NFL Power Rankings (Week 17)
Going out with a bang seems like a New York Giants kind of thing to do but while playing their final home game in Giants Stadium, someone must have misread the script.
New York’s 32-point loss to Carolina on Sunday was the second biggest blowout in a team’s final home game at its stadium since 1970! Only the 1995 St. Louis Rams, who lost to San Francisco by 34 points before closing the doors to Busch Stadium for the last time, have lost by a bigger margin.
Adding insult to injury, the Giants were also eliminated from the playoff hunt this weekend and to make matters even worse, the men in blue took a two-point drop in the weekly BetRepublic.com Power Rankings chart.
Here is the latest edition; note the shakeup in the Top 5!
Week 17 NFL Power Rankings
1. Indianapolis Colts – Manning takes a seat, Curtis ‘paints’ an ugly picture as backup and the Colts fall to 14-1 SU. Good for Jim Caldwell! The pressure’s gone and now he can do whatever he wants with his lineup in Buffalo and not worry about dealing with all this hullaballoo during bye week.2. Philadelphia Eagles – Ask anyone in the NFC which team nobody wants to face in first round of playoffs and the answer is unanimous. Eagles are hot!
3. San Diego Chargers – Chargers are starting to make it look easy, clinching first round bye with win in Tennessee.
4. New England Patriots – There is never any question of this team’s potency on home turf and by securing the AFC East the Pats have guaranteed one game at Foxboro.
5. New Orleans Saints – Back-to-back losses ratchet the Saints down a bit. What happened to that new found run defense?
6. Minnesota Vikings – If nothing more, Favre has added a fourth quarter threat this team hasn’t known in years. The Vikes are never out with him under center.
7. Green Bay Packers – Who doesn’t want to see a rematch between No. 4 and the Pack in the post-season?
8. Cincinnati Bengals – We’re going to cut Ocho and the Cinqo’s a little slack because they won but that was Kansas City’s defense that Cinci was having trouble moving against.
9. Arizona Cardinals – Back-to-back home games to finish the season are next best thing to a bye week for QB Warner and the Cards.
10. Dallas Cowboys – We’ve seen Tony Romo grow to a new level in the past two weeks and somehow, a trip to Mexico in January doesn’t seem like it’s in the plans for the new Romo.
11. Denver Broncos – Flirting dangerously close to a playoff miss but with Kansas City coming to Mile High this week, Broncos should live to fight another day.
12. Pittsburgh Steelers – Finding a way to win but Week 17 trip to Miami will likely be only visit to Dolphin Stadium for reigning champs.
13. Baltimore Ravens – Shot themselves in the foot so many times in fourth quarter at Pittsburgh the gun run out of bullets.
14. Houston Texans – Its déjà vu all over again as team tries one more time to find out what it feels like to be a winner.
15. Miami Dolphins – Not so potent now that everyone has caught onto the wildcat.
16. Carolina Panthers – Give HC Fox credit for one thing; he’s the only guy in charge of a sub-.500 team that has not been called for one “C’mon Man” all year in the Monday Night Football pregame show.
17. Tennessee Titans – Santa was none too kind to the Titans on Christmas but the New Year is looking bright. (Titans are in Seattle this week)
18. New York Giants – Figuring this team out in the off-season is going to take the best team of specialist’s money can buy. Where to start?
19. New York Jets – The `83 NYJ are 3rd on the list, losing by 27 to PGH in final home game at Shea. I think NYJ play final game at home next weekend and although it’s not really their stadium, they will be coming off big win over IND. How will the guys respond?
20. Atlanta Falcons – Owner Arthur Blank has declared that new ‘Super Bowl’ goal for his team is finishing above .500 for second straight year. Talk about making best of a bad situation.
21. Jacksonville Jaguars – Wrong time at the wrong place is all you can say about that trip to Boston in Week 16. What happened to the team that almost beat the Colts straight-up?
22. San Francisco 49ers – Keep an eye on this team for plays at the half. Great half-time adjustments by Singletary can give this team second-half value.
23. Chicago Bears – Fans wonder where Jay Cutler’s game management has been hiding all season; Cutler wonders where his pass protection suddenly came from (15 weeks too late). Lovie Smith wonders whether an upset would be enough to save his job.
24. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Bucs were the only ones in the house that didn’t think that Saints field goal attempt was good! Congrats on possibly biggest upset of the year.
25. Washington Redskins – Trip to San Diego on-deck for the Skins and Jim Zorn is already checking the market for retirement homes.
26. Cleveland Browns –HC Mangini is like an evil super hero that’s discovered a new power and can’t resist the urge to use it for his advantage. New found RB Harrison was fed the ball 39 times in win against Raiders.
27. Seattle Seahawks – Losing seventh road game of the season could not have possibly looked any worse than that performance in Green Bay.
28. Oakland Raiders – This is the point where we have to start looking really hard for positives. Did you know Sebastian Janikowski kicked a 61-yard field goal against the Browns on Sunday?
29. Kansas City Chiefs – Three wins, one of them at home and one against the division. As far as rebuilding year’s go, the Chiefs pretty well nailed it.
30. Buffalo Bills – Not even the fans in Buffalo noticed Brian Brohm’s awful performance at Atlanta.
31. St. Louis Rams – Divisional games continue to be a thorn in the side of Steve Spagnuolo and as he searches for first-ever home win the 49ers are all that stands in his way.
32. Detroit Lions – Drew Stanton finally gets a chance and blows it. Daunte Culpepper should just retire.
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