Below are my week 9 Power Rankings with some teams climbing up, while others are trending down. The arrows with the number next to them is how their ranking changed from last week to this week.
- Chiefs (-)
- Saints (↑6)
- Steelers (-)
- Packers (↑2)
- Bills (↑2)
- Seahawks (↓4)
- Ravens (↓2)
- Titans (↑3)
- Bucs (↓5)
- Cardinals (↓1)
- Dolphins (↑3)
- Raiders (↑3)
- Colts (↓3)
- Rams (↓2)
- Browns (↑2)
- Vikings (↑7)
- Eagles (↑1)
- 49ers (↓5)
- Panthers (↑1)
- Bears (↓4)
- Falcons (↑6)
- Patriots (↑2)
- Bengals (↑3)
- Broncos (↓3)
- Lions (↓6)
- Chargers (↓4)
- Texans (↑1)
- Giants (↑1)
- Washington Football Team (↓4)
- Jaguars (↑1)
- Cowboys (↓1)
- Jets (-)
Biggest Jump: The Vikings. The Vikings jumped up seven spots in my rankings after back to back wins. They seemed to have realized that their game plan should be simple. Hand the ball to Dalvin Cook. He’s been a monster the last two games, racking up 369 yards and 5 touchdowns on the ground, and adding 109 yards and a touchdown through the air. The Vikings are still middle of the pack, and I wouldn’t consider them a playoff threat yet, but if they continue to give the ball to Cook, they will continue to rise in my rankings.
Biggest Drop: The Lions. Again they were already middle to bottom of the list, but now they are in the cellar. This team is a disaster, starting with a head coach that should of been fired weeks ago. Matthew Stafford is an average NFL quarterback, but the Lions aren’t winning any Super Bowls with him. It’s time to rebuild if you are Detroit. Tear it down and try to find your next QB in the draft. They have some good young pieces on defense but right now the present and the future doesn’t look great.
Other big jumps include the Saints going from 8 to 2. They finally put it all together on Sunday night. They were healthy, they got constant pressure on Tom Brady, and the game was over before halftime. I still like the Saints to come out of the NFC this year. They have weapons on offense, they have a veteran leader in Drew Brees, and they have a defense that can get after the quarterback. The Saints are starting to play like most of us expected them to.
Bucs dropped five spots after they couldn’t even score a touchdown against the Saints. I think someone needs to tell Arians that you can’t win a game rushing the ball only five times. The Bucs had FIVE carries on Sunday, and one of them was a kneel down to end the game. Ronald Jones got three carries, and Leonard Fournette got one. It was the lowest amount of carries ever in a football game. This is a recipe for disaster, and in order for the Bucs offense to be explosive, they need to establish the run, and then work the play-action passing off of it. This will give their offense the best chance at success. I look for the Bucs to bounce back, but their path to the Super Bowl just got a lot harder.
Another big drop was the Seahawks who dropped six spots. This is solely because they have a defense that wouldn’t be able to stop a high school team right now. I feel bad for Russell Wilson, I really do. He must go into games with the mindset that if he doesn’t at least score 35 points, they will probably lose. There is so much pressure on him to be perfect, and on Sunday against the Bills he was far from it. I can’t put even the slightest amount of blame on Wilson though. Your quarterback is going to have bad games, but this defense has consistently been bad, and their Super Bowl chances are going downhill each week. Pete Carroll, Jamal Adams or Bobby Wagner has to get a message across to their defense, and I’m anxious to see how they come out against the Rams next weekend.
I think most NFL analysts will have a very similar top five if not the same. I think the teams are fairly indisputable, but you could swap them or flip the teams around a little. As of right now though, the Chiefs came into the season number one, and they’ve consistently been number one throughout the first half of the season.
Cam's Corner 