NFL Combined Power Rankings Wk10: Hawks Still Scrape In @ #9

[byau]

For the statheads and analysis geeks like me, NFL combined power rankings for week 10.

Really no surprises or suspense this week, almost kind of boring.

I was most curious about how #1 and #2 would shape up: would New England's victory over Denver be convincing enough to leapfrog them over the steady and consistent dominance of the Cardinals.

And as a reminder: The Cardinals have the best record in the NFL, and their starting QB missed over 1/3 of the season (sounds better than "3 games"). They even had to go to 3rd string QB at some point. And best record.

Also curious how a Seahawks win against the 0-fer Raiders would have affected their ratings (predictably, not much). And mostly the teams that are good to great won their games with two games of great-elite teams in the mix (Broncos/Pats and Cards/Cowboys)

NFL Power Rankings of multiple sources

Included description (if available) of analysts comments on the Seahawks

NFL.com
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Broncos
4. Eagles
5. Steelers

8. Seahawks Another Seahawks win that proved to be harder-fought than people anticipated, and with the play of both Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, a small drop was necessary. Then again, we must remind ourselves that this club played plenty of surprisingly close games last year — including tight victories over the Titans, Rams and Bucs — and still went on to win the Super Bowl by 35 points. So, should we continue to believe in these ‘Hawks, Seattle fans? The ultimate litmus test might be when the Cardinals visit Nov. 23.

SBNation
1. Cardinals
2. Patriots
3. Broncos
4. Lions
5. Steelers

12. Seahawks: As we go down the list, we find teams like the Eagles, Packers, Colts, Bengals, Chiefs, Cowboys, Seahawks, Ravens, Dolphins, Bills, and Browns, a gaggle of very strong teams, either leading their divisions or contending in that race.

ESPN
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Broncos
4. Eagles
5. Colts

10. Seahawks: A six-point home win over the Raiders won’t exactly calm the nerves. Russell Wilson had a career-high 12 off-target passes Sunday, but Seattle escaped and hosts the Giants next.



CBS Sports
1. Cardinals
2. Patriots
3. Broncos
4. Lions
5. Seahawks

5. Seahawks: The Seahawks are really beat up but still find ways to win, even if the most recent victory was the No. 32 Raiders. It’s going to be hard for Seattle to stay in the top ten if it doesn’t start getting healthy along the offensive line.

FOX Sports
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Broncos
4. Lions
5. Eagles

10. Seahawks: Led by a strong run defense, the Seahawks defense looked a lot closer to the one we saw in 2013. Issues in pass protection aren’t going away, however, and it showed.

Yahoo Sports
1. Patriots
2. Broncos
3. Cardinals
4. Eagles
5. Colts

8. Seahawks: I guess a win is a win and all, but at this point they stay up here because of what we know they’re capable of going back to last season. They haven’t looked like a title contender since Week 1. It’s in there somewhere, but it would be nice to see it soon.

Washington Post Fancy Stats
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Dolphins
4. Colts
5. Broncos

8. Seahawks: (no comments on site)

NFL Combined Power Rankings

1st: New England Patriots (last week: 3rd)
VOTES: 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd

2nd: Arizona Cardinals (last week: 2nd)
VOTES: 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd

3rd: Denver Broncos (last week: 1st)
VOTES: 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 5th

4th: Philadelphia Eagles (last week: 5th)
VOTES: 4th, 4th, 4th, 5th, novote, novote, novote

5th: Detroit Lions (last week: 8th)
VOTES: 4th, 4th, 4th, novote, novote, novote, novote

6th: Indianapolis Colts (last week: unranked)
VOTES: 4th, 5th, 5th, novote, novote, novote, novote

7th: Pittsburgh Steelers (last week: unranked)
VOTES: 5th, 5th novote, novote, novote, novote, novote

8th: Miami Dolphins (last week: unranked)
VOTES: 3rd, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote

9th: Seattle Seahawks (last week: 9th)
VOTES: 5th, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote

Fell Out Of Rankings: a.k.a. no 1st through 5th Votes this week
Dallas Cowboys (last week: 4th)
San Diego Chargers (last week: 6th)
Kansas City Chiefs (last week: 7th)

Thoughts

Not too many surprises, still the same "natural" breaks. There are a top three elite teams (no surprises who they are), a second tier great teams (about 4th through 6th) and then a third tier of good teams (about 7th through 15th).

Outliers The Fancy Stats outlier bumped the Seahawks out of their top five. I guess beating a winless team doesn't do much for your stats. They put the Dolphins at #3 (wow). My guess here: shutting out the good Chargers team and scoring 30+ points might do that for you. I really like that there is a numbers-oriented power ranking to include. I am curious if as the season goes on if the Fancy Stats start matching up more closely with analysts picks.

And how about CBS Sports putting the Seahawks at #5. That was a surprise outlier to me. Was figuring this week solid 8th through 11th rankings.

From a relative placement point of view, the interesting discussion would take place about the #1 and #2 spots and how close they are (like a 1a and 1b?) or how far apart they really are. As well as how 4th through 7th will shape up. I like the Colts there. Didn't expect to see the Eagles or Lions. I'm expecting the shoe to fall off the foot for one of those teams. I actually expected Packers, Hawks, 49ers up there. So be interesting to see how that second tier also shakes up (that includes the high third tier right now: Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers, Dolphins)



The non Seahawks teams are pretty darn compelling ranking wise and it will be interesting to see how things shape up the next two weeks

* Lions: 6-2 ?! With defense, and what happens when the offense gets REALLY rolling?
* Steelers and Big Ben, what a great few weeks. Can they keep it up?
* Pats schedule the next few weeks gets tough
* How long until Arizona loses?
* Dolphins make a statement, can they continue to roll?
* Two of the teams that beat the Seahawks: Chargers and Cowboys, DROP out of the rankings

Interesting stuff to think about

From a Seahawks point of view, not much to see. Not much to see.

I expect things to be pretty humdrum for a bit, hopefully they can maintain and cruise, and even with wins the next two weeks I don't think they will get their chance to break into the top five anytime soon. And I actually don't care either. Maybe it's the new adopted mentality

* Just make the playoffs
* Just make the playoffs
* Just get everyone healthy
* A win is a win. I'll take the close ones. Just maintain and get people healthy
* We really are not performing like the great or elite teams and won't for awhile, just keep winning

With all that stuff, that it's okay to me to stay at this B-/C+ grade range, just let's get into that final stretch ready to go and win all those suckas.

Anyway, yeah, for the most part, pretty boring stuff this week.

Somehow I've still managed to fill up a long post with what feels like inconsequential common-sensical conjecture.

You'd think I was preparing for a career in sports talk show radio.

*sigh*

 

[kearly]

The Cardinals are basically this year's 2012 Falcons, except that the Falcons were better and topped some really good teams. The NFC this year is shockingly weak. Wouldn't be surprised if the Cardinals win the NFC though, lucky bounces plus good coaching is a formidable combination.

The Patriots look like a one-and-done bye week team.

 

[byau]

The Cardinals are basically this year's 2012 Falcons, except that the Falcons were better and topped some really good teams. The NFC this year is shockingly weak. Wouldn't be surprised if the Cardinals win the NFC though, lucky bounces plus good coaching is a formidable combination.

The Patriots look like a one-and-done bye week team.

AFC vs NFC: for sure, the NFC is shockingly weak. One of the interesting non-Seahawks (well, semi-Seahawks) related stories is the AFC QB vs NFC QB production

AFC: We have Brady vs Manning. You have Andrew Luck back in after falling out last week (losing to the Steelers). And speaking of the Steelers, you also have Big Ben Roethlisberger with three AMAZING weeks of quarterbacking for him to finally get into our rankings here (ranked 5th by SBNation). And his back to back 6 TD games never-been-done before. You have a lot of record-setting in the AFC

Compare those AFC studs to the group of under-performing, slow-out-of-the-gate, and injured QBs of the NFC:

Russell Wilson: never got in on the other threads here, but the short of it: I think Luck is better. That being said, don't get me wrong, love him and for the Seahawks team, I think he is perfect

Colin Kaepernick: expected A LOT more from him this year.

Nick Foles: injured

Tony Romo: injured

Robert Griffin III: injured and did not evolve into a QB more like Wilson, discretionary with the runs. Scarmbling to keep the play alive and throw, not scrambling to run (though Wilson is really quick it seems this year to scramble to run). Under performing a bit on his potential prior to injury?

Drew Brees: have no clue what happened

Aaron Rodgers: see Drew Brees

Jay Cutler: overrated? Like what Romo is/was. Was waiting for the other shoe to drop on Romo if he did not get injured

Cam Newton: see RG3 sans injury

I don't know if I would put any NFC QB over Manning, Brady, Luck, and Big Ben right now, maybe Rodgers.

Looks like the AFC is the power house division.

Do you remember when Seattle and San Francisco were the two beat teams in the NFL?

And close behind them arguably were the Packers and Saints with the Broncos and Patriots?

 

[byau]

The Cardinals are basically this year's 2012 Falcons, except that the Falcons were better and topped some really good teams. The NFC this year is shockingly weak. Wouldn't be surprised if the Cardinals win the NFC though, lucky bounces plus good coaching is a formidable combination.

The Patriots look like a one-and-done bye week team.

And Cardinals. Yes, they seem to be for real this year. No super super stars, and best record. Fox Sports Power Rankings wrote this:

“Carson Palmer has undergone a late career renaissance under coach Bruce Arians, and one could make an argument that the Cardinals are the best-coached team in the NFL. “

Best-coached team, great team work, next man up: these guys have a lot of upside. Almost makes me feel like they are like the Seahawks of 2012 and 2013.