Week 8 NFL Power Rankings: The Mike Tysons, 1-8

Posted Nov 01, 2006 7:51AM By mjd (RSS feed)

1.	Indianapolis	Borrowing Peter King's "if they played on a nuetral field in Bumfuzzled Egypt" methodology, I'd go with the Colts over the Bears right now. I didn't think the Colts could do to the Broncos what they just did. No one's been able to touch that Broncos defense this year, and Peyton Manning just made them his 11 ugliest girlfriends. If the Colts played the Bears this week, I'd go into that game thinking that the Colts couldn't do the same thing to the Bears, but ... I think they'd probably prove me wrong.
2.	Chicago	I know, they didn't do anything to deserve to move down. But they didn't beat Denver in Mile High, either. For fun, though, here's a question for you: What would the score of that Bears/49ers have been if the Bears really tried their hardest for 60 minutes? They had 41 at halftime, but they got some really good bounces, too. I say they could've added four more touchdowns, and if they wanted, they probably could've kept the Niners off the board. 69-0.
3.	New England	I think just about every Power Rankings on the planet will have New England third, but to be honest with you, I briefly considered putting them number one. When it gets close to playoff time, there's going to be very little that could convince me that they won't just own the Colts again. It's amazing how much this offense has progressed since Week One. I'm convinced that if you put Tom Brady on the field with a receiving corps of Freddie Mitchell, Dennis Northcutt, Vincent Papale, Terrell Owens' publicst, and Carrot Top, he'd turn at least two of them into Pro Bowlers.
4.	NY Giants	The wind was so strong at the Meadowlands on Sunday that it blew Michael Strahan's teeth apart. He started the game with a perfectly straight set of pearly whites, and now he looks like a rotting jack-o-lantern. It's tragic. I'm not entirely sure that the Giants are the 4th best team in the NFL, but we'll find out in weeks 10 and 11 when they have Chicago and Jacksonville back-to-back.
5.	Denver	I can't move them too far down the list, given that they lost on a last-second field goal to the #1 team on the list. Tatum Bell, and I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever seen this, has two sprained big toes. Because it's Denver, they can stick anyone in there and be fine... Mike Bell carried 15 times for 136 yards against the Colts, and Cecil Sapp carried twice for 39 yards.
6.	San Diego	The loss of Shawne Merriman is for four games isn't something the Chargers can just shrug off. There's a pretty big dropoff from Shawne Merriman to Carlos Polk, who will likely start in his absence. When Merriman's out there, opposing offenses have to adjust their gameplan to account for him. I've never heard an offensive coordinator say, "We've really got to be aware of Carlos Polk out there."
7.	Baltimore	There's been a bit of controversy about Bart Scott's comments that he was going to put a little "hot sauce" on Reggie Bush's ankle. Yes, it's a blatant admission that he intentionally tried to hurt another player. But believe it or not, that is not the first time in NFL history one player has done something to another player that served no other purpose than to inflict pain. It probably happened about 19 other times on that very same play. Also, if you check out this video, you can hear a fan at about the 43-second mark offer an alternate explanation as to what happened to Reggie Bush.
8.	New Orleans	It would be easy for the Saints to look at the Ravens game and say, "Ah, we just turned the ball over too much," and write it off as a fluke, but here's what I'd be concerned about if I was Sean Payton: the Ravens are the first team the Saints have played that have a rushing defense ranked in the top quarter of the league, and they had Reggie Bush and Dulymus McAllister to 27 yards on 10 carries.

Week 8 NFL Power Rankings: The Mike Tysons, 1-8
Week 8 NFL Power Rankings: The Soda Popinskis, 9-16
Week 8 NFL Power Rankings: The Don Flamencos, 17-24
Week 8 NFL Power Rankings: The Glass Joes, 25-32

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-01-2006 @ 1:41PM

Fornelli said...

Moving the Bears down?

You broke my heart MJD.

11-01-2006 @ 3:01PM

David said...

Fair enough. I still think the Bears would slaughter the Indy O-line when it comes down to it.

11-01-2006 @ 5:18PM

Regen Tagfrauen said...

You should have went with your first instinct. A team's record only tells part of the story. New England is a much more complete team on both sides of the ball. I would be tempted to put the Giants at number two, and then Indy at three, but could just as easily flip the two. Indy's defense will be their downfall at some point in the future [future means the playoffs in this case].

As for "duh Bears"? They are going to be exposed by both New England AND New York over the next four weeks. However, they do have an excellent defense, and an easy schedule [not to mention a woeful division] that will allow them a short visit to the playoffs.

What were you thinking when putting the Saints in the top eight? Give me Atlanta instead. New Orleans is a sentimental favorite, and they did beat Atlanta in their first meeting, but the Saints still have more unresolved issues to overcome.

The team with the biggest upside potential? How 'bout them Cowboys?!! Consider that only two NFL teams are in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive statistics - San Diego and Dallas [incidentally, New England is #11 in both categories]. Dallas seems to have their biggest problem fixed [that's QB if you haven't been paying attention], and could make a good run through a very tough schedule.

11-02-2006 @ 1:08AM

Fred said...

I don't understand how a team can dominate their apponents and have a points differencial like the Bears have this first 8 weaks and fall from #1. Indy has a QB period. There defence is just above average, the Bears are a complete team this year. I'd love to see both the Bears and Indy go to the play-offs undefeated...wouldn't that be great!