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JohninGpt
10-23-2007, 11:07 AM
ESPN Power Rankings (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/powerranking?season=2007&week=8)

Still has the Bolts ranked a bit high for a second place team, but hey, beats the hell out of Peter Kings rankings.

2007 Power Rankings: Week 8
RK (LW) TEAM REC COMMENT
1 (1) Patriots 7-0-0 Randy Moss has been able to do in seven games what no Patriots receiver has done in the last 20 years -- catch 10 touchdown passes in a season. But Wes Welker and Benjamin Watson also are on pace for 10-TD seasons.
2 (2) Colts 6-0-0 Not that this comes as any great revelation, but the AFC South race is essentially over. After whipping the Jaguars in Jacksonville on Monday, the Colts have now beaten all three division foes on the road.
3 (4) Cowboys 6-1-0 Marion Barber III may not have all-world talent, but is there any tougher runner in the league? Cowboys fans may wonder why he's not starting, but perhaps that's exactly the kind of motivation he needs.
4 (9) Giants 5-2-0 The Giants, who'll be 6-2 after they beat Miami in London on Sunday, haven't lost since Antonio Pierce blew an airhorn while speaking to the media. 'I just sparked something,' he told the NY Post.
5 (6) Packers 5-1-0 Not only are the Packers last in the league with 394 yards rushing, but that total is less than the league's top 19 individual rushers. No wonder Brett Favre said, 'We're hanging on by a thread.'
6 (3) Steelers 4-2-0 Weird play-calling: Despite facing the league's worst run defense, the Steelers opted to pass on 10 of their first 13 plays Sunday. Oh, and did we mention that the Steelers have the best rushing team in the AFC?
7 (5) Jaguars 4-2-0 How quickly fortunes can change in the NFL. The Jags were riding high with a four-game win streak. Now the streak is over, they play the next three on the road, and QB David Garrard is injured.
8 (12) Titans 4-2-0 Good news for the Titans: Their next three games are at home. Better news: QB Vince Young should return from injury this week against the Raiders.
9 (10) Chargers 3-3-0 Just when the Chargers are starting to find themselves, they now have to deal with the wildfire problem that has affected the home of a dozen players and even more staff members. Practice this week will be in Arizona.
10 (11) Redskins 4-2-0 So, do the Redskins have any hope of pulling off the upset in New England this week? Well, if their running game gets going, and the secondary plays its best and ... oh, forget it. No way.
11 (15) Lions 4-2-0 The Lions have started 4-2 for the sixth time since the NFL expanded to a 16-game season in 1978. But in just two of the previous five times did the Lions make the playoffs.
12 (13) Panthers 4-2-0 One of the amazing stats connected to 43-year-old Vinny Testaverde: Since he was drafted No. 1 overall in 1987, 239 quarterbacks have been drafted. Oh, and 1987 was also the last time the Celtics reached the NBA Finals.
13 (16) Chiefs 4-3-0 Second-year safety Jarrad Page has five career regular-season interceptions ... and four have come at the expense of the Raiders, including Sunday's pick that preserved the Chiefs win.
14 (7) Ravens 4-3-0 The Ravens have a tough second half after their bye week, with games against the Pats, colts, Chargers and two vs. the Steelers. But it appears starting QB Steve McNair will soon return to the lineup.
15 (14) Seahawks 4-3-0 The schedule following Seattle's bye week sets up for a good run. The Seahawks, who lead the NFC West, will not face a team currently with a winning record until mid-December when they face the 4-2 Panthers.
16 (8) Buccaneers 4-3-0 Earnest Graham had his best game as a pro, with 92 yards rushing and 99 yards receiving. Newcomer Michael Bennett should relieve some of the burden on Graham once he gets up to speed.
17 (21) Broncos 3-3-0 Including Sunday's 49-yarder at the gun to beat Pittsburgh, Jason Elam has kicked the Broncos to each of its three wins this season. That gives Elam 23 game-winning or game-saving field goals in his career.
18 (23) Bears 3-4-0 Has Brian Griese brought some stability -- dare we say, even play-making ability -- to the QB position? Griese had his second straight game of 300-plus yards and led the team on a 97-yard drive to beat Philly.
19 (19) Browns 3-3-0 Forget about the Pats' record pace on offense. The Browns are on pace to score a franchise-record 445 points; the current franchise record is 415 set in 1964. That team, by the way, had Jim Brown and Paul Warfield.
20 (18) Cardinals 3-4-0 WR Anquan Boldin has a warning for those teams who've yet to face the Cardinals this season. 'Next nine games, whoever we got, they better bring their A game,' he told the Arizona Republic.
21 (20) Texans 3-4-0 The Texans' running game is virtually non-existent (just 12 carries in the loss to Tennessee). Ahman Green averaged 4.6 yards on his first 31 carries this season; he's averaged 2.8 on the last 31.
22 (17) Eagles 2-4-0 The Eagles are off to their worst start since Andy Reid's first season as the head coach (1999), and with the other three NFC East teams off to strong starts, it may be too much to climb out of the basement.
23 (27) Bengals 2-4-0 Give the Bengals credit for sticking with the run after falling behind 23-10 to the Jets. Cincy's 41 rushing attempts were its most in a game since 2003. 'Old-fashioned Bengals football,' tackle Levin Jones told the Cincy Enquirer.
24 (26) Saints 2-5-0 Reggie Bush has 86 carries this season, with his longest going for 22 yards. Pierre Thomas, an undrafted free agent from Illinois, has three carries this season, with 24 yards as his longest. Go figure.
25 (28) Bills 2-4-0 In Buffalo's first three games (all losses), opponents averaged 458.3 yards to Buffalo's 200. In the last three games (two wins), opponents' average has dropped to 346.3 while the Bills have increased to 258.3.
26 (22) Vikings 2-4-0 Perhaps in time, Tarvaris Jackson will be a serviceable quarterback, maybe even a playoff-caliber one. But it's not happening now, and the Vikings are suffering for it.
27 (25) Raiders 2-4-0 It's official: The Raiders have scored more touchdowns this season (13) than in all of last season. But that doesn't mean the offense is worth watching -- it had just 90 first-half yards Sunday.
28 (24) 49ers 2-4-0 A promising start has now turned into four consecutive losses. A frustrated Frank Gore said that some players aren't trusting the play-calling of new offensive coordinator Jim Hostler. Sounds like a mutiny!
29 (29) Falcons 1-6-0 Is there a curse associated with playing quarterback for the Falcons? Michael Vick's problems. Joey Harrington's benching. Now Byron Leftwich's injury. Note to Chris Redman: You've been warned!
30 (30) Jets 1-6-0 Twice in the last three weeks, the Jets have blown 10-point halftime leads and have been outscored in the fourth quarter 73-35. 'The frustration is reaching another level,' Jerricho Cotchery told the NY Daily News.
31 (31) Rams 0-7-0 The Rams began playing football in 1937 -- and until this season, they had never started 0-7. On the positive side, Donnie Jones' 80-yard punt Sunday was the franchise's longest since 1947. So there's that.
32 (32) Dolphins 0-7-0 Anybody else feel sorry for British fans who shelled out big bucks to see two NFL teams play a meaningful game in London ... and one of those teams is the league's worst? Maybe they won't know Ronnie Brown is out.

Wile_E_Coyote
10-23-2007, 11:10 AM
13??? How the heck are the Chiefs close to top 10

Deberg_1990
10-23-2007, 11:11 AM
13??? How the heck are the Chiefs close to top 10


Who would you put above them there??

Molitoth
10-23-2007, 11:16 AM
Who would you put above them there??

The Buccs.

Wile_E_Coyote
10-23-2007, 11:16 AM
Who would you put above them there??

This pathetic offense should keep them out of the top half

StcChief
10-23-2007, 11:16 AM
Anybody else feel sorry for British fans who shelled out big bucks to see two NFL teams play a meaningful game in London ... and one of those teams is the league's worst? Maybe they won't know Ronnie Brown is out.

I don't and they won't care, the Pints will be flowing

JohninGpt
10-23-2007, 11:16 AM
The Buccs.
Ravens? Seahawks?

Deberg_1990
10-23-2007, 11:18 AM
Lions, Bronocs, Ravens, Buccs, Seahawks, CHiefs.....

all about the same...

Wile_E_Coyote
10-23-2007, 11:20 AM
I would be leery going to any event that the US was involved in Europe. Not saying it will get bombed, but security should be a nightmare. A warranted nightmare

boogblaster
10-23-2007, 11:21 AM
GO CHIEFS 13 sounds good to me ....

Pablo
10-23-2007, 11:21 AM
Ravens? Seahawks?I can see the Chiefs ahead of the Ravens and Bucs because this is like a snapshot from week to week. The Bucs and Ravens both lost on Sunday and the Chiefs won. Baltimore lost to Buffalo, and the Seahawks smashed St. Louis. C'mon. For Chiefs fans y'all sure are some negative motherf-ers.

StcChief
10-23-2007, 11:24 AM
I would be leery going to any event that the US was involved in Europe. Not saying it will get bombed, but security should be a nightmare. A warranted nightmare
British cops will be "Profiling" no doubt

Pablo
10-23-2007, 11:25 AM
It's nice how the Chargers mananged to move up in the rankings on a Bye. I'm sure the Chiefs will be shown equal favortism in next weeks rankings. I really wouldn't be surprised is SD got smashed next week and all these media-type idiots still kept them in the Top 10. Get off the Chargers nuts already.. they're a good team, not great like they were last year. They'll finish out with a respectable record but they're not gonna run away with the AFC West, and they don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Colts, Patriots or Steelers.

JohninGpt
10-23-2007, 11:25 AM
I can see the Chiefs ahead of the Ravens and Bucs because this is like a snapshot from week to week. The Bucs and Ravens both lost on Sunday and the Chiefs won. Baltimore lost to Buffalo, and the Seahawks smashed St. Louis. C'mon. For Chiefs fans y'all sure are some negative motherf-ers.
Actually, I was happy to see us ranked this high, but with all the negative media this season I wouldn't have been shocked, or overly dissappointed to see us somewhere between 13 and 16.

Extra Point
10-23-2007, 11:28 AM
Go, Phoenix!

Anyong Bluth
10-23-2007, 11:29 AM
Who would you put above them there??

2007 Power Rankings: Week 8
RK TEAM REC COMMENT
1 Patriots 7-0-0
2 Colts 6-0-0
3 Cowboys 6-1-0
4 Giants 5-2-0
5 Packers 5-1-0
6 Jaguars 4-2-0
7 Steelers 4-2-0
8 Titans 4-2-0
9 Chargers 3-3-0
10 Redskins 4-2-0
11 Panthers 4-2-0
12 Chiefs 4-3-0
13 Seahawks 4-3-0
14 Buccaneers 4-3-0
15 Lions 4-2-0
16 Ravens 4-3-0
17 Bears 3-4-0
18 Broncos 3-3-0
19 Texans 3-4-0
20 Browns 3-3-0
21 Cardinals 3-4-0
22 Eagles 2-4-0
23 Bills 2-4-0
24 Bengals 2-4-0
25 Vikings 2-4-0
26 Saints 2-5-0
27 Raiders 2-4-0
28 49ers 2-4-0
29 Falcons 1-6-0
30 Jets 1-6-0
31 Rams 0-7-0
32 Dolphins 0-7-0

as I'd see it...

Wile_E_Coyote
10-23-2007, 11:34 AM
I must be a cynic. If the Chiefs are the 12th or 13th best team out of 32. The NFL is in one sorry state

HUARD FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!

Direckshun
10-23-2007, 11:46 AM
I must be a cynic. If the Chiefs are the 12th or 13th best team out of 32. The NFL is in one sorry state

HUARD FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!
Only one team has scored 20 points or more on us.

Anyong Bluth
10-23-2007, 11:51 AM
I must be a cynic. If the Chiefs are the 12th or 13th best team out of 32. The NFL is in one sorry state

HUARD FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!


No, this year is just a very random year in terms of strength of the NFL

You have the Pats that look unstoppable. Then the Colts that actually do too, just not as much as the Pats to this point.

After that you have maybe 4-6 very solid teams. Then i think there is quite a drop off off a bunch of very marginal talent and any one could beat any one. Last, you have about 4-5 teams that are just in the tank.

What the reality is this year is that there are the Pats and Indy, and everyone else just gets to play along. Only team that has talent I think is SD, but that would take quite a 2nd half turn around?
The rest is just a mess of pick'em games depending on whose at home and what injuries each team has.

jjchieffan
10-23-2007, 12:50 PM
Quite an improvement. Hard to believe we were ranked dead last just a few weeks ago, and now, we are ranked essentially as a bubble team, just one spot out of playoff contention.

HemiEd
10-23-2007, 12:53 PM
This pathetic offense should keep them out of the top half
Tell that to the 2000 Ravens.

HemiEd
10-23-2007, 12:55 PM
Lions, Bronocs, Ravens, Buccs, Seahawks, CHiefs.....

all about the same...

In preseason, the Ravens were my dark horse pick to win it all this year. They are severely underachieving IMO.

beach tribe
10-23-2007, 12:58 PM
Looks about right to me.

InChiefsHeaven
10-23-2007, 01:06 PM
9 (10) Chargers 3-3-0 Just when the Chargers are starting to find themselves, they now have to deal with the wildfire problem that has affected the home of a dozen players and even more staff members. Practice this week will be in Arizona.

Oh Lord, now they are going to do everything they can to turn them into the Saints...

...this is not a slam on the poor folks dealing with the wildfires by the way, but it's the way the media would love to have another great story like what the Saints did after Katrina...

Anyong Bluth
10-23-2007, 01:29 PM
Tell that to the 2000 Ravens.

The best defense of all time?
By Eddie Epstein
ESPN.com

Let me say it up front. I am a Ravens fan. I was born and raised in Baltimore and spent many Sundays at Memorial Stadium watching the Colts play. I was at the complex "that night" in March of 1984. Even though I moved away from Baltimore before the "birth" of the Ravens, I have had Ravens season tickets since the beginning.

However, when it comes to evaluating the claim as to whether or not the 2000 Ravens have the best defense of all time, I'm going to let the numbers do the talking. And some of the numbers are not going to be too familiar to many of you.

The statistical concept of standard deviation measures how much a team dominated its contemporaries with little or no temporal bias. In the book Baseball Dynasties, we found that the best baseball teams of 1995 are as many standard deviations from the league average in runs scored and runs allowed as the best teams of 1905 or 1955. The same is true in football.

Before the Ravens won the Super Bowl, much was said that their defense could not be considered as being among the best in history unless they won the Super Bowl. So, we looked at Super Bowl winning teams beginning in 1978, when the 16-game schedule was introduced and rules were changed to open up the passing game (in baseball, the rules have remained remarkably consistent. Football has been relatively constant since 1978). And we excluded the strike years of 1982 and '87.

That said, the two defenses that stand out are the 1985 Bears and the 2000 Ravens. Here is a chart comparing those two teams in basic categories and showing their rank among all 602 team seasons from 1978 to 2000:

'85 Bears vs. 00' Ravens

1. Team Allowed
2. Yards Allowed
3. Yards Allowed Per Rush
4. Opponents Passer Rating

85 Bears
1. 198, 5th
2. 4135, 17th
3. 3.67, 145th
4. 51.2, 5th

00 Ravens
1. 165, 1st
2. 3967, 8th
3. 2.69, 1st
4. 62.5, 52nd

The Ravens outrank the Bears in three of these four categories, although in points allowed and yards allowed, the teams are relatively close.
Exploring Standard Deviation
Here is a brief explanation of standard deviation and how it applies to football.

Standard deviation is used to measure the dispersion, or difference, in a set of numbers. In other words, it is a measure of how much the numbers differ from each other calculated using the "average" difference of each number from the mean of the group.

Here's an example that might help. Applying this concept to measuring how much a team "dominated" its contemporaries is easy. Let's look at points scored and points allowed for the 2000 Rams. The Rams scored 540 points and allowed 471. The league mean for both (a point scored for one team is a point allowed for the other) was about 330.8. The standard deviation for points scored in 2000 was 82.3, which means:(540-330.8)/82.3 = 2.54; the Rams were 2.54 standard deviations better than the league average in points scored.

For their points allowed total, we do the math "backwards" because more points allowed is worse. The standard deviation for points allowed in 2000 was 73.5:(330.8-471)/73.5 = -1.91; the Rams were 1.91 standard deviations worse than the league average in points allowed

The '85 Bears and the '00 Ravens are two of just six teams that allowed fewer than 200 points in a 16-game schedule; the Ravens are one of only eight teams to allow fewer than 4,000 yards. The Bears were better at defending the pass than the Ravens while the Ravens were better against the run.

Here's where standard deviation enters the equation. Standard deviation simply measures the spread in a set of numbers. The more closely a set of numbers is bunched together, the smaller the standard deviation. As pro sports leagues have matured, the standard deviation in performance among players and teams has gotten smaller. That fact means that simply comparing performance to the league average in a given season might be misleading. But using standard deviation allows you to accurately compare teams across seasons.

Look at this first:

Standard Deviations
1. Std. Dev. NFL Avg. in Points Allowed
2. Std. Dev. NFL Avg. in Yards Allowed


1985 Bears
1. +2.33, 3rd
2. +2.02, 15th

2000 Ravens
1. +2.25, 5th
2. +2.08, 12th

Using standard deviations, these two teams are almost identical. How identical? In the book Baseball Dynasties, we simply added the two standard deviation scores (runs scored and runs allowed) to get a team's total score. If you add the points allowed and yards allowed standard deviation scores to get an overall defense score, this is what you get (overall ranking is listed second):

Overall Defense
Overall Defense Score, Rank
1985 Bears +4.35, 3rd
2000 Ravens +4.34, 4th
Note: All of these scores are not rounded to two decimal places until the very end.)

It can't get much closer than that. The 1985 Bears and the 2000 Ravens are two of only three teams since 1978 to be at least two standard deviations better than the league mean in both points allowed and yards allowed in the same season. The third team? The 1986 Bears.

Based on all of this, I have to call it a draw between the 1985 Bears and the 2000 Ravens for the title of the best defense.

It's not close as to which team made me happier.

And why are we citing one of the top NFL D's of all time, when we clearly don't have that this year?

Thig Lyfe
10-23-2007, 01:35 PM
Chargers are the best 3-3 team EVER!!!!!!!

Thig Lyfe
10-23-2007, 01:35 PM
Oh, and I think it's awesome that Jarrad Page has 5 more interceptions in two years than Bartee had his entire career.

MadFelcher69AndAHa
10-23-2007, 04:08 PM
I am shocked. Not one fan is bitching here about Denver deserving to be in the bottom five.

Pablo
10-23-2007, 04:15 PM
I am shocked. Not one fan is bitching here about Denver deserving to be in the bottom five.Denver sucks.. and they can thank their kicker for not being 0-6, but they're still a lot better than Miami, NY Jets, Atlanta..etc.

Mr. Flopnuts
10-23-2007, 04:15 PM
I am shocked. Not one fan is bitching here about Denver deserving to be in the bottom five.



That was a pretty big win over Pittsburg. I was surprised. I would put them around 20.

FAX
10-23-2007, 04:21 PM
I can't figure out the goats. They're probably not as bad as that string of losses would indicate and certainly not as good as the win over the Steelers suggests. Ruthlessbunger played like crap in the first half. Do they suck or not? It's difficult to tell.

I'm a little flustrated that they're getting their young quarterback on the field, though.

FAX

beer bacon
10-23-2007, 05:46 PM
It's nice how the Chargers mananged to move up in the rankings on a Bye. I'm sure the Chiefs will be shown equal favortism in next weeks rankings. I really wouldn't be surprised is SD got smashed next week and all these media-type idiots still kept them in the Top 10. Get off the Chargers nuts already.. they're a good team, not great like they were last year. They'll finish out with a respectable record but they're not gonna run away with the AFC West, and they don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Colts, Patriots or Steelers.

SD will move up, even after their loss this weekend, because of their valiant efforts in the war against wildfires Superman

JohninGpt
10-23-2007, 05:49 PM
SD will move up, even after their loss this weekend, because of their valiant efforts in the war against wildfires Superman
Or just due to the fact that they will be the "BEST 3-4 TEAM EVAR11!!11!1"