400 (26) 29 San Francisco 49ers -0.190 (28) 30 Seattle Seahawks -0.810 (30) 31 Cincinnatti Bengals -3.143 (31) 32 Detroit Lions -4.214 (32)
Even with SoS from a non mathematical perspective there is no way Tennessee is not #1 but I can see the mathematical argument. Still, good teams win those games, and they have done that. Time for them to man up and go against some of the big boys though I also disagree about the Broncos being a good team, but thats a different discussion altogether. I think New England exposed them for what they were. Otherwise nice stuff, always interesting to see how your rankings work out
I don't like it much either that Tennessee is not # 1, and I don't think the Buccaneers or any other team for that matter is the best team in football right now. A lot of the good teams have struggled in recent weeks, and the team that will be the best in the end is probably gearing up right now to start playing their best football. With that said, Tennessee's opponents so far are not that impressive, they should have beaten them all, and they did. But I want to see teams that can beat playoff bound teams, so I don't mind that they aren't receiving their due respect from math.
I thought that until their embarrassing performance against what had been a struggling Green Bay team. Maybe Manning is hurt, and maybe this team is having a hard time getting geared up for the regular season without a Brady lead New England fighting them for home field, but every week convinces me more and more that Indy will be nothing more than a mediocre team this season. Big test against Tennessee this monday night, for both teams.
I agree. Their OL has struggled, leading to more pressure on Manning (this has been getting much better as of late) and trouble in the running game (not so much). Dallas Clark has been a non-factor, Harrison looks like hes losing some steps, and Manning is making mistakes that Manning just doesnt make. Add in a defense thats only marginally better than Denvers and you have a recipe for concern. The next few weeks should go a good way toward seeing who might be for real. Games like NYG-Pitt and Ten-Indy etc.
