NFL Power Index Week 9: Seahawks in free fall
By Keith Myers
The complete NFL Power index ranking for Week 9 of the 2016 NFL season. The Seattle Seahawks continue to drop sharply due to the poor performance of their offense.
Two week ago, the Seahawks were ranked 2nd in the NFL Power Index. Now they’re 12th and sinking like a rock. What happened? The answer to that is simply “their offense happened.” Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that it didn’t happen.
It’s been three weeks since Russell Wilson threw a touchdown pass. To avoid getting pummeled because of the terrible blocking in front of him, Wilson has become Captain Checkdown. Without a running game to help, the entire offense has ground to a halt.
Meanwhile, Seattle’s defense has been on the field for insanely large periods of time. That, combined with injuries, as allowed the defensive stats to erode as well. With both sides of the ball faltering statistically, the drop in their NFL Power Index should be expected.
It isn’t a surprise to see the Patriots at the top of the index again. What is a surprise is to see the gap between them and the rest of the NFL. This suggests that they are the league’s only elite team so far this season.
Also illustrating that point is Arizona moving up from 5th to 3rd despite an embarrassing loss to Carolina. Arizona didn’t do anything worthy of moving up, and actually lost ground in overall power. The problem is that both Minnesota and Buffalo dropped significantly more in Power than Arizona did.
Here are the updated NFL Power Index rankings for Week 9:
| Rank | Last | Team | ST | Pt Dif | 3% | TO | Power |
| 1 | 1 | New England | 16.8 | 11.8 | 6.65 | 3 | 85.64 |
| 2 | 2 | Atlanta | 11.4 | 4.4 | -3.84 | 2 | 69.10 |
| 3 | 5 | Arizona | 15.4 | 6.7 | 6.07 | 3 | 68.44 |
| 4 | 4 | Buffalo | 20.2 | 7.8 | -3.76 | 8 | 68.03 |
| 5 | 3 | Minnesota | 23.8 | 5.9 | 1.68 | 11 | 62.97 |
| 6 | 6 | Denver | 14.7 | 7.6 | -1.69 | 5 | 61.22 |
| 7 | 7 | Dallas | 17.8 | 9.1 | -0.51 | 4 | 60.70 |
| 8 | 14 | Kansas City | 25.4 | 3.2 | -3.75 | 9 | 59.26 |
| 9 | 9 | San Diego | 19.4 | 1.7 | 3.56 | -3 | 58.67 |
| 10 | 10 | Philadelphia | 16.4 | 10.9 | -3.54 | 6 | 58.59 |
| 11 | 12 | Green Bay | 18.4 | 4.1 | 17.06 | -2 | 58.17 |
| 12 | 8 | Seattle | 19.6 | 6.6 | -1.59 | 1 | 56.14 |
| 13 | 17 | Oakland | 12.4 | 1.3 | 3.94 | 7 | 54.03 |
| 14 | 11 | Pittsburgh | 15.3 | 2.9 | 4.44 | -1 | 53.82 |
| 15 | 13 | Miami | 13.5 | -1.8 | 2.9 | -5 | 53.15 |
| 16 | 19 | Washington | 27.4 | 0.2 | -1.26 | 0 | 50.92 |
| 17 | 15 | Tennessee | 16.7 | -0.2 | 9.32 | -3 | 50.70 |
| 18 | 16 | New Orleans | 16.8 | -3.8 | 10.26 | 0 | 49.24 |
| 19 | 18 | Cincinnati | 21.9 | -2.2 | -3.7 | 2 | 48.89 |
| 20 | 20 | Baltimore | 14.1 | -0.9 | -1.26 | 2 | 46.94 |
| 21 | 27 | Chicago | 12.0 | -7.7 | -1.59 | -2 | 44.34 |
| 22 | 22 | Detroit | 15.2 | -1.4 | -6.64 | 2 | 43.75 |
| 23 | 26 | Carolina | 7.4 | -2.0 | -0.25 | -7 | 42.71 |
| 24 | 24 | NY Giants | 17.0 | -1.1 | -8.34 | -7 | 42.17 |
| 25 | 21 | Indianapolis | 16.1 | -2.6 | -3.01 | -1 | 42.08 |
| 26 | 25 | Los Angeles | 21.5 | -4.9 | -2.75 | -3 | 39.32 |
| 27 | 23 | Tampa Bay | 20.2 | -4.8 | 4.5 | -2 | 38.77 |
| 28 | 28 | Houston | 13.5 | -4.9 | 4.7 | -7 | 38.18 |
| 29 | 29 | Jacksonville | 19.9 | -6.8 | -16.39 | -8 | 31.34 |
| 30 | 31 | NY Jets | 17.3 | -6.9 | 0.27 | -8 | 31.06 |
| 31 | 30 | Cleveland | 18.8 | -9.8 | -6.75 | -4 | 25.76 |
| 32 | 32 | San Francisco | 13.2 | -12.3 | -6.6 | -2 | 19.54 |
Next: Cliff Avril's awesomeness is finally recognized
Strength of schedule adjustment is done with ranking from TeamRankings.