NFL Power Rankings Week 9: New Orleans Saints

Over 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 try to account for a team's strength of schedule, margin of victory, good wins and bad losses.

Where do the New Orleans Saints currently rank after eight weeks of NFL action have passed?

In the early part of the season, with a record just slightly above .500, the Saints were simply listed in the top half of the NFL, and I was considering them a big disappointment.  Not a bad team, but certainly a disappointment following a Super Bowl victory.

It raised the question of whether or not the Super Bowl was a fluke where all the pieces came together at the right time to take a slightly above-average team to the promised land, or whether the Saints were just experiencing some unfortunate circumstances in the early part of this season. 

The truth is certainly showing itself.

I hated the early season loss to the Falcons, as it happened on the Saints' home turf, and the loss to the Arizona Cardinals was even less inspiring, especially due to the circumstances involved.

The Week 6 drubbing of the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay was great, showing that the Saints might very well be back on track.  Then I saw them lose at home to the Cleveland Browns—a team who is not rated very well despite having shown flashes of being an above-average team.

Week 8 was a huge test for the Saints, as they were facing a team which I could very easily see in the Super Bowl this year, and much to the chagrin of my fantasy football team, New Orleans shut down the Steelers—one of the top five teams on the GuysNation.com Power Rankings.

So how did I factor that into the rankings? 

The Saints have now won nearly two-thirds of their games and are halfway to a 10-6 record, which most believe would guarantee them a playoff spot. 

Nine teams have better records than they do, but not all of them have some signature victories like the Saints do, and as I've mentioned before, I don't do the rankings based solely on winning percentage. 

Did I look past their mostly weak competition and find a way to put them into the top five?  Did I discredit their wins and look down upon their losses and keep them out of the top 10?  How many of the other 5-3 teams were ranked ahead of the Saints?

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 Week 9!