NFL Power Rankings Week 9: Focus on the New England Patriots

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 England Patriots currently rank?

Last week, they were ranked fifth, having slowly moved up the rankings despite not playing stellar defense and giving away Randy Moss a month ago.

What did the Patriots do in Week 8 to move my opinion in one direction or another?

They followed up a moderately weak road game victory out in San Diego against a sputtering Chargers team by hosting the hapless Minnesota Vikings and picking up a victory by a fair margin.

I'd have to think that Patriots fans would've expected Brett Favre and company to go home a little more frustrated, but maybe with Randy Moss on the other side of the ball and Favre throwing to him (at the time, anyway), maybe the New England fans were just happy that those two didn't explode for a huge Vikings scoring output, or that Adrian Peterson didn't take the game into his own hands.

What was more important for the Patriots in this week's power rankings wasn't what happened in Massachusetts, but in three other key games of the week.  Three of my other Top Five teams from last week didn't fare well at all... with one of them actually getting shut out at home to a non-divisional opponent! 

If the Jets had been shut down against the Buffalo Bills or even the Miami Dolphins, that would've been one thing (as Patriots fans can attest to, having been shut out 37-0 against the Buffalo Bills a few seasons ago), but the Packers aren't even in the AFC!  The Steelers and Titans also both lost, and the Ravens didn't have a scheduled game, so they couldn't get traction.

What did I come up with for Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the rest of the Patriots in my Power Rankings?

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!