Since Indianapolis was both favored over Chicago and already had a beatpath to Chicago through New England, the post-super-bowl power rankings (which rely on the beatflukes variant, and excluding the CAR@NO victory in week 17) are completely identical to the pre-super-bowl power rankings found in this entry. Go there to find the real end-of-season power rankings. Go to this entry to find the end-of-season beatpaths graphs.

But I thought it might be interesting to look at the difference in power rankings if we used the vanilla variant, and included all games, including the CAR@NO victory. There are some interesting differences. Some of these might yield clues for next year.

Here is the relevant pure, vanilla graph these alternate power rankings are based off of.

And, the alternate power rankings:

Rank	Team	Notes	(BF-CAR@NO)	BeatPower
1		(Beat CHI) A clear, dominant champion. Indianapolis was a regular fixture on the top of the power rankings this year.	1	100.0 (29/29 – 0/29)
2		(Bye) Giving more credence to the view that NE@IND was the real Super Bowl this year.	2	92.6 (24/27 – 1/27)
3		(Lost to IND) However, Chicago was a worthy opponent – this is the highest ranking for Chicago out of all variants, having them placed behind only the the AFC teams that have beaten them outright.	5	87.0 (19/23 – 2/23)
4		(Bye)	4	93.8 (21/24 – 0/24)
5		(Bye) Baltimore split with Cincinnati, and beatlooped with SD=>DEN and PIT=>CAR.	3	88.5 (21/26 – 1/26)
6		(Bye) The Jets split with NE and BUF, and beatlooped with HOU=>CLE, MIA=>CHI, and HOU=>JAC.	7	79.4 (12/17 – 2/17)
7		(Bye) It’s possible that Carolina might have played New Orleans very well at the end of the season even had New Orleans not rested their starters and partied the whole game. Carolina beat them earlier in the season, and Carolina’s schedule showed a number of other strong victories. Carolina split with ATL, and beatlooped with TB=>CIN, TB=>PHI, TB=>WAS, STL=>WAS, NO=>PHI, NO=>DAL, NO=>NYG, BAL=>PIT and STL=>MIN. So, an ambiguous season for Carolina – good enough not to suffer under any beatlosses (not many teams can say that), a lot of failure, too, and reason to believe they could be quite good next year.	15	87.5 (15/20 – 0/20)
8		(Bye) New Orleans beatloops with ATL=>PIT, ATL=>CIN, TB=>CIN, ATL=>WAS, TB=>WAS, PHI=>WAS, NYG=>WAS, PHI=>CAR, DAL=>CAR, and NYG=>CAR. But it was clear that New Orleans was a stronger team in the second half of the season. Look out for them next year. This is my new second-favorite team (and not because of Katrina!)	6	70.5 (14/22 – 5/22)
9		(Bye) It’s starting to feel unnecessary to list out all the beatloops, but Philadelphia had a lot of them.	9	65.0 (12/20 – 6/20)
10		(Bye) Seattle was more talented than their season performance indicated. I think it was a super bowl hangover. I’m not sure whether to consider them improved next year though, because their running game appears to be degrading.	11	61.4 (9/22 – 4/22)
11		(Bye) The loss to San Francisco was most disappointing, although is it as surprising that they lost their opening day match to St. Louis? It’s hard to tell whether to be optimistic for next year… they’ve got a great QB/WR/TE core now, but it could still be a bit of a rebuilding year.	16	70.0 (10/20 – 2/20)
12		(Bye) Vince Young is scary.	13	56.2 (7/16 – 5/16)
13		(Bye) I don’t understand Kansas City – it seems their worst enemy is themselves. They just can’t seem to get themselves uncrossed.	14	56.7 (4/15 – 2/15)
14		(Bye) Another team that should be better next year, but… it’s hard to fathom. Big Ben’s problems didn’t explain all the failure this year.	10	63.9 (9/18 – 4/18)
15		(Bye) Buffalo had a bad luck schedule this year – when you play Chicago, San Diego, Baltimore, and New England twice, all in the same year, you don’t have much of a shot. The loss to Detroit hurt too, costing them a beatpath to Green Bay.	8	60.0 (7/15 – 4/15)
16		(Bye) Cincinnati appears to have a success ceiling until they figure out some of their team discipline issues, which I believe is translating to lack of on-field performance.	17	46.7 (2/15 – 3/15)
17		(Bye) Favre is coming back! That’d be crazy cool if they actually have a good season next year.	20	47.5 (7/20 – 8/20)
18		(Bye) St. Louis strikes me as a true wildcard team. They seem to have the same general character as in 2005. They’re like 2005′s San Diego, except lower quality. While 2005′s San Diego was a freakishly talented but regularly undisciplined team, St. Louis is a regularly undisciplined team with occasional flashes of brilliance. I don’t think gaining focus will be enough for them, though – they need more time. They’ll probably continue to be a dangerous pest of a team in 2007 while they try to figure out what their real identity is.	19	44.1 (2/17 – 4/17)
19		(Bye) What an overrated team this was. I was embarrassed every time this team ended up in the papers for reasons other than game outcomes.	21	44.4 (6/18 – 8/18)
20		(Bye) They’re better than this! I just know they are! And Green shouldn’t have fired that offensive coordinator.	25	31.2 (0/16 – 6/16)
21		(Bye) Their former coach sure seems like a creep, huh?	12	33.3 (6/21 – 13/21)
22		(Bye) Wade Phillips is in… I didn’t think he was that great while at Denver, and he’s always struck me as a second tier head coach. But maybe the whole Texas connection thing will work its magic.	18	30.6 (2/18 – 9/18)
23		(Bye) I hope their end-of-season performance is indicative of this team being much better than their overall season record indicated… mostly just because I’m still licking my wounds from them beating Denver at the end of the season.	26	26.5 (1/17 – 9/17)
24		(Bye) We’re into the layer of teams that could possibly maybe have been better the season and could possibly maybe be better next season.	22	30.4 (5/23 – 14/23)
25		(Bye) Here’s another one! They say they’ve got the talent… do they have the heart?	24	22.2 (0/18 – 10/18)
26		(Bye) And it’s the team of the coach-killer. I think letting Vick call his own plays is the right way to go – live by him or die by him, but leave it up to him so there won’t be doubts later. Let him finally be defined.	23	20.0 (1/20 – 13/20)
27		(Bye) So few results with so many resources – that’s been a theme for so many years now – how does that happen year after year, even with a good coaching staff?	28	20.0 (3/25 – 18/25)
28		(Bye) This team was seriously derailed this year…	27	7.9 (0/19 – 16/19)
29		(Bye) I guess if there’s a guy you can trust to judge a quarterback’s abilities, it would be Kubiak. But if Carr is benched, I think it would be a bit of a sports tragedy – he was supposed to be a good quarterback, but probably just victimized by too many years of learning bad coping habits from previous coaches not giving him good support.	30	13.0 (2/23 – 19/23)
30		(Bye) Who knows what the hell.	29	6.8 (0/22 – 19/22)
31		(Bye) Obviously they’re better than this, but if you expect to be taken seriously, you have to beat the Houston Texans. Maybe next year it won’t be such a big deal from Houston improving, but come on.	31	4.5 (0/22 – 20/22)
32		(Bye) Yikes. At least they had the sense to keep their defensive coach. They’re potentially a surprising storyline for next year.	32	5.8 (0/26 – 23/26)