Mathematical NFL Power Rankings
By Keith Myers
Very little movement again, which is always the case this late in the season. The Patriots remain as the league’s only elite team (Rating over 90) and they have an almost 6 point cushion on the 49ers. At this point, they have to be considered the Super Bowl favorite.
Huge movement this week for the Seahawks. That’s what a 58-0 pasting of a division rival will do for you, even this late in the season. I’m not going to go into any other details though, as I’m going to save it for a follow up post later today or tomorrow. I will add that it’s good to see them no longer entrenched at #12. They seem to have been locked into that spot for the past 2 seasons. I was beginning to wonder if they’d ever move.
This week’s opponent, the Buffalo Bills, Checks in all the way down at #24. Even on the road in the Eastern time zone, the Seahawks should be prohibitive favorites. The only aspect of the game that the Bills are good at is special teams. The Seahawks have a major statistical advantage in every other category.
On to the actual rankings:
Rank |
Last
Team
Yds
PTDif
ST
Power
1
1
New England
0.35
15.2
18.82
93.8
2
2
San Francisco
4.75
10.1
2.84
87.9
3
4
Denver
1.6
9
15.54
79.4
4
3
Houston
0.6
7.9
-1.34
78.2
5
12
Seattle
1.7
7.6
5.6
76.7
6
5
Chicago
0.15
6.9
7.74
75.9
7
8
NY Giant
-1
7.9
-4.34
73.3
8
6
Baltimore
0.15
4.5
8.78
71.4
9
9
Washington
2.45
1.1
6.24
69.6
10
11
Green Bay
0.05
3.3
12.78
69.3
11
10
Tampa Bay
1.15
3.5
-11.1
68.3
12
7
Atlanta
-1.5
6
-0.88
67.2
13
13
Cincinnati
0.65
3.2
4.46
65.5
14
18
Cleveland
-0.7
-1
15.24
60.8
15
14
Pittsburgh
1.35
1.1
-7.76
60.8
16
15
Minnesota
1.3
-0.2
1.94
59.8
17
16
San Diego
-0.25
0.9
-4.06
59.8
18
17
Carolina
1.15
-3.6
-1.5
58.7
19
19
Detroit
-0.55
-1.7
-8.38
54.5
20
23
St. Louis
0
-3.3
-10.76
53.0
21
22
Dallas
-1.65
-1.1
-0.24
52.8
22
21
Miami
-0.2
-2.7
1.86
52.7
23
20
New Orleans
-1.9
-2.4
-4.22
51.6
24
24
Buffalo
0.25
-4.9
8
51.6
25
26
NY Jets
-0.7
-4.7
5.1
50.4
26
27
Indianapolis
-1.5
-2.8
-11
46.9
27
28
Tennessee
-0.15
-8.9
2.92
44.8
28
29
Philadelphia
0
-7.7
-10.3
42.0
29
25
Arizona
-2.7
-8.2
-5.78
40.5
30
30
Jacksonville
-1.85
-11
-9.6
37.1
31
31
Oakland
-1.75
-11.8
-14.9
34.1
32
32
Kansas City
-1.8
-12.1
-14.16
30.1
Yds – A combination of offensive and defensive index. Generally a positive number means that a team’s offense is better at moving the move than how opposing offenses are at doing so against it’s defense.
PTDEF – point differential per game.
ST – Special team’s index. Combination os all parts of special teams play.
There are also about 30 other things involved in determining the power level for each team. Those 3 are just the ones I wanted to include in the table this week.