Brandon's Positively Pointless Power Rankings Week 8

[Brandon]

1. Colts

Indianapolis rolled over the vastly inferior Rams, as expected. Peyton is still putting up impressive numbers and the defense still looks good albeit against less than stellar opponents. The Colts will look to keep up with the improved running game.

2. Saints

The solid defense showed some cracks against the Dolphins but Drew Brees was able to come on in the second half and drive the Saints home to victory. New Orleans looks to take advantage of a weak Falcons defense next week, although the defense will have to remain strong.

3. Broncos

There wasn't much of anything to fix for the Broncos during the bye week, as one of the few teams doing well in all three phases of the game. Coming out of the bye they head into Baltimore, to face a team that will be hungry to prove they can still win games.

4. Steelers

The Steelers' offense struggled but the defense came up huge, providing two scores late in the game to overcome the Vikings. The Steelers pass rush is finally starting to show up again, which is bad news for their future opponents this season.

5. Vikings

Minnesota struggled to run the ball against the Steelers, but more importantly made too many mistakes to win against a quality opponent. The errors are correctable, and Adrian Peterson will come back into a groove. They will need it against the Packers in Green Bay next week.

6. Patriots

Belichick sounded as if he was more interested in seeing the sights in England than playing the Bucs, but any coach in his position would going up against a team that hasn't been any good all year long. The Pats head into the bye with a lot of momentum, expect more of the same after.

7. Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals and defense have been mutually exclusive over the past few years, and it was the defense that helped them overcome the Giants. If the Cardinals can keep this up they may be able to shake the "finesse team" image.

8. Giants

Exactly how good are the Giants? Against the weakest opponents in the NFL they looked unstoppable but the past two weeks have shown major weaknesses, especially with Eli Manning who has thrown four picks in his last two games.

9. Packers

For the first week all season the Packers were able to keep the opponent from sacking Aaron Rodgers, which will be key if they hope to take over the NFC North from the Vikings. Expect a big game with the Packers playing Favre again for the first time in Green Bay.

10. Bengals

The Bengals have been a tale of two teams, one that looks very good and another that is mediocre at best. Fortunately for Cincinnati they have been the former much more often than the latter. The key has been Cedric Benson, providing a running game that Cincy has lacked since Dillon left.

11. Eagles

Much like the Giants, the Eagles look great against weaker teams but struggle against the good ones, but the Eagles also laid an egg against the lowly Raiders. The addition of Will Weatherspoon has paid off already, having a huge day in his first game as an Eagle.

12. Cowboys

The Cowboys may have looked like a much better squad than the 12th best team in the league against the Falcons, but there is a long history of the Tony Romo era Cowboys performing in such a manner and then reverting in coming weeks. They need to be consistent if they want to go deep in the playoffs.

13. Falcons

Atlanta is slowly finding out that Turner isn't quite the back he was last year, and that the defense is proving to be a bit of a liability in quite a few instances. Turnovers have also put more pressure on the shaky defense, the Falcons have to hold onto the ball.

14. Texans

The Texans are slowly becoming a good team, now over .500 with some wins over decent teams, most notably the Bengals. The potential loss of Andre Johnson for a few games could be huge but the remaining schedule is very forgiving.

15. Ravens

Baltimore needed the week off to hopefully find out what happened to their once feared defense that has become rather tame over the past season. The early offensive boom masked the problems but when Flacco slowed down it all became clear.

16. Bears

What happened to the improved Jay Cutler from the past month of football? Why hasn't Matt Forte done much of anything this year? Not to mention why has the Bears defense collapsed? The Bears have a lot of questions to answer and not much time to figure them out.

17. Jets

18. Chargers

19. 49ers

20. Dolphins

21. Bills

22. Seahawks

23. Jaguars

24. Panthers

25. Raiders

26. Chiefs

27. Lions

28. Redskins

29. Browns

30. Buccaneers

31. Rams

32. Titans