rankings are cross posted at sk7326's personal site:
First of all, hope the Holidays are going well for all of you. Hopefully Roman Calendar 2012 will be as good or better than all of your 2011s.
After a lockout that generated some suspense, and 16 weeks of collisions, peculiar unnecessary roughness penalties, and high flying passing, we are at the end of the Power Rankings road. Sure, there is still a lot more football to be seen and discussed, but with the peculiarities of personnel choices for Week 17, the Rankings get off the train here. If you've followed this space to this point, you don't need to know how the rankings are calculated. Let's get it out of the way before we hop to the news of the week. Suffice to say, the playoff picture got a lot clearer.
1 (1). Green Bay Communists (14-1) 31 pairwins
2 (2). New Eauxrleans Saints (12-3) 30
3 (3). Greater Boston and Providence Patriots (12-3) 30
4 (4). San Francisco 49ers (12-3) 27
5 (5). Baltimore Edgar Allan Poems (11-4) 27
6 (7). Pittsburgh Steelers (11-4) 25
7 (8). Detroit Lions (10-5) 24
8 (6). Houston Texans (10-5) 24
9 (9). Atlanta Falcons (9-6) 21
10 (15). Northern New Jersey Giants (8-7) 20
11 (10). Denver Incompletion Jesuses (8-7) 18
12 (18). Philadelphia Eagles (7-8) 18
13 (14). Los Angeles Raiders of Oakland (8-7) 17
14 (13). Cincinnati Other Paul Browns (9-6) 16
15 (12). Dallas Cowboys (8-7) 16
16 (20). Tennessee Non Oilers (8-7) 15
17 (11). Northern New Jersey Jets (8-7) 14
18 (21). Chicago Bears (7-8) 12
19 (16). Seattle Seahawks (7-8) 12
20 (19). Arizona Cactus Wrens (7-8) 11
21 (17). Los Angeles Chargers of San Diego (7-8) 11
22 (22). Carolina Panthers (6-9) 9
23 (26). Buffalo Bills (6-9) 9
24 (23). Miami Dolphins (5-10) 8
25 (24). Kansas City Texans (6-9) 7
26 (25). Washington Racial Slurs (5-10) 6
27 (27). Land Mass Surrounding Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-11) 4
28 (28). Jacksonville Jaguars (4-11) 4
29 (30). Minnesota Vikings (3-12) 3
30 (29). Cleveland Paul Browns (4-11) 2
31 (31). Cleveland Anaheim Rams of Saint Louis (2-13) 1
32 (32). Peyton Manning's Co-Workers (2-13) 0
First of all, a solemn farewell to the Chicago Bears - who were eliminated from playoff contention on Christmas night. It is one thing for the Colts to be unable to overcome a known injury to their starting QB - another altogether for a team with a dicey offense midseason to lose its two best offensive players. One cannot call it unfair, since that's football - but the Bears had some really, really, really crappy fortune. Thanks of course to the loss, 5 of the 6 NFC playoff teams are now known - and a combined 3 playoff bids are still in the balance. So what are the key questions for Week 17 to address?
1. Will the Colts suck enough? Coming off of a sudden burst of inspiration, the Colts have sprung a couple of nifty wins. Yeah Jacksonville has a better record coming in and they are hosting. But clearly the Colts seem more engaged of the two teams. Plus, throw in the Rams fate this week (keep on reading) and it seems possible, maybe even somewhat likely that Sam Bradford will be making a team like the Redskins or Chiefs very happy.
2. Who will be hosting a 2nd round AFC playoff game? New England, that we get. But Baltimore or Pittsburgh is going to the wire. Baltimore at Cincinnati in particular is fascinating. Baltimore needs to win to assure the #1 or #2 seed, although Cleveland showed signs of not mailing it in last week - so a stunning upset could be possible. That said, clearly Cincinnati is a motivated opponent. New England stumbled around before knocking off Miami, but they have to have the driver's seat for the #1 seed at this point.
3. Can Cincinnati hold on to this fortune? That I don't know. They have a motivated opponent - and a good one. But they are motivated too - and the clearest path to the #6 seed and a date presumably with a not terribly intimidating Houston team. The Jets though have a fairly plausible way to the playoffs via a win + BAL over CIN, HOU over TEN and LA vs LA er, Oakland vs San Diego. Oakland needs either CIN+TEN losing or CIN losing and NYJ winning - also a plausible scene. Tennessee needs a lot of teams losing basically - too many frankly. I'd say it is a 1/3 shot between Cincy, Jets and the Raiders, though the Bengals have the least to do.
4. Will Jesus triumph? The Denver QB derby against the Raiders facing a potentially crestfallen opponent (or a hellbent on revenge one). The Broncos can sustain a tie - so they get the edge, but without conviction.
Predicted Order: Patriots-Ravens-Texans-Broncos-Steelers-Raiders
5. The only NFC Question. Who wins Sunday night? Yeah, the Giants are at home, and yeah they won already. On the other hand, that game was a minor classic full of ghastly defensive errors and brilliant quarterback play. Romo has been magnificent down the stretch, and Manning has been kind of terrible in the last two - though last week it didn't matter. Both teams have shown steely toughness and baffling ordinariness in alternating stretches. Both teams look like thorough roadkill in the first round, especially if Detroit gets the #5 seed - but somebody has to win. The pick here is Dallas 24-21, with a score as close as my conviction is lacking.
Predicted Order: Packers-49ers-Saints-Cowboys-Lions-Falcons
6. Bonus: By next week's publishing, we will also have seen the Rose Bowl play out. Wisconsin vs Oregon. Oregon's speed vs Wisconsin's physicality and horrible luck (watch their two losses). Oregon's spread has been grounded in bowl games the last two years, but Wisconsin is not quite in the league of the previous two opponent. Oregon finally figures it out, 34-27.
A rich finale for sure. There are a lot of serious diaries doing a lot of good work. This is not one of them - but thanks for the attention and onto the playoffs.