As much as we love building this site every week, it can be painstaking and very challenging at times. One bit that we love , however, is every Wednesday sitting down and compiling the expert power rankings from our 10 selected outlets.
Yes, nothing brings joy to the heart than learning how football writers have reacted to the week's NFL action and somehow managed to come to such odd conclusions. Remember when Tampa Bay were ranked 11th by Bob Glauber of Newsday? Seriously, that was so bad we actually took Newsday off our list, realizing right there and then that it was simply a troll.
Biggest Overreaction
Let's see shall we? Well, the Panthers are down an average of 5.6 places, which seems odd, particularly given that they experienced a big shift last week up to an average position of 5th. They're a team with no real identity on offence, who probably never deserved 5th place on anyone's power rankings, but it seems the media are now desperate to cover their tracks in anointing the Panthers as a contender for home field advantage in January.
We suspect the truth is closer to the 11th place they occupy now. They're a dangerous team, but until Cam Newton is healthy, you have to take those victories under Derek Anderson with a grain of salt.
Biggest Underreaction
The Colts just can't get any love. I think they're a victim of expectations at the start of the season, and the fact that they struggled out of the blocks seems to have motivated a lot of NFL writers to keep their expectations low at this stage, fearing a complete meltdown. We suspect that many of said writers will be recalling their preseason rankings by Christmas, loudly proclaiming that they had the Colts' number all along, and completely ignoring the scepticism of September.
Most Confused Team(s)
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The Saints and Lions. The former were a trendy NFC championship pick in pre-season, but their abysmal start to 2014 has left analysts in flux. Is this still a blip? They were unconvincing against the Vikings, which leads to ratings of anywhere between 9th (Yahoo) and 19th (FOX). So they're either better or worse than a third or the NFL, depending on who you ask.
The Lions are perhaps victims of a single poor game in week 2 against Carolina, but what we don't understand is how they took such flak for that, given that the Panthers soared up power rankings as a result of beating them? It's a bit like the Broncos and Seahawks. If you rank one or the other as the best team in the NFL (as many did prior), should they be knocked down to 3rd or 4th after losing to their rival?
It's a dubious case against the Lions, who looked confident and impressive in 2/3 games. Bleacher Report have them at 16th, while USA Today and NFL.com's Elliott Harrison rank them 15th. We think FOX's ranking of 8th is closer to the truth...
Back Down to Earth
The Bills arrived with a whimper and, like Keyser Soze, like that, they're gone. Well, in all but Harrison's eyes, as NFL.com rank them a preposterous 11th. We think they're improved, but 20th seems a fair assessment of their situation.
False Hope
I think the Falcons have got enormous problems that will stop them winning more than a few games, particularly now that a perceived 'easier' schedule looks different with the upturn in play of the Giants, Vikings Browns and Bears. I Strongly suspect the Falcons could again plummet next week. The Vikings could be a team that will cause them problems and a loss against them would see them lose their ill-gotten gains.
Notes:
- We said the 49ers may be in for a down year back in week 1, and the media is now fully on board that bandwagon. Considering they were an average of 3rd in preseason, their fall as low as 18th indicates a big shift in expert confidence in Jim Harbaugh.
- The Raiders have finally moved off the bottom of the pile, Usurping Jacksonville and Tampa Bay to move to 30th on average. Bleacher Report puts them even above Tennessee, the first time the Raiders have been ranked in the 20's this year.
- The Chiefs were never as bad as advertised. We think they may give the Pats a run for their money this week. They've climbed as high as 20th in SB Nation's eyes.
- The Texans fell back again, and deservedly so. This is a team that has 6-10 written all over it, and a shift to Ryan Mallett by season's end looks likely. They really should have been thumped by the Giants, and it was only those early Giants mistakes that stopped a mauling.
- We're glad the Browns are climbing. We wrote about this earlier in the season, but the Browns are arguably in better shape than they were at the start of last year when they were a trendy pick to surprise people.
- In fact, when Brian Hoyer took over last year, ESPN ranked the Browns as high as 16th in week 6 (shortly after his season ending injury). Quite how they managed to end up dead last in ESPN's preseason rankings with the same QB and a solid defence is a complete mystery.
- The Bucs are where they belong. When we compiled the preseason award predictions, we were shocked how many people had Lovie Smith down as a potential coach of the year, and that surprise was seemingly well placed. As a Bears fan, Smith was a good coach, but a limited one offensively. We suspect more than a few teams were happy he was appointed in Tampa.
That's all for this week's power rankings review. Follow us on twitter, leave us a comment, or do neither. Just sit there like a boss, reading all this stuff. We'll be back later today with a short update on how the site is progressing, so keep an eye out for that.
