Winning matters. Let me add some context to my Power Rankings. The #1 criterion is win/loss record. You can talk all you want about Philly being a better team than Carolina, but in the last 2 minutes of the game, Carolina made all the big plays and Philly did not, and the Panthers walked away with the win. That puts the Panthers ahead of the Eagles. Everything else is just semantics. For teams that have the same record, head-to-head matchups are the first tiebreaker. Beyond that, it gets really subjective. But wins, more than anything else, goes into who is better than who.
Welcome to West Cleveland, CA. Jon Gruden has apparently enrolled in the Sashi Brown School of Roster-Building – trade everything you have for draft picks and build from the ground up. Cleveland is in year 3 of this process and are probably 1 or 2 years away from it all paying off. The Raiders are moving to Vegas in 2 years. Gruden appears to be angling to have the Raiders be about where the Browns are right now for Vegas Year 1. That’s pretty shrewd if that is the plan. That first year, the team doesn’t have to be good – the newness of the team will generate huge crowds, and they should be decent enough the second year that they can really build something there.
Fantasy football is evil. That late-game Barkley TD cost me a fantasy win. Either that or starting Buck Allen over Alex Collins, who has had super games each of the 3 weeks I benched him. Of course, my opponent would have destroyed me if he started John Brown. Why do we play this game? I guess I want to spare my family the expense of years in a nursing home by dying early from high blood pressure.
Power Rankings:
1. LA Rams – Who, besides Kansas City, is going to beat them? They will have to beat themselves.
2. Kansas City – Defense finally showed up this week.
3. New Orleans – Remember all the gifts Bills players gave to Tyler Boyd last year? Saints should do that for Justin Tucker.
4. New England – Big sigh of relief that the opposing QB didn’t have the world’s strongest arm.
5. LA Chargers – See #3 above, except the gift recipient is Mike Vrabel.
6. Washington – See #5 above, except the gift recipient is Jason Garrett.
7. Carolina – Flawed, but persistent.
8. Minnesota – Adam Thielen vs. the Saints offense should be epic.
9. Pittsburgh – See #7 above.
10.Green Bay – Doing a good job of battling through all the injuries.
11.Cincinnati – Vontaz Burfect is a jailbird. They need defenders that don’t get fined every week.
12.Baltimore – Must recover quickly from the heartbreak as they face another group of talented receivers.
13.Miami – Uh-oh, people are going to think Osweiler should get a big contract again.
14.Houston – See #9 above.
15.Chicago – Still have some inconsistencies to work through.
16.Seattle – Still not sure what to make of this group. A large cup of Jesus Juice, please.
17.Tampa Bay – Now, how did they torch New Orleans in week 1 again???
18.Detroit – See #16 above.
19.Philadelphia – Having trouble closing games. Still a very good team.
20.Dallas – Coached by the most timid coach in America. Getting Amari Cooper will help.
21.Atlanta – A game against a bottom-feeder helps everyone feel better for a little while.
22.Jacksonville – I guess they need a new QB.
23.NY Jets – Wild swings from one extreme to the other.
24.Tennessee – Well, at least they finally played an interesting game.
25.Denver – See #21 above.
26.Cleveland – They’re 2-4-1, and about 5 plays away from being 6-1. Young players just need to learn how to finish.
27.Indianapolis – See #25 above.
28.Buffalo – Shut the QB down, give him the surgery, blow it up and start all over.
29.Oakland – Great way to up your ranking – take the week off and let the teams around you get their butts kicked.
30.San Francisco – Looking more pathetic by the week.
31.Arizona – See #30 above.
32.NY Giants – See #31 above.
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