Week Five Power Poll Rankings
I apologize for the two week hiatus on posting 12th Man Rising’s writer power poll rankings. I do have Week Five’s rankings however, so let’s get to it.
Generally speaking, there wasn’t a lot of significant upward movement. The biggest climb was the Dolphins who rose six places to 20th, following their win over Bengals. Three teams gained five places, the Steelers, Colts, and Raiders to 11th, 22nd, and 26th, respectively. The Steelers beat the Eagles and the Colts upset the Packers. The Raiders had a bye but moved up by virtue of the Chiefs, Bills, Jets, Titans, Browns, and Jaguars all losing. Having a bye was probably the best think Oakland could have done for this week.
Six teams jumped four places (Patriots, Giants, Seahawks, Vikings, and Rams) all following victories in week five. The Rams defeated one of three remaining undefeated teams in the Cardinals and demonstrated that they are no longer going to be kicked around and taken for a guaranteed two wins every season.
Falling eight spots to 15th were the Eagles who got beat by the Steelers in a close game. The Eagles have failed to show any offensive consistency and Vick seems to have lost some of his explosive play-making ability. The Bills dropped seven places to 28th after getting destroyed by the third ranked 49ers. The Bengals slipped five places to 17th, and the Cardinals and Jets both fell four places after losing in week five to 8th and 29th, respectively.
Five of the six contributors had the Texans, Falcons, and 49ers ranked in order as the top three teams in the NFL which is hard to argue with considering the Texans and Falcons are the last two undefeated teams remaining. Both teams are also very balanced on offense and defense and preseason picks by many to win their divisions.
The Seahawks were ranked as high as 9th and as low as 15th while averaging out to tenth. This largely has to do with Seattle’s defensive dominance and ability to prevent teams from scoring touchdowns which allows the floundering offense to win close games. If the Seahawks can develop any sort of offensive production in the red zone it wouldn’t be hard for them to quickly move up the list. The next two games are against the top five Patriots (4th) and the 49ers (3rd) which would undoubtedly reorganize the top of the rankings if Seattle were to win them and (hopefully) get its first division win.