The Eagles and the Lions both make huge leaps, the Steelers fall, and you won’t believe who we put at No. 11! The X’s and O’s Show breaks down the Power Rankings, the NFL and everything Broncos each Sunday at 9:00am on Mile High Sports Radio.
Check here for last week’s rankings.
1. New England Patriots (2)
The Patriots are a team with loads of confidence right now, and why shouldn’t they be? Their offense is the best in football right now, and their defense has been a top-five unit all year. If their playmakers stay healthy, this is the team to beat.
2. Dallas Cowboys (3)
In a season in which several contenders are winning despite poor o-line play, the Cowboys have the luxury of having a dominant line. It certainly makes it a lot easier to have your rookie quarterback and rookie running back succeed. Coming off their bye, Dallas hosts the Eagles in big Week 8 showdown.
3. Denver Broncos (7)
The tandem rushing attack of C.J. Anderson and Devontae Booker looks like a keeper. In the wild AFC West, the Chargers and Raiders are high-flying offenses, the Chiefs are the most balanced and the Broncos continue to do it with defense. Which style will win the West?
4. Kansas City Chiefs (8)
The Chiefs are starting to gel. Jamaal Charles is still a non-factor and Justin Houston remains injured. When those two are healthy, this team could be as good as anyone. Welcome to the newly brutal AFC West.
5. Seattle Seahawks (5)
Among good teams, nobody has a worse offensive line than Seattle. The defense keeps them in every game, and Russell Wilson is plenty good when he gets even a modicum of protection. But as Sunday night showed, the poor line play can ground the Seahawk attack cold.
6. Minnesota Vikings (1)
The Curse lives! To occupy the top spot in the X’s and O’s Power Ranking is to be a marked team, and the Vikings became the sixth top team in our poll to fall. Of greater concern to Vikings fans should be the offensive line, which was dominated in Philadelphia.
7. Philadelphia Eagles (17)
The Eagles might have a top-5 defense, surrendering just 13.5 points per game. Right now, there appears to be a wide gap behind the team’s home and away performance, so if they can win in Dallas next week, they’ll have the inside position to the division title.
8. Oakland Raiders (11)
The Raiders are 4-0 on the road, with a good chance to go to 5-0 in Tampa this week. Of course, Oakland’s road schedule so far hasn’t been a murderers’ row, and their defense is the only unit in the league to have surrendered 3,000 yards on the season. Add it all up, and the Raiders-Broncos showdown next Sunday night in Oakland looms large.
9. Atlanta Falcons (4)
It is surprising that the team that looked so hot three weeks ago now has a two-game losing streak, but don’t overreact to that. Atlanta should have beaten Seattle and they mismanaged the end of the game against San Diego.
10. Green Bay Packers (8)
Aaron Rodgers finally had a 300-yard passing game, but it did come against the Bears. The Pack will have a tougher opponent in Week 8, as they head to the Georgia Dome.
11. San Diego Chargers (18)
In the span of 11 days, San Diego knocked off the defending champion Broncos and then went and beat the league’s hottest team on the road. That will help fans forget about the 1-4 start. But can they beat the Broncos for the second time in three weeks? If so, this team will emerge as a legitimate threat to win what appears to be the NFL’s best division.
12. Detroit Lions (22)
Three wins in a row for the Lions, who continue to get top-shelf performance from quarterback Matt Stafford. With a trip to Houston coming up next, Detroit could stay hot. With Green Bay continuing to look shaky, and with Minnesota’s offensive limitations, this team could make a run at the NFC North.
13. Buffalo Bills (9)
LeSean McCoy was clearly unable to be effective with his bad hamstring, and the Bills offense is heavily reliant on McCoy. Without him, Tyrod Taylor is far easier to defend, especially with the injuries at wide receiver. Hamstrings are slow-healing, and the Patriots are headed to western New York this week.
14. Pittsburgh Steelers (6)
We thought the Steelers would struggle with Landry Jones at quarterback. In truth, Jones played okay in the loss to the Patriots. Of greater concern is the Pittsburgh defense, which was shredded on the ground by both Miami and New England.
15. Houston Texans (13)
Brock Osweiler’s contract guarantees him $36 million for this season and next. After that, the Texans can cut him if they want. So if Brock wants to ever see the rest of the $72 million, his audition better improve.
16. Arizona Cardinals (10)
After the 6-6 tie against Seattle Sunday night, coach Bruce Arians ripped his kicker, whined about the officiating and suggested that the league lacks integrity with respect to how it evaluates officials. His weekly temper tantrums might be more bearable if the Cardinals didn’t look like such a poorly coached team. Arians calls the plays for an offense that managed two field goals in five quarters, and the chaos and confusion preceding the final field goal attempt did nothing to help the situation. But keep blaming everyone else, if it makes you feel better.
17. Cincinnati Bengals (9)
We’ll see if the Bengals can make a run now that the toughest part of their schedule is behind them. Their five toughest remaining opponents will all have to travel to Cincinnati, and the road games are all winnable. The good news for them is that the AFC North remains tightly bunched.
18. Washington Redskins (12)
The Redskins were a Matt Stafford-led rally away from winning their fifth straight. We’ll find out if they are for real soon, as their schedule gets mighty stiff. Washington will likely be the underdogs in their next six games.
19. Miami Dolphins (24)
For those of you who were wondering, it’s pronounced uh-JYE-ee. That would be Jay Ajayi, who became the fifth running back in league history to have back-to-back 200-yard rushing games. The other revelation to come out of the Dolphins win against Buffalo is they became the latest team to remind its fans that their throwback uniforms are far better than the lousy real uniforms the team foists on them.
20. Indianapolis Colts (25)
After Damien Veatch predicted on the X’s and O’s Show that the Titans would beat the Colts, Bill Reffel voiced caution. Reffel agreed that almost everything about Indianapolis is bad right now. “But,” he said, “Andrew Luck is still scary. He can beat you by himself sometimes.” And so he did, leading the Colts from behind to save his coach’s job for at least another week.
21. New York Giants (15)
It’s hard to know why the Giants left themselves vulnerable to all of the media abuse the last two weeks over a kicker. Although the way New York’s offense is playing, their kicker is pretty important. This team may be 4-3, but each week they look more like the worst team in their division.
22. Baltimore Ravens (16)
The once 3-0 Ravens have dropped four straight, and they have yet to play a good game. Although the AFC North remains tight, with Joe Flacco looking very average, this team doesn’t have the horses to stay in the race for long.
23. New York Giants (29)
The once-again-starting quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, has a guaranteed $12 million contract and now no real competition for his spot, so he apparently feels it’s safe to vent a bit. He went off on his owner, his GM and his coaches after the team’s win against Baltimore. In a reply to his quarterback, who had uncharacteristically managed to make it through a game without any interceptions, Coach Todd Bowles said, “If (being) pissed off is going to stop the turnovers, I’m more than happy to have him play pissed off.” Check mate.
24. Tennessee Titans (23)
Few teams were getting more love from the X’s and O’s Show going into this week than the Titans. We thought they might be the team to beat in the AFC South. Coach Mike Mularkey must have become worried that his team was headed for the top spot in our Power Rankings (and we all know what that means), so he shrewdly had his team drop a very winnable game at home against the Colts on Sunday. Clever move, Mike. Now you can go right back to being completely forgotten by everyone.
25. Los Angeles Rams (21)
The blueprint on how to beat the Rams is obvious. Stack the box to smother Todd Gurley, then wait for Case Keenum and Tavon Austin to start turning the ball over. The quarterback threw four interceptions — two of them in the end zone — and the receiver fumbled once and dropped several passes, one of which caused an interception.
26. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (28)
Jameis Winston had a decent game, with three touchdown passes, but he had an incredibly stupid 15-yard penalty for screaming at an official over a spot. For someone whose judgment was seen as questionable since he was drafted first overall last season, this juvenile outburst won’t quiet the criticism.
27. New Orleans Saints (20)
The defense actually played a bit better this week against Kansas City, but still couldn’t get a stop when it needed one. The Saints are on pace for a five-win season, and they’ve shown absolutely no reason to hope they will fare any better than that.
28. Chicago Bears (31)
The Bears game against the Packers did not go well for our own Bill Reffel. It was Reffel who first floated the idea of bringing Jay Cutler to Denver to rescue the Broncos offense. But in the second quarter, Bears quarterback Brian Hoyer broke his arm. Then Matt Barkley took over and was awful. It looks like it will be much harder to pry Cutler loose.
29. Jacksonville Jaguars (26)
Hope is beginning to fade in Jacksonville, as it is becoming apparent that Blake Bortles is not the answer at quarterback, and that the team’s splashy offseason signings were misguided. We tried to warn the Jags about Malik Jackson, but some teams just never listen.
30. San Francisco 49ers (29)
The Niners have the worst run defense in the league, which may be the worst type of defense to pair with the sprint-paced 49er offense. After going up 14-3, they were outscored 34-3 … by Tampa Bay. Colin Kaepernick was 16-34 for 143 yards with one interception and two fumbles.
31. Cleveland Browns (32)
The defense gave up 271 yards rushing versus Cincinnati. Between the terrible defense and their inability to keep a quarterback healthy, this team might be winless for a while.
32. Carolina Panthers (27)
How can the Panthers be last and not the winless Browns? Because Cleveland is a team with no talent that plays hard and loses close. Carolina is a talented team that is getting beat by bad teams and is frequently embarrassing.