Bob is done with his MBA now and went for the Triple Crown this week with women, so double congrats to him. Hopefully none of the women looked like Miguel Cabrera after a night out, but since he lives in Vermont, we might just have to give up the MVP for the impressiveness of the feat. Looks like he'll be posting these for the rest of the year; I only did some quick editing. Both the rankings and commentary are his:

After a brief spell on the temporary PUP list- the OG’s of the Power Rankings are back to try and make sense of one of the most unpredictable seasons in NFL history. The 5 top teams hail from the NFC. 9 out of the 11 bottom teams are from the AFC. Our only undefeated team left is most likely the 5th best team in their own conference. Bill Belichick is coaching like Andy Reid. Andy Reid is coaching like Art Shell. The good news? We have Brady Quinn back starting in our life in games that don’t involve UFL teams. On to the rankings:

1. Falcons - #1 by default at this point and default only. Their running game is not as good this year. Their defense is suspect. Matty Ice is the MVP so far but don’t tell me come January it doesn’t feel like that Giants pass rush will be running Gangnam Style over these guys.

2. Giants- Everyone saw a mental let-down coming against the Skins after the Giants monster win in San Fran the week before. Of course it’s pretty easy to have a mental let-down when you are facing a top 5 MVP candidate and the most dynamic rookie in memory. That being said, the more the game the matters, the better Eli gets.

3. Bears- Just couldn’t bring myself to move the Bears to #2 given that they were only able to score 3 points on the Lions in the 2nd half. Do I think this is the best defense in football? Absolutely. But I still can’t get over two things 1) Mike Tice’s playing calling and 2) the overall lack of protection Jay Cutler gets and will get for the rest of the year.

4. 49ers- Still think these guys are the most complete team in the NFL- now unfortunately being the most complete team in the NFL doesn’t necessarily mean you are getting by Eli Manning (or even Aaron Rodgers for that matter) come playoff time. Right when we were all starting to come around on this Alex Smith thing, he turned back into Alex Smith.

5. Packers- Hate the injury to Woodson right now but Aaron Rodgers systematically destroying the best defense in the AFC followed by taking care of business against a frisky Rams team is flat out impressive. Of course that brings us to…


6. Texans- Tough to drop these guys all the way to 6 but it’s hard a)to determine just how good the Ravens are at this point after all those defensive injuries and b) pretty impossible to think that any of those NFC teams should be below them at this point. All that being said, with the Patriots defensive woes and the Ravens missing persons report, the AFC is the Texans to lose.

7. Patriots- The defensive front 7 is way better this year which makes just how bad this secondary is right now that much more astounding. Throw that in with some pretty awful situational football this year and we have a 4-3 team that could easily be in the atrocious AFC East basement right now. But since in the Power Rankings we love to project a little bit of the future in this---keep in mind last year Belichick got the defense playing like it needed to in the late 2nd half of the season and the Patriots will coast into the playoffs with their schedule this year.

8. Ravens- The Ray Lewis injury may have robbed this team of their identity but the real loss was Lardarius Webb, who was honestly playing cornerback at a level in the AFC better than anyone not named Revis. Oh and can we talk about Joe Flacco for a minute? Now not every team is going to have the ability to spy Ray Rice the way the Texans did with their personnel but Wade Phillips basically proved that unless you have New England’s secondary, Joe Flacco is not going to beat you by throwing to his wideouts.

9. Vikings- From Aaron Schatz at Football Outsiders: the Vikings have had the 29th most difficult schedule by DVOA of opponents so far. The rest of the way? The most difficult. The Vikings next 9 games sound about as much fun a domestic argument at Kirby Puckett’s house.

10. Broncos- I’m really supposed to jump back on the Broncos bandwagon because Peyton Manning picked apart a mentally weak San Diego team? Please. The defense has a couple good players but is weak as an overall unit and there is absolutely no running game here. Can the Broncos win the AFC West? Sure. But this is probably a 7-8 win team playing in any of the NFC divisions this year.

11. Steelers- James Harrison has clearly lost a step (just going to go out on a limb and think he maybe he suffered one too many concussions while doling them out all these years), Lamar Woodley looks like he’s been working at out at Popeye’s over the most recent offseason, and Troy Polamalu has appeared in more Head and Shoulders commercials this season than he has games. However, given the lack of depth in the AFC this year, you can’t write off Big Ben and that wide receiving corps from making a run.

12. Seahawks- The last time I saw corners play this physical and get away with it, it was the 2003 AFC Championship Game and Bill Polian had the rules changed the following season. Look, I love the Seahawks defense but they are basically getting away with illegal contact on every passing play in the 2012 NFL.

13. Redskins- Legitimately the most exciting NFL team to watch with RG3. I remain concerned if RG3 can withstand the physical beating he is going to take playing this style of football, but right now just sit back and enjoy the ride. We’ve never seen anything like this from a rookie QB before.

14. Eagles- I completely agree that you needed to fire Juan Castillo for not feeding the ball to LeSean McCoy in the 4th quarter more. Wait, he runs the defense? Oh, this just got awkward…

15. Cowboys- Gutsy Tony Romo win on the road to defeat a 1 win Carolina team. The Cowboys are back, baby!

16. Saints- Rolling with the Saints in the top half of the rankings because of Drew Brees and Drew Brees alone.

17. Cardinals- After an amazing start the Cardinals have looked like absolute crap the past few weeks. Let’s toss a hypothetical out here- let’s say this offseason the Chargers finally clean house of AJ and Norv. New regime comes in and decides Phillip Rivers needs a change of scenery. Is there a better fit than Arizona? The defense is already borderline Super Bowl caliber.

18. Dolphins- Before Dolphins fans get too mad at me putting them at 18, consider this: I have these guys ranked as the #6 team in the AFC. Yes, the Dolphins are legitimate Wild Card contenders despite the fact their best wideout is Brian Hartline and they have a rookie QB who only started like 3 games in college.

19. Rams- Back to the RG3 discussion: how do Rams feel about this trade right now? Probably too early to tell, but how much pressure is on you to nail these next couple picks in 2013 and 2014? I guess I understand the rationale you had Sam Bradford there and that offer may have been too good to turn down, but it’s not every day you have a chance to draft a guy that literally could transform the franchise.

20. Chargers- Speaking of draft day trades, is Archie Manning’s decision to tell Eli to refuse to play for the Chargers the best parenting advice since Kim Kardashian’s mother convinced her to leak that sex tape with Ray-J?

21. Lions- I warned of the Lions’ demise earlier in the season and I stand by my prediction. Sure the front 7 defense is there and you still have Megatron, but undisciplined football rubs off on the whole team. The Lions simiply don’t have enough talent on a week in-week out basis to make up for all the mistakes they are making.

22. Colts- I read a lot of talk on this whole Andrew Luck-RG3 thing and quite frankly it is just absolutely unfair to Luck. Luck’s played amazing so far this year and by year 3, he could legitimately be the best Quarterback in the AFC depending on how much Peyton Manning and Tom Brady regress over the next few seasons.

23. Bengals- I stand by my assessment that what we saw from Andy Dalton in 2011 is going to be the best of what we ever see from Andy Dalton.

24. Jets- And now is when we see the Jets absolutely fall apart the rest of the year. Mark Sanchez was absolutely torching the Pats and after Devin McCourty’s fumble set the Jets up with a chance to win the game, Tony Sparano calls a draw play for Tim Tebow- effectively putting the Jets in a position where they were then forced to run on 2nd down to make the Pats burn a timeout. Then they almost took themselves out of field goal range with Sanchez taking a sack on 3rd down. My prediction? Frisky Miami comes off a bye and beats the Jets at home followed by the Jets dropping a road game to the Seahawks. Finally, they start Tim Tebow in St Louis and even the savior can’t stop them from losing there too.

25. Titans- I’d be willing to say that Chris Johnson is legitimately back if Tennessee got to play the Bills every week.

26. Bucs- Not sure it is really fair for the Bucs to be down this far but I do not see them being favored against another team in a game this year other than when they play the Rams at home in Week 16.

27. Bills- Carl Crawford thinks Mario Williams is overpaid.

28. Panthers- Not sure if you saw the post game Cam Newton presser, but all I have to say is: “How many squirrels must die for Cam Newton to look that fly?”

29. Raiders- In the offseason, my brother moved to Oregon. He was in that lucky part of the country that got to see the Jaguars take on the Raiders as opposed to the Patriots take on the Jets. Luckily, I think he was able to switch over to catch the end up the Lynx-Fever WNBA final.

30. Browns- Prediction: Jimmy Haslam will do for the Browns what Bob Kraft did for the Patriots.

31. Jaguars- Torn labrum for Blaine Gabbert. Man, this football team sucks.

32. Chiefs- Unfortunately for Chiefs fans, they are on their way to the #1 pick in a year where there is absolutely no clear #1 and no promise of a franchise-changing quarterback coming in and saving the day.

Glad to have you guys back

 

Originally Posted by FenwayKing

Of course it’s pretty easy to have a mental let-down when you are facing a top 5 MVP candidate and the most dynamic rookie in memory.

if your memory doesn't make it all the way back to last year.

 

Originally Posted by Jaybone2315

meh

Still bummed over the raping Eli put on Alex and co.

 

Originally Posted by kellykip

if your memory doesn't make it all the way back to last year.

It's pretty absurd to compare Alfred Morris to AJ Green they don't even play the same position!

 

Originally Posted by Popperhead

Still bummed over the raping Eli put on Alex and co.

Meh, im over it. I just wanted to make a one word reply like fwk has done that last few weeks.

That said, on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy is Waco going to be after reading this?

Newton put up garbage time stats on a 1-5 team that was giving up 30 points every game.

I'm sorry but I'm not sure how if you go back and watch Cam Newton's first 6 games- I think they pale into comparison. Griffin's completing 70% of his passes. That's unheard of.

cmon brah you can put em # 1. i know it hurts, but we all know atlanta is not the best team in the league.

 

Originally Posted by zeppelinzoso16

shovel passes are hard!

haha.

I mean yea cam's stats are a bit inflated b/c of the garbage time but at the same time you can't throw out rg3's 70% comp pct when a lot of those throws are shovels/screens, dump offs, etc

I'm a Texans homer but c'mon man! 6?!!? They are 6-1 and demolished every team. Had a bad game against the Pack which we were outclassed on that particular night, then bounced back with a 41-13 win. Top 3 fo sho

bears should be AT MINIMUM #1

 

Originally Posted by zeppelinzoso16

shovel passes are hard!

 

Originally Posted by Camz

haha.

I mean yea cam's stats are a bit inflated b/c of the garbage time but at the same time you can't throw out rg3's 70% comp pct when a lot of those throws are shovels/screens, dump offs, etc

ignorance ITT coming from ppl that have not watched enough of the Redskins/Griffin.

he is one of the leaders in yards per attempt, despite having no playmakers. you have no idea what you are talking about if you think the majority of his passes have been underneath. he has been carving teams up with play action slants/post over the middle 10-25 yards downfield with stunning accuracy. he has been putting the few deep balls he has thrown on the fucking money. get a clue

he still has doubters that spew nonsense... I fucking love it. amazing

 

Originally Posted by Camz

easy to complete a higher % of passes when you are making high % throws in an offense built around your abilities..

WTF kind of stupid statement is this? what team doesn't build their offense to fit their personnel's strengths?

if you are trolling me, well played.

EDIT: http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/pl...PerPassAttempt

actually he is #1 in yards per attempt. clearly the sign of a QB throwing all screens, dump offs and shovel passes...

texans are to low....i feel like there's no way the pats are the 7th best team in football but i cant find another reasonable team to put ahead of them. parity city

 

Originally Posted by Futon

To compare RG3 and Newton is absurd. RG3 is a significantly more efficient offensive player than Newton

Cmon dude, I know you are way too intelligent to not understand what I meant.