NFL Week 12: The Top 12 Teams at Thanksgiving

If the playoffs were to start today, you'd have six teams from each conference in the mix to compete for a spot in the Super Bowl. They'd come from division winners and the two best teams from each conference who didn't win their division.

Supposing the playoffs were more like how NCAA March Madness is setup; below are the Top 12 teams who would fill the NFL brackets as we approach Thanksgiving.

1. Green Bay Packers (10-0)

This one's the easiest ranking of the group. The undefeated reigning Super Bowl Champions are still atop the heap, and I dare anyone to justify otherwise.

2. San Francisco 49ers (9-1)

They started this six-week span (in which they're undefeated) with a win over the Detroit Lions. Following their bye week, they've looked lackluster against mostly bad teams. A win in San Francisco against the Browns following the bye should've been by more than 10 points. The victory over the Redskins by eight was only decent because it was held on the East Coast.

The New York Giants are on this list, so the win over them is resume-worthy, but the Giants had to travel across the country to play the game, so factor that in the 49'ers favor and maybe they should've won by more than seven.

A win at home against the Cardinals last week is worth mentioning, but not impressive in the slightest. San Fran is nowhere near worthy to take the top spot from the Packers.

3. Houston Texans (7-3)

Currently on a four-game win streak, the Texans only have one loss during this time frame. What keeps them in the third spot is the fact that all of those four wins have been by double-digit margins. Two of them were road games in which they defeated their opponents by four or more touchdowns.

4. Pittsburgh Steelers (7-3)

The only loss the Steelers have in this time frame was to the same team Houston lost to, but Baltimore is a divisional opponent, and the Steelers lost to them at home. Equally as uninspired is the fact that they only beat Jacksonville by four and Arizona by 12. The wins over the Patriots and Bengals were good but they don't warrant placing them ahead of the Texans.

5. Chicago Bears (7-3)

Undefeated in this span, the Bears quite possibly deserve to be higher, but they lack signature wins. Sure, they beat the Lions at home by 24, but that's all I have to be impressed by in this span. Beating Minnesota by 29 in Chicago? Not impressive. The Vikings are a bad team.

Tampa Bay and Philly by six points each? Decent, but not strong. Lastly, the Chargers aren't a good team either, and so the 11 point win over them in Chicago isn't a huge resume-boost either. Still, they're in the top five ahead of some teams who would like to claim they shouldn't be.

6. New England Patriots (7-3)

The last two weeks have shown that Bill Belichick is getting his team back on track, with a three touchdown win over the Jets in New York and a 31-point shellacking of the Chiefs on Monday Night Football. Keeping things in perspective, neither of those teams are on this list.

The Chiefs game was in New England against a team who is trying to deal with their starting QB being lost to injury the week prior. They beat the Cowboys by four at the start of this six-week span, but after their bye week the following weekend, they lost two straight to the only two good teams on their schedule.

The losses were by single digits, which weighs well in their favor, especially because they are good teams.

7. Baltimore Ravens (7-3)

During this span, the Ravens have beaten two teams higher than them on the list; they also lost more games in this span than either of them. The win in Pittsburgh was basically a push because it was only by three points.

Losing to Jacksonville AND Seattle? I don't care if the outcomes were only by five points and the game on the road, those are both bad losses. The win against the Bengals last week was a resume boost, but the win by only three points while hosting Arizona in Week 8 is almost a loss in my book.

8. Atlanta Falcons (6-4)

Sure, they've only got one loss during the six-week span, a home game loss to a tough divisional opponent in the Saints by a mere three points. Nothing else other than a win in Detroit by seven is exciting in the slightest. Beating Carolina, in Georgia, by 14?—nothing special. A win over the Colts by 24 in Indianapolis? Everyone is beating up on the Colts. Letting Tennessee come within a touchdown of beating you in Week 11 when the game is being played in Atlanta? That's rough.

9. Dallas Cowboys (6-4)

The Cowboys are tough to rank because even they don't know what kind of team they are. Losing in New England to the Patriots by just four is almost a win in my book despite their short-comings in week 6. In fact, I give them more credit for that outcome than beating the Rams in Dallas by 27 the following week.

I don't fault the Cowboys for losing to the Eagles in Philly, but the week 8 loss was by 27 points—which you can't do against a divisional opponent. Beating Seattle by 10? Eh, not so great, especially since the Seahawks were visiting.

The win over Buffalo by 37 points was huge in week 10 but then to travel to Washington and face a mightily struggling Redskins team, have the game go to over-time and nearly lose when the 'Skins' kicker had the chance to score the winning points? That's as bad as a loss on their resume, if you're trying to decide where to rank teams amongst playoff elite squads.

10. New Orleans Saints (7-3)

Just like the Cowboys, I'm seeing two losses during this span on the Saints resume. Their losses were both on the road, but the Bucs and the Rams aren't nearly the caliber of opponent that defeated Dallas. New Orleans only has three wins during the span to off-set those losses.

The Falcons are on this list (as you've seen), but the other two aren't. Sure, beating the Colts by 55 is impressive—unless of course you look at that offensive exertion as potentially the reason they lost the following week to the Rams.

11. Cincinnati Bengals (6-4)

The Bengals have two divisional losses in as many weeks leading into this list, but at least Cleveland wasn't one of those teams. The margin in both contests saw them fall by just a touchdown, which is something that weighed nicely in their favor considering that those two opponents are both in the Top 10.

12. New York Giants (6-4)

This is where the majority of the analysis comes in, because for the Giants to get in, the Lions at 7-3 didn't make the list, nor did the Raiders at 6-4. Detroit misses the list because they've lost three of their last five games. Although all three of those teams are on this list, two of those games were contested at Ford Field.

Oakland misses the list because they lost to two teams not on this list and then had victories over sub-par teams by seven points or fewer each time. The Giants have lost their last two, but one of those was by seven points in a game where they played a 1-loss 49'ers team in San Francisco.

The loss in week 11 to the Eagles isn't saying much, but it was only by seven points and it was a divisional game. They don't impress—that was a home game for the Giants and because two of the three AFC East wins the Giants got in the past six weeks weren't very impressive either.

The third game was against the Patriots in New England, which does speak well and is probably a deciding factor in narrowly putting them into this list above Oakland and the Jets.

One More From the AFC?

If you were counting, that was seven from the NFC and five from the AFC. Technically, the Giants wouldn't be involved in playoffs since they aren't in the top six from their conference, which means I would need one more team from the AFC. While you might think that would be Oakland or the Jets, it's not.

It's the Denver Broncos.

No, I'm not a Tim Tebow fan. I agree with John Elway that Tebow isn't the long-term answer in Denver, but over the past five weeks, the Broncos have only lost once.

Considering those two AFC teams I just mentioned, the Broncos have wins over both of them in the past three weeks. They beat Oakland in week 9 on the road by 14, and as you likely saw this past Sunday night, they beat the Jets in Denver.

Agree to Disagree?

I don't go by that logic. I want to know why you think I'm an idiot (or something in a little nicer terms, possibly?) and I want to hear why your logic is better. Explain to me where I went wrong, and I'll consider it for next week.

For now, I'm going to go back to working on my website, GuysNation.com, where we've got stories of all types from over a dozen different contributors.

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