Power Rankings
October 10, 2008
by Brandon
Brandon’s Positively Pointless Power Rankings Week 5
1. New York Giants
The Giants came off the bye week with a huge blowout of the Seahawks, dominating on both sides of the ball even without their #1 receiver. This team has become the posterchild for balance, while not the best in any one category, they excel in every area. Eli Manning and Brandon Jacobs have come a long ways, quietly and confidently becoming some of the better players at their respective positions.
2. Tennessee Titans
The Titans need to find ways to be more consistent on offense, before it’s too late. The Ravens may have a great defense but they will be seeing many more of those in January and will be facing much better offenses. However their defense was still top notch this week, despite the flaccid offense.
3. Pittsburgh Steelers
When injuries hit most teams, they tend to fold in half, but the Steelers have remained strong in spite of them. Ben Roethlisberger quelled any doubts about his ability to win the game through the air, with over 40 passing attempts and 3 touchdowns. No team has so desperately looked forward to their bye week as much as the Steelers have.
4. Carolina Panthers
Quietly, the Panthers have put together an amazing defense. Only 5 offensive touchdowns allowed in 5 games, zero 100yd rushers, and a 30% 3rd down conversion rate. With an offense that is starting to get into gear after a shaky start to the season, the Panthers are becoming a dangerous team.
5. Washington Redskins
Clinton Portis is having a great start to the year, on pace for a career season and it only gets easier from here. With all divisional road games behind them, and an extremely soft schedule over the next few weeks the Skins might be challenging the Giants for first place in the division by year’s end. Jim Zorn deserves a lot of credit for how well this team is playing.
6. Dallas Cowboys
This team is scary, but not in the way fans may hope. The D in Dallas seems to have fallen flat, and while the offense has been able to bail them out, quality teams will not let them away so easily. Too many mistakes on both sides of the ball are holding this team down, and coaching needs to improve if they don’t want to be sent home early again in January.
7. Buffalo Bills
Week after week of close games and Trent Edwards led come from behind victories finally came to an end when Edwards was put out against the Cardinals. While all is not lost, they need him back and healthy if they hope to continue this improbable run. Fortunately their bye week will give them the chance to do just that, and hopefully figure out how to play 4 quarters of good football.
8. Denver Broncos
The Broncos defense finally decided to show up after four weeks of being completely, utterly absent. Worryingly though, the Denver offense has slowed tremendously over the past two weeks and will need to get back on track, and they will need it in the weeks to come. Unfortunately it isn’t looking to get any easier over the weeks to come.
9. Chicago Bears
Even the Bears were surprised at the performance of Kyle Orton throwing for over 300yds and 2td’s. The only bad news is that it was against the Lions. Fortunately though this may have been just what was needed to get Orton comfortable in throwing past the first level. With the Packers struggling and the Vikings unpredictable, the Bears need to string some wins together and get firmly into first place.
10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Even with the quality defense the Bucs have, it’s not enough to win games as long as the offense continues to struggle. Gruden needs to sit down and figure out which QB is going to be leading this team, especially if they hope to see the postseason. The upcoming game against the Panthers may decide how the rest of their season turns out.
