Week Nine Power Polls
After a couple of weeks without power polls from the writers you love and trust most, they are back. It looks like it’s a case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Atlanta is still undefeated and sits at the top of the rankings. The Texans are still second overall, but Keith has the Bears in second and the Texans at third. The rest of us have the Bears at third so the difference is not that much. The Texans and Bears happen to play each other this week, and I think it’s safe to say the winner will decidedly be number two and possible crack into first even if they have a loss.
The Chiefs are decidedly the worst team in the NFL, placing last in all by one person’s rankings who had had the Jaguars in last. The rest of us had Jacksonville at 31st. The biggest difference in rankings is with the Chargers. Nick has them at 13th and Diane at 24th. The Cowboys are ranked as high as 15th by Micah, and as low as 25th by Keith. The Ravens have a difference of seven spots with Micah and Diane ranking them at 11th. Micah’s thoughts on the issue are that “injuries have hampered [the Ravens] this season and when they start playing good teams again it is going to be bad news.” The Ravens are ranked as high as 4th, by Keith.
The Seahawks come in at 11th overall. We all had them 9th, 10th, or 11th so the difference was very small. Losing winnable games, like the one against the Lions is a good way to slide down the list, even if you do beat the Vikings the following week. The 49ers are sitting at fourth where they were last week and up from 5th, two weeks ago. They were as high as second (week 2) and as low as 8th (preseason) and 6th (week 6). The Cardinals continue they’re downward slide and are now at 21st. The Rams also seem to have come back down to earth and now sit at 25th.
Here is a chart showing the rankings over the season of the Seahawks and their week ten opponents, the Jets. As you can see the Jets are not ranked very highly, but if their defense decides to show up they might surprise Seattle. This is without a doubt a game that Seattle cannot afford to lose.