NFL Power Rankings Week 17: Focus on the Indianapolis Colts

Doing power rankings is tough, but because of the limited number of games on the NFL schedule, it's one of the only ways to get an idea of which teams are better besides just looking at 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.

For a large portion of the season, things were looking troublesome for the Indianapolis Colts. Not "troublesome" by the same definition that I'd use for the Redskins, Tampa Bay, Seattle or a few other folks, but the thought of the playoffs not having at least one game involving Peyton Manning taking snaps? 

That's almost unthinkable.

With an even record at 6-6, the Colts were ranked at No. 19 after Week 13, having given Dallas a win in Indiana. 

At that point, it looked like it was going to be tough to get Indy back into the playoffs and even if they did get there, a home game was going to be unlikely; even if they did get to play host, they'd have to play far better for it to even matter.

Since then, the Colts won three in a row, two in the division (one of which was a road game) and one against the playoff hopeful Raiders, and they're in a prime spot now to win the division, especially with a winnable game remaining. 

A record of 10-6 with four straight wins might actually make them one of my favorites to get deep into the postseason bracket, with momentum being a big factor. Not only is momentum important going into the playoffs, but it's a factor I consider when doing the GuysNation Power Rankings. If one team looks to have gotten back some key pieces who were injured and have turned their team around, I do my best to factor that into where they rank.

So where did I place Indianapolis in the GuysNation Power Rankings after beating the Raiders?

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 17!

You also will probably enjoy voicing your opinion through voting in nearly a dozen polls set up to help get people's feedback on the Power Rankings!

You also might like the dueling NFL Week 17 picks article on GuysNation.com, a new(ish) feature where the games on a given week's NFL schedule are debated between myself and 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!).