NFL Power Rankings Wild Card Weekend Edition: Focus on The Indianapolis Colts

Doing power rankings is tough, but because of the limited number of games on an NFL schedule, it's one of the only ways to get an idea for which teams are better than others, accounting for factors other than just their records. 

At my site—www.GuysNation.com—I do a weekly power ranking of all 32 NFL teams.  It's a hugely subjective process in which I account for a team's strength of schedule, margin of victory, good wins and bad losses.

Now that the playoffs are here, that doesn't mean the power rankings have to stop.  There's still the final opportunity to rank the teams who didn't make the playoffs, as well as the first of a couple more chances to rank the teams involved in the postseason bracket.

So where did the Indianapolis Colts rank?

As one of the playoff teams, they are definitely in the top 12.  From there, I took far more into account than just the teams records.  I also consider how they fared against other teams currently in the playoffs, their recent record, as well as considering how they match up in the first round of the playoffs.

Though the Jets have a better record than the Colts, Rex Ryan and company have the unenviable task of traveling to Indianapolis for the Wild Card Weekend to face the AFC South Division champion.

It's going to take a strong pass defense to slow Peyton Manning, which should be considered one of the strengths of the Jets with Revis and the underrated Cromartie.  Indianapolis won't be as one-dimensional as they seemed six weeks ago, as they now have their running backs situation all squared up with injuries all healed at the right time. 

The Colts have done a great job the past few weeks doing everything they had to do to get into the playoffs, and now they're facing a very tough team in the Jets, who did a good job last few weeks on offense. 

The Jets defense has looked human, however, and the large scoring output allowed by the Bears when they played the Jets was really surprising to me and it makes me think that New York is going to have to do a lot better if they want to move on to the second round.

Where amongst the final 12 did the Colts end up?

For the complete rankings and analysis, check out the article on my website, www.GuysNation.com! Unlike Power Rankings you see elsewhere, your comments could help persuade me to rank your team better after Wild Card Weekend!

You also might like the dueling picks article for the NFL Wild Card Weekend on GuysNation.com, a feature where the games this weekend are predicted by 5 different guys, sharing their perspectives, started by another author on my site (who just happens to be a LIFELONG PHILADELPHIA EAGLES FAN, so you KNOW he's got a high opinion of his opinion!)