NFL Week 7 Power Rankings
Each week during the heart of the NFL season, and once or twice during the NFL Preseason, we’ll gather the troops around the roundtable and hash out the NFL Power rankings. We check out the stats, looks at the records, and, most importantly, we take a close, close look at the heart of each team.
Best performance Week 6: 49ers over the Lions. The Packers were utterly dominant but that was at home to a broken Rams team. The Niners’ gutsy road win over the Lions truly announced them as contenders.
Worst performance Week 6: Rams versus the Packers. The Dolphins were pretty bad against the Jets but their defense was decent. St. Louis couldn’t do a thing against Green Bay on either side of the ball.
Best game Week 7: Atlanta (3-3) at Detroit (5-1). We could see a shootout in this NFC battle. When will the Falcons’ passing attack get going? Detroit should score plenty, so Atlanta may have to throw to keep pace.
Worst game Week 7: Seattle (2-3) at Cleveland (2-3). These two teams do look evenly matched but who really wants to watch Seahawks/Browns besides Seahawks and Browns fans?
1. Green Bay Packers (6-0): With Aaron Rodgers and perhaps the league’s deepest, most talented receiving corps, this team looks unbeatable. Including last year’s Super Bowl run, that’s 11 wins in a row.
2. New England Patriots (5-1): Final drive against Dallas was vintage Tom Brady and showed the difference between him and guys like Tony Romo.
3. San Francisco 49ers (5-1): We’re starting to understand this team’s identity now: smashmouth running game, tough-as-nails defense. Even though Jim Harbaugh comes from Stanford, he has the Niners looking like Alabama.
4. Detroit Lions (5-1): Still tied for second overall but a second straight loss this week could plant seeds of doubt. Jahvid Best’s latest concussion doesn’t help matters.
5. Baltimore Ravens (4-1): Win over Houston is nice but now about someone other than their kicker chipping in the offense?
6. San Diego Chargers (4-1): Schedule gets tougher after the bye week; Jets on the road are toughest test since New England visited the Chargers in Week 2.
7. Cincinnati Bengals (4-2): Cincy’s defense continues to dominate and could continue to impress after the bye with winnable matchups at Seattle and Tennessee.
8. Oakland Raiders (4-2): He may not start until after the Week-8 bye and he isn’t the quarterback he once was but Carson Palmer is an upgrade over Jason Campbell.
9. New Orleans Saints (4-2): I’ll give them a mulligan for the loss at Tampa since it was the Saints’ third straight road game.
10. New York Giants (4-2): Under-the-radar stat: Eli Manning has the NFL’s third-best passer rating at 101.1.
11. Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2): A win is a win but I expected Pittsburgh to have a much easier time at home to Jacksonville.
12. Buffalo Bills (4-2): Certainly didn’t look out of place against the Giants but their run defense couldn’t make a stop last week.
13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2): Josh Freeman and the Bucs in general looked like their 2010 selves against New Orleans.
14. Atlanta Falcons (3-3): Matt Ryan needs to bust out if Atlanta wants a shot against the Lions this week.
15. Chicago Bears (3-3): Devin Hester got the headlines but the most encouraging story out of Chicago may be the improved protection for Jay Cutler.
16. New York Jets (3-3): If their offense continues playing at its current level, the Jets may not make the playoffs.
17. Houston Texans (3-3): Uh-oh. Two straight defeats. Is this the start of Houston’s annual choke-job? [soliloquy id=”82219″]
18. Philadelphia Eagles (2-4): Encouraging that their defense, not their offense, was the difference maker in Week 6.
19. Tennessee Titans (3-2): Will Matt Hasselbeck stay strong after a bye week or did he collect rust?
20. Washington Redskins (3-2): Last week’s loss to Philly exposed the Redskins – and Rex Grossman – as pretenders.
21. Seattle Seahawks (2-3): If it weren’t for San Fran being legit, the Seahawks could be challenging for the NFC West crown.
22. Dallas Cowboys (2-3): Played pretty well in a road loss to New England but these are the games they need to win if they want to live up to their hype and history.
23. Kansas City Chiefs (2-3): Can the Matt Cassel/Dwayne Bowe connection stay strong out of the bye?
24. Cleveland Browns (2-3): No Peyton Hillis trade but will Montario Hardesty eat into his carries anyway?
25. Carolina Panthers (1-5): The Falcons were a rare team to make it look somewhat easy against upstart Carolina last week.
26. Minnesota Vikings (1-5): Donovan McNabb has been so bad that they’re already a better team with Christian Ponder starting.
27. Denver Broncos (1-4): Tebow time this week. Should be fun no matter what happens.
28. Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5): Their defense more than held its own against Pittsburgh.
29. Arizona Cardinals (1-4): With their “D,” don’t expect the record to improve anytime soon.
30. Miami Dolphins (0-5): Any hint of offense would’ve kept them competitive against the Jets.
31. St. Louis Rams (0-5): Just when we thought they’d hit rock bottom, Sam Bradford suffered the dreaded high ankle sprain.
32. Indianapolis Colts (0-6): The longer Joseph Addai is out, the more Indy can evaluate its future starters at tailback.
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