Week 11 of the 2020 NFL season is in the book and now it’s time for everyone’s favorite meaningful exercise: NFL Power Rankings! Let’s take a look at how all 32 teams stack up. Don’t forget to hear me talking about the league’s landscape on my national podcast: The ODDcast! (Episode to be posted here later.)
BLG’S NFL WEEK 12 POWER RANKINGS
1 – Pittsburgh Steelers (Last Week: 1) – There have been 16 teams to start 10-0 since 1970. 10 of them went on to make the Super Bowl. History is on Pittsburgh’s side.
2 – Kansas City Chiefs (LW: 2) – The Chiefs were in danger of getting swept by Jon Gruden but thanks to that Patrick Mahomes guy they were able to get the win. Unfair. The bad news for KC is their defense is a concern.
3 – New Orleans Saints (LW: 3) – Taysom Hill was pretty efficient in his first NFL start at quarterback: 78.3% completion, 10.1 yards per attempt, 108.9 passer rating. It’ll be interesting to see how he holds up with Drew Brees potentially not back until Week 15.
4 – Los Angeles Rams (LW: 10) – This is very anecdotal but I like the edge the Rams play with. Their defense is tough. It’s annoying how Sean McVay is such a coward but he obviously does good things in terms of scheming.
5 – Indianapolis Colts (LW: 13) – Big jump for the Colts but they deserve it. They’re fifth in point differential and fifth in DVOA. They’re at least the third best team in the AFC.
6 – Green Bay Packers (LW: 4) – For the second season in a row, they’re an above average team that people don’t actually fear as much as they should. Fraud vibes.
7 – Buffalo Bills (LW: 8) – Good bye week for Buffalo with Miami and New England losing. The Bills will return to host LAC.
8 – Seattle Seahawks (LW: 11) – Seattle’s porous defense hasn’t been as bad over the past two weeks. If they can just be respectable, they should be in good shape with Russell Wilson leading the way. Seattle has a chance to reach 8-3 with a terrible Philly team that they always own up next.
9 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers (LW: 6) – Two of Tom Brady’s last three games have been really bad. He only logged 4.5 yards per attempt on Monday night and he easily could’ve had at least four total turnovers. He’s not totally cooked but he’s at least somewhat cooked.
10 – Las Vegas Raiders (LW: 12) – Moving the Raiders up despite their loss because they look like a quality team. Certainly one that belongs in the postseason.
11 – Miami Dolphins (LW: 5) – What happened, Dolphins!? You were looking so great. And then you lose to Denver?! Hopefully just a trap game. Interesting to see Tua Tagovailoa benched so shortly after taking over but he’s still the starter heading into Week 12.
12 – Arizona Cardinals (LW: 7) – The Cards are good but they’re not quite one of the big boys yet. They could be next year after further improving the roster and getting Kyler Murray some playoff experience.
13 – Tennessee Titans (LW: 14) – The Titans have a toughness to them. Nice response after losing last week. Now they’ll get Indy again this weekend.
14 – Baltimore Ravens (LW: 9) – The Ravens are 1-3 in their last four games. Lamar Jackson has six total touchdowns to six total turnovers in that span. Far from his MVP form. If the season ended today, Baltimore wouldn’t even be in the playoffs.
15 – Cleveland Browns (LW: 15) – On the bright side, the Browns advanced to 7-3 with a win over Philly. On the dark side, they don’t actually look all that great. Still can reach 8-3 with a game against the Jags up next.
16 – Carolina Panthers (LW: 18) – No Teddy Bridgewater, no Christian McCaffrey, no problem. The Panthers won by 20 points despite P.J. Walker throwing two red zone picks. Matt Rhule is a good head coach.
17 – Minnesota Vikings (LW: 16) – The Vikings needed to beat Dallas to keep their unlikely playoff hopes alive. They did not beat Dallas.
18 – New England Patriots (LW: 17) – The Pats needed to beat Houston to keep their unlikely playoff hopes alive. They did not beat Houston.
19 – Los Angeles Chargers (LW: 22) – The Bolts never make it look easy. But Justin Herbert is a stud and that matters most in the big picture.
20 – Chicago Bears (LW: 20) – The Bears will return from their bye to host Green Bay. Looks like Mitchell Trubisky could be back with Nick Foles still banged up. That’ll really fix things!
21 – New York Giants (LW: 23) – Mixed bye week for the G-Men. Good to see Philly lose, bad to see Washington and Dallas win. The Giants can reach 4-7 with a win over Cincy this week. Reason to feel good about them with the way Joe Judge has this team fighting hard … both literally and figuratively.
22 – Denver Broncos (LW: 27) – Denver’s defensive line was able to take advantage of Miami’s gettable offensive line to notch six sacks. The Broncos’ running game was critical to their offensive success. Bad win for the sake of drafting a quarterback to replace Drew Lock, which is needed.
23 – Houston Texans (LW: 28) – The Texans finally beat a team that wasn’t the Jags! Deshaun Watson playing well manifested in a win for once. Did you know he hasn’t thrown a pick since Week 5?
24 – Washington Football Team (LW: 29) – Alex Smith might actually be able to lead the Football Team to a division title. A win over Dallas on Thanksgiving would be big.
25 – Dallas Cowboys (LW: 30) – The Cowboys put up a good fight against Pittsburgh before the bye and they beat Minny coming out of it. Encouraging turnaround by Mike McCarthy’s group. Still a threat to win the NFC East!
26 – San Francisco 49ers (LW: 24) – They’ll return from their bye to face LAR, who they previously beat in October. They’ll have a significant rest advantage with LAR coming off Monday Night Football but it might not matter. Don’t think they’re sweeping the season series.
27 – Cincinnati Bengals (LW: 19) – Big drop for the Bengals with Joe Burrow out for the season due to a major knee injury that could also impact his 2021 availability. Terrible development for Cincy.
28 – Detroit Lions (LW: 21) – Guessing that Matt Patricia is only still employed because the Lions didn’t want to make a head coaching change on a short week. Losing to Houston on Thanksgiving should get him fired.
29 – Atlanta Falcons (LW: 25) – One does have to wonder how much Taysom Hill’s success had to do with Atlanta being awful. They’re allowing the second most passing yards per game.
30 – Philadelphia Eagles (LW: 26) – The Eagles are terrible and there’s no easy fix. They’re screwed. Carson Wentz absolutely deserves to be benched.
31 – Jacksonville Jaguars (LW: 31) – Jake Luton has three times as many interceptions as touchdown passes after throwing four picks against Pittsburgh. I’m beginning to suspect the Jags might need to draft a quarterback.
32 – New York Jets (LW: 32) – Second week in a row where the Jets pulled off the perfect tanking result: looking competitive in a loss. Time to stay the course and get that No. 1 overall pick!
