The biggest movers of the week – Chicago (up), Green Bay (up), Denver (down), the NY Jets (down), and San Diego (down).
| Rank | Team | Notes | Last Week | BeatPower |
1 |
 |
(Beat CLE) I’m starting to believe Clinton Portis is some sort of biological freak. That he’s able to perform at a high level after being as beaten up as he has over the last few seasons. And I’m still not sure who got the better of the Portis/Bailey trade. |
1 |
94.4(16/18 – 0/18) |
2 |
 |
(Beat SEA) From the highlights, it looked like Tampa Bay basically toyed with Seattle. Then again, that doesn’t seem particularly impressive. Still, some good quality wins for Tampa Bay overall. |
2 |
88.6(17/22 – 0/22) |
3 |
 |
(Beat NO) Carolina rises after defeating New Orleans in a game that seemed to be about momentum. The NFC South is looking weirdly strong this season. |
7 |
97.4(18/19 – 0/19) |
4 |
 |
(Bye) Arizona’s win over Dallas keeps them ranked highly after a bye week. |
5 |
88.9(15/18 – 1/18) |
5 |
 |
(Beat KC) Damn, LenDale White actually ended up being a good running back. Tennessee breaks the top five as their beatpaths start looking slightly stronger. |
6 |
100.0(15/15 – 0/15) |
6 |
 |
(Beat SD) Impressive win by Buffalo, a victory hurts San Diego more than it helps themselves. |
8 |
94.1(15/17 – 0/17) |
7 |
 |
(Bye) Atlanta’s beatwin over Green Bay re-emerges this week, which puts Atlanta in a stronger position after the bye. |
11 |
88.9(16/18 – 2/18) |
8 |
 |
(Lost to STL) Dallas’ loss is immediately seen as a fluke, although it sure didn’t look flukey from the highlights. They just looked dominated. |
10 |
85.3(14/17 – 2/17) |
9 |
 |
(Bye) Jacksonville’s position strengthens due to other graph dynamics – their beatpaths look stronger, and other teams ahead of them have collapsed. |
12 |
77.5(13/20 – 2/20) |
10 |
 |
(Beat MIN) Chicago’s beatwin over Indianapolis re-emerged this week, which allows them to have a beatpath over the team they beat, even though the direct beatwin had been beatlooped away. |
19 |
75.0(13/20 – 3/20) |
11 |
 |
(Beat IND) Indianapolis is looking a little better this week, so Green Bay’s victory is of higher quality than first expected. |
20 |
68.4(13/19 – 6/19) |
12 |
 |
(Beat DEN) Yeah. The sure looked good to *me*. But I guess if you’re playing a team that doesn’t need you to have a quarterback to beat them, a lot of teams would look good. |
13 |
77.8(5/9 – 0/9) |
13 |
 |
(Lost to NE) It’s an odd characteristic to have, for a team to generally be competitive and good, but also suffer from a couple of huge blowouts every season. It’s always seemed to be that way for Denver. Last year it was against Detroit. At least it was New England this year. I don’t know, maybe that means they’re improving. |
3 |
71.4(6/14 – 0/14) |
14 |
 |
(Beat CIN) Pittsburgh defeats Cincinnati and holds steady in the rankings – the NFC North doesn’t have many good beatpaths outside of the division, so none of the teams are really advantaging from beating each other. |
14 |
77.3(6/11 – 0/11) |
15 |
 |
(Beat SF) The NY Giants are still hurting in the rankings from their recent tumble. They don’t get any real reward in the rankings by defeating San Francisco. |
15 |
85.7(5/7 – 0/7) |
16 |
 |
(Bye) Philadelphia will start getting opportunities to define themselves again now. They continually seem like they should be better than they are, and I don’t know what that’s all about. |
17 |
68.2(4/11 – 0/11) |
17 |
 |
(Lost to OAK) The NY Jets lose their beatwin over Arizona due to the loss to Oakland, and take a major tumble. |
4 |
57.1(1/7 – 0/7) |
18 |
 |
(Lost to GB) Seems like kind of a surprising loss to me. Isn’t Manning supposed to be feeling better? I don’t really get what their problem is. |
21 |
52.2(12/23 – 11/23) |
19 |
 |
(Lost to BUF) San Diego sure looks to be in a better position than Denver going forward, but they’re trying to give the division championship to each other at this point – the two leading AFC West teams fell a combined twenty spots in the rankings this week. |
9 |
42.9(1/7 – 2/7) |
20 |
 |
(Lost to TEN) Kansas City actually rises a bit on the loss, as their vanquishers are all looking of slightly higher quality. Although I’m sure Kansas City feels like they got worse during that game. |
22 |
14.3(0/7 – 5/7) |
21 |
 |
(Beat MIA) No great reward for defeating Miami, but the NFL video highlights have a really great demonstration of how Baltimore defended the Wildcat. So that’s what good, disciplined defense looks like. |
23 |
18.8(3/16 – 13/16) |
22 |
 |
(Lost to CHI) Minnesota had a couple of crazy special teams mistakes that accounted for the score difference, but there were so many other touchdowns that it doesn’t really seem to matter. Minnesota falls on the loss and on the re-emergence of their beatloss to Indianapolis. |
18 |
33.3(6/18 – 12/18) |
23 |
 |
(Lost to CAR) New Orleans falls mostly due to the re-emergence of their earlier loss to Minnesota, which had been beatlooped away. |
16 |
26.3(5/19 – 14/19) |
24 |
 |
(Beat DET) Houston seemed to have this game well in hand but Detroit was able to still come back a little bit. Houston holds steady on the win. |
24 |
13.3(2/15 – 13/15) |
25 |
 |
(Lost to WAS) This was a gutty performance by Cleveland though. Can’t help thinking they’re going to finish the season ranked better than this. |
26 |
9.4(1/16 – 14/16) |
26 |
 |
(Lost to NYG) That was a sweet blocked field goal – Clemons caught the block before it even hit the ground. San Francisco doesn’t get hurt much from the expected loss to the NY Giants. |
25 |
14.3(3/21 – 18/21) |
27 |
 |
(Lost to BAL) Miami was looking somewhat decent even without the Wildcat wrinkles. Wonder what they’ll come up with next. Miami holds steady on the loss. |
27 |
8.3(0/18 – 15/18) |
28 |
 |
(Beat NYJ) Oakland, again, didn’t look all that crappy. Although their win immediately got beatlooped away. |
28 |
5.6(0/18 – 16/18) |
29 |
 |
(Lost to PIT) Cincinnati also holds steady, just like Pittsburgh. I guess this match had a very expected outcome. |
29 |
0.0(0/17 – 17/17) |
30 |
 |
(Lost to TB) The score against Tampa Bay wasn’t as close as it appeared, as their touchdown was basically in garbage time. I don’t really even have a sense of what Seattle is struggling with – they just seem generally football depressed to me. |
30 |
5.0(1/20 – 19/20) |
31 |
 |
(Beat DAL) St. Louis has two wins in a row that would be seen as beatflukes in the beatfluke variation. I can’t imagine that happening very often. |
31 |
0.0(0/20 – 20/20) |
32 |
 |
(Lost to HOU) Detroit loses as expected, stays ranked last as expected. |
32 |
0.0(0/21 – 21/21) |
The Cowboys did get dominated. In the first half, Brad Johnson was 6/18 for 66yds and a pick, and the defense forced exactly one punt. I was really surprised they didn’t put Romo in — I guess that business about him being the 2nd QB was pure bluff.
Something I noticed during MNF: the Broncos have one only one road game so far this season (@ Raiders, and including the loss @ Chiefs). With all the injuries they’ve been having… I think the rest of their season is not going to be pretty.
The Colts loss didn’t seem to be a problem with Manning’s injury. The Packers never seemed to get much pressure on him (he was flushed out of the pocket a few times, never sacked). But they only had one long drive going against the wind, and that ended with Manning’s second pick-6.
D∈T
>”Philadelphia will start getting opportunities to define themselves again now. They continually seem like they should be better than they are, and I don’t know what that’s all about.”
Welcome to Philadelphia sports!
Volatility for Week 7:
0+0+4+1+1+2+4+2+3+9+9+1+10+0+0+1+13+3+10+2+2+4+7+0+1+1+0+0+0+0+0+0 = 90
Previous weeks:
Week 6 = 128
Week 5 = 124
Week 4 = 152
Week 3 = 202
Significant drop. Seem to be just five or six big movers, everyone else staying in the same neighborhood.
I wouldn’t call LenDale White a good running back yet–a lot of guys can look good as the second running back in a platoon on a good running team.
As for Seattle, I think the problem is that they’re a passing team and their passing offense was depleted by injuries. Their WRs were famously hit, and Hasselbeck has been out awhile, too. Though that doesn’t explain the defensive struggles.