NFL Power Rankings and Thought "Nuggets": Week Seven

In today’s rankings we return to the standard 32 team format, and Ray heaps praise on the Falcons as well as gets somewhat non-P.C. concerning certain teams. Feel free to send any complaints about certain shots he might take at certain organizations and how they’re run straight to your trash bin.

I just love it when the pre-game shows and talk shows bring up points that I talked about on here two weeks before anybody else. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction that only beating up those significantly weaker than I can match.

The Top Ten

1.  Tennessee: Wouldn’t you just love to see Kerry Collins win a Super Bowl, or would that be too much for Vince Young to handle? I’d write more, but I’m laughing too hard at that thought.

2. Tampa Bay: They make the top five because they just keep winning games, period. It’ll be fun to watch this team down the back stretch of the schedule and even though I’m no fan of the cover two defenses you can’t argue against victories. I’ll end with what I say every week: When the game happens to be on the line, Tampa moves the ball and their opponents don’t.

3. Buffalo: Trent Edwards returned to practice Monday which is a good sign from a health perspective and from a winning games perspective because J.P. Losman sucks. Period. In fact, that return is the only reason they hang onto the number three slot. Meaning either I’ve drank some Trent Edwards kool-aid or he really does mean that much to this offense.

I’m not surprised they lost that game after Edwards went down. I mean what could possibly compel somebody to think they’d win with Losman under center this time around?

Buffalo is still my front runner to win the AFC East but those games against the Jets are looming larger and larger as I look dumber and dumber for writing New York’s other team off this early…

4. Pittsburgh: A bye week followed by a walk against Cincy leaves this team poised and ready to…get slaughtered in a murderer’s row sort of schedule.

The best thing they have going for them right now is that the Colts, Chargers and Giants all come to them. Willie Parker better be ready to go otherwise it’ll be tough because I’m not sold that Ben Roethlisberger’s shoulder is ready to roll.

5. San Diego: Is overcoming Norv Turner I guess?

I love it when I’m wrong about this team being dead in the water. When we rank San Diego we must remember the Hochuli factor. For all intents and purposes I’m considering them 4-2.

The Chargers will eventually reclaim first place from Denver and might just make a Super Bowl run. I’d be happy with that, since I think of the three quarterbacks to do much from his draft class, Rivers deserves a championship the most. Plus I find that I like the guy.

6. New York (Giants): The Browns are not that good. Eli Manning comes back to earth after spending the better part of the past year on top of the world. I’m justifying this drop because no matter who you happen to be missing or playing against, if you’re a championship team you don’t put up stink bombs like they did Monday Night.

7. Washington: What the flipping hell man? I talk all kinds of smack to friends and bleacher creatures alike about how good you are and how underrated and unappreciated you are and I get thanked with a three turnover effort against the St. Louis Train-wrecks? Don’t ever, EVER, do that again if you want to win in February. The fall from two in the rankings is perfectly justified here since it embodies the steps backward they took.

8. Dallas: Another loss where Tony Romo takes undeserved flack. Look, I’m a Romo hater too, but this loss isn’t on him. That line didn’t block at all and his receivers drop passes like it’s going out of style.

The defensive back-field is anything but good, heck I’d even venture to say they’re worse than mediocre. Marion Barber is the best thing this team has going for it.

I’m really starting to think that Big D won’t make the playoffs, which is fine with me because I loathe Dallas and love volatile off-seasons featuring diva players and annoying owners!

9. Denver: With Jay Cutler back on planet earth and the defense looking at least a little improved it’s time to realize something: San Diego is still better.

10. Indianapolis: The Colts are back, baby. Indy has officially hit full stride which means that everybody else is screwed.

As soon as Sanders gets back this team will play at full strength and then watch out, because the AFC is frankly in a down year. You know, despite the nice progress with Tennessee and Buffalo, an Indianapolis v. San Diego championship game isn’t a stretch.

The Melting Pot Middle

11. Arizona: For a team with a miserable defensive backfield, they did a fabulous job of stopping the Cowboys good half of a team. In fact, a big play from Marion Barber aside, they were in control throughout that entire game.

This team proved its mettle by winning a huge game not just for the season but for the progression of the franchise. I hate to say something like this in going into Week Seven but they’ve got their feet on the throats of the rest of the NFC West already. Congratulations Cardinals, you’re a real football team.

12. Jacksonville: Well it was fun while it lasted. Playoff wise, Jacksonville has two things going for them: A light remaining schedule and already one leg up on Indianapolis. I don’t for see it lasting though; this defense has suffered a huge drop off from last season.

13. Philadelphia: Don’t get excited with the win against San Francisco, your team is still really overrated and kind of bad. Have fun sitting in last place.

14. Carolina: Talk about losing when it really mattered. The Panthers looked really bad against Tampa Bay as they reverted back to struggling on offense.

Mushin Muhammad isn’t a number two receiver anymore and Carolina could use another deep threat. This team got killed for the same reason they always get killed: Delhomme turned the ball over. That’s not a good sign against Tampa who runs the archaic cover two.

Division losses will be key for the Panthers if they want to stay competitive in the NFC South which is starting to look like the new best division in football.

15. New Orleans: Even though they still are and always will be that underachieving kid, they’re finding ways to win. This is the best offense in football, period. That counts for a lot especially in a season where not too many teams are playing particularly good defense. We’ll see where it goes from here but this is another team that can win a lot of games really fast if they just do what they’re built to do.

16. Atlanta: Matt Ryan is for real, kids. There’s a lot of talk about the clock and what not from last week’s meeting with the Bears but in reality Atlanta just out-played Chicago.

This defense keeps their under 28 streak alive despite being abysmal in zone coverage. I’m still not sold on a play-off berth or anything to that extent but it’s fun to watch.

I’d snap up my Matt Ryan rookie cards now just to be safe because good protection aside, he has made some really impressive throws this season.

17. Green Bay: They could probably be ranked a lot higher if they were healthy but they aren’t. They have the following things going for them: A bye week coming up to get healthy, Aaron Rodgers looking good, and the fact that they play in a crap division.

This defense is on life support so where they end up is anybody’s guess though hopefully (for me anyway) it’s in the post season.

18. New York (Jets): I’d love to be sold on this team because of my man crush on Eric Mangini but I’m just not. Two cake walks should bring them to 5-2 before I make a judgment on the rest of the season in the first weekend of November when they go to Buffalo.

Way more importantly, what is with these uniforms?

19. New England: Isn’t going to do much of anything this year. Normally I’d be caught rooting for Matt Cassel because he’s a guy who has done everything the way it should be done. There are a lot of reasons to like to watch the Pats falter though, and the possibility of a Randy Moss blow up is right at the top of the list.

20. Baltimore: Well hey at least they’re back to earth. There’s life, just not for this season.

21. Miami: I don’t care if they lose out; this team is just way too fun to watch. Who would have thought a defensive melt down would cause a Dolphins loss? At any rate they’ve got their act together and will play spoiler down the stretch. If you’re looking to place a Super Bowl 44 bet, consider laying some money on Miami to represent the AFC next season.

22. Chicago: Got out-played by a team in a totally different class again.

They’re another team that could have a lot more wins if they were healthy. The offense looked good again for the most part, and word around here is that Kyle Orton engineered the world’s first game winning drive in a loss.

Hunter Hillenmeyer proved again that he’s a class A linebacker with his play. Chicago isn’t exactly out of the play-off picture, but with repeated defensive collapses they aren’t really in it either.

23. Minnesota: Came within three points of losing to Detroit. I’d write more but seriously guys, come on.

24. San Francisco: This team had a chance to beat a grossly overrated Philadelphia team late in the fourth quarter. J.T. O’Sullivan hasn’t looked good unless he’s playing against defenses that wouldn’t make the practice squad of most average NFL teams.

Mike Nolan will be out at year’s end and it’ll be time to start re-building…again. Other than the fans, the real loser here is Frank Gore who is looking to post some sickening career totals for when it’s all said and done. Too bad his chances of even being on a play-off squad are looking bleaker and bleaker.

25. Houston: When a franchise has done nothing except try to build winners, it’s tough to watch them be bad. The good news is they have Matt Schaub back. The bad news is the same as always; they’re behind the eight ball in the AFC South.

The Cellar

26. Cleveland: I’m not going to lie here; I was so confident that they’d lose to New York that I had spent my dead time on an NIU computer writing up these rankings before the game was even played, factoring the G-Men in at one.

They certainly did look better, maybe it’s a sign of things to come…or maybe it’s a broken clock being right twice a day.

27. Seattle: Why Mike Holmgren is subjecting himself to this is beyond me. He’s going to be out after this season anyway, just walk away and let Seattle start evaluating what it’s got for his successor to work with. I don’t think anybody would begrudge him walking away mid-season given that he said this was his last year anyway and that he took that franchise to greater heights than they’d ever even come close to having before.

They have no receivers and are down to the local bar-flies to run the defense. They should really hope that Matt Hasselbeck gets back soon because Charlie Frye looks really bad.

I felt awful watching that game because at one point I had thought Frye could be a decent NFL quarterback. It was kind of like a “wow I can’t believe I used to date him (or in my personal cases her)” kind of thing.

28.  Kansas City: Trade Larry Johnson and Tony Gonzalez to get picks and players. Then fire Herm Edwards and start fresh, along with a new quarterback (I humbly suggest Matthew Stafford). In the mean time you can sign Steve Bono to take snaps until he’s ready.

That’s right. I just referenced Steve Bono. Winner winner.

29. St. Louis: Credit the defense, it looked a lot better this week and against a Redskins team that should be competing come January. I don’t think there’s a lot of hope for this season for reasons that should be really obvious to the people reading what I write.

If St. Louis can manage a four or five win season, Haslett needs to be given a contract extension as a head coach. There’s a lot of work to do here but at least we know they aren’t dead.

30. Oakland: Well, thank the good Lord they fired Lane Kiffin because this team looked light years better without him as their coach.

31. Detroit: As I understand it, Detroit should have scored a win against Minnesota. Given what I’ve seen, heard, and read about that game I’d have to agree. You hate to keep them bottom two when you know they got screwed as bad as they did but your quarterback scrambled out of the back of the end-zone. That’s inexcusable.

32. Cincinnati: The worst franchise in football. There are enough reports and rumors going around about Carson Palmer needing surgery that I’ll let myself believe there’s something to them.

Your defense can’t stop anybody, you’re risking the ruin of your franchise quarterback to save an unsaveable season, and you needed a running back and signed Cedric Benson? Are you kidding me? Cedric Benson? A wash-out player who will just bring more baggage and police blotter sightings to an already undisciplined and bad Bengals team?

It’s time to take a page from your baseball brethren and start dumping players you know aren’t in the long term plans at this point in favor of players who can help you win or draft picks. Oh, and fire Marvin Lewis too, he’s become a joke of a head coach.

“The Nuggets”

Game of the week: New Orleans/Carolina. A lot of people will probably say Green Bay/Indy but I’m thinking the Colts just stomp all over my Packers. Carolina will have to win to stay ahead of the curve and a win puts New Orleans, the favorite for the division at the start of the year, right back on level ground with the other teams.

Non-football thought: TBS is horrible, both as a sports network and as a place to watch god awful movies from the early nineties.

Non-sport thought: Getting to watch Charlie Sheen play an alcoholic, panty hound, uncle for a half hour made that Blackhawks game so much more bearable…

Stat of the Week: Drew Brees. Yes he’s a stat now.

Give them credit: TBS again. If I were that bad at something I’d give up. They’re teaching America’s youth the virtue of stick-to-itiveness.

End Note: Again, it’s really agitating to read political shots in sports writing no matter what side or where it appears.

Don’t bother feeding me that “people can write about whatever they want, however they want to” line either. I’m fully aware of mankind’s free-will.

Ray Bogusz can be reached via comments boxes or email: raybogusz@yahoo.com

He loves to read and respond to your feedback because he has little better to do at school/work and because the phrase “read and respond” rekindles nostalgia of elementary school.

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