Welcome back to the MikesPickz NFL Power Rankings. Another great week in the NFL last week. The two big events of the week were the Ravens losing for the 2nd week in a row, this time to the Bengals, and the Patriots losing to the Broncos in OT. Both of these events have caused a stir in the power rankings, as the Broncos saw a two tier jump and the Patriots and Ravens both dropped a tier. Without further ado, here are the Week 6 Power Rankings:
*As you probably know by now, teams are ranked into tiers, teams within a tier are teams I expect to finish with similar records and thus may be interchangeable in my opinion.
Tier 1
- —Giants– They made Oakland look like a D-II college team, actually Oakland makes themselves look like that.
- —Colts– Taking care of business as usual. Peyton Manning is scary good this season, 300+ passing yards in every single game.
- —Saints– Huge match-up against the Giants this week. Battle of unbeaten teams, someone will be dropping in the rankings next week. Saints have two things going for them- they are home and coming off the BYE.
- —Vikings– They beat the Rams handily as they should have last week. Now they get another team with a top 5 defense (first was the 49ers), will they need some more Brett Favre magic?
Eagles– McNabb and Westbrook returned to action last week, and they had the perfect tune-up game against the Bucs. The Eagles definitely looked sharp, even though everyone looks sharp against the Bucs.
- Falcons– Total obliteration of the 49ers last week. The Falcons came out prepared against the 49ers and the 49ers looked like they took their bye week, a week early. It was encouraging to see a strong offensive perfermance from the Falcons, and I expect them to build on it.
- Broncos– Everyone, the Broncos are for real. The defense is good bordering great. They have only allowed 43 points all season, by far the best in the league. Huge rivalry game this week against the Chargers.
Patriots– Disappointing loss in OT to the Broncos. It is clear this year that the Patriots have some rust after playing an entire season without Brady. I look for things to start to get better now that it seems like Wes Welker is healthy again.
- Bengals– The Bengals are starting to show that they are for real. Who would have guessed that they would be the sole possessor of first place after 5 weeks? Carson Palmer really does make a difference, and the fact that they actually have a defense this year doesn’t hurt either.
- —Packers– They get the Lions fresh off the BYE week, and I expect them to perform like the Eagles did against the Bucs last week. Hopefully during the BYE week the offensive line learned how to stop a pass rush, if they did- NFL watch out because Aaron Rodgers is a great QB.
- Ravens– Back to back losses do not sit well in Baltimore, and with high chance of a third loss coming this week against the Vikings. This is exactly why I never hoped on the “Ravens are the best team in the league” bandwagon.
- Steelers– The Steelers are starting to get into a rythm offensively. They still need to work on closing out games, as the Lions made it some what interesting towards the end of last week’s game. They should have beat the Lions by more that 8 points.
- Jets– The Jets started off the season on fire, maybe it was beginner’s luck for Rex Ryan. I still like the way he has the team playing, but the talent isn’t there, in my opinion. The defense is solid, but they get too many plays. Mark Sanchez has to play better if the Jets want to win the division.
- —Bears– They pounded the Lions and quickly got them off the high of winning a game. Last week was a great way to head into the BYE week.
- Chargers– The Chargers are coming off the BYE to play the Broncos in San Diego. They will need the offense that showed up in the 4th quarter of week 4 (against the Steelers) if they want to win this game.
- 49ers– The 49ers got man handled last week. I am not overly concerned about them not showing up, they do have the BYE this week in order to revamp and come out firing in week 7. Shaun Hill has to play better, but I still think they are a playoff team this year.
- Dolphins– The Wildcat is back. After watching them against the Jets on Monday Night, I can definitely say I think they turned a corner for the season. Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams are as good a 1-2 as you will find in the NFL and Chad Henne has a surprisingly good arm.
- 18. Cowboys– They barely beat the Chiefs last week. If Miles Austin didn’t step it up in the 4th quarter and OT, they would have lost the game. I don’t understand the Cowboys, they average 430 yards per game (the most in the NFL), yet they almost lose what seems like every single week. Can someone explain that to me?
- Cardinals- They started out extremely well last week against the Texans, but then they let the Texans right back in the game. They have to get into a better rhythm (AKA develop a rushing game) if they even want to think about returning the playoffs, let alone the Superbowl.
- Texans– Andre Johnson is a beast. The Texans have to work on consistency and stopping the run.
- Seahawks– Thank you Matt Hasselbeck is what everyone in Seattle is saying. What a difference a QB makes. The Seahawks had everything working during the 41-0 beat-down that they laid on the Jaguars.
- Jaguars– Where did the Jaguars go last week? Luckily they have the Rams this week.
- Titans– The Titans went with Vince Young towards the end of the game last week, a move everyone knew would happen at some point this season. The question for this week is who do you start? I honestly would go with Vince Young, because obviously Kerry Collins is not working. Now, to be fair, it is not only Collins that is holding the Titans back, they also forgot how to play defense this season.
- Panthers– After a come from behind win against the Redskins last week, they flip flop positions with them in this week’s rankings. Honestly, there is not much to say about the Panthers, the game was unimpressive.
- Redskins– The Redskins get the Chiefs this week and they are lucky that they are the home team. Even, being the home team, I don’t even know if they can beat the Chiefs. They are simply a mess this season.
- Lions– Even though the Lions only have one win this season, they are impressing me. They are usually in the game the whole way through and I do think they will get another win this season (Week 8 against the Rams looks promising).
- Bills– Really Buffalo? You lost a game in which the opposing QB was 2 for 17 for 23 yards, oTDs and 1 INT.
- Chiefs– They came close against the Cowboys, and Chief fans have to like their chances against the Redskins this week.
- Raiders– JaMarcus Russell is not an NFL QB at the moment, actually he wouldn’t even be starting in college at the moment. The Raiders average 108 yards passing per game, by far the lowest in the NFL. They will not be competitive until they fix that stat. Raider fans should just pray that the Eagles take it easy on you.
- —Browns– They are very lucky that they beat the Bills last week. It was more of a showing of how bad the Bills can play, than anything positive that the Browns did.
- —Bucs– Can the Bucs win a game this season? Well, one of their best chances comes at home against the Panthers this week, if they don’t win they get the Panther one more time this year. Other than that, I do not see a winnable game on their schedule. **Note to the Offensive Coordinator** Josh Johnson should not be throwing 50 balls in a game.
- —Rams– Another unbelievable stat of the week (see Bills for the most unbelievable stat), the Rams out gained the Vikings in Week 5 (400-377). Granted many of the yards came after the Vikings were already destroying them, but still they gained 400 yards on a pretty good defense.
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
Tier 5
Tier 6
Tier 7
That will do it for this week’s power rankings, be sure to check back next week for another ranking. Any questions or comments? Post them in the comment section below or send me a tweet @MikesPickz.
