Power rankings system devised and compiled weekly by Stemshul. “Expert” analysis by paradroid.
The regular season is over. Let’s review a few things! First, I was right about the Eagles and the #1 seed. They managed to claim it but lost out to the Bills for position #1 in the 64tacos power rankings. The asterisk here is that the Buffalo/Cincinnati game was ruled a no contest in the aftermath of the Daman Hamlin incident (good news on that front: Hamlin was released from the hospital today!). So we’ll never know if the Bills would have beaten the Bengals, which would obviously have an effect on the final standings. But as it happens, the game was quite rightly called and the Bills caught the Eagles. The Giants, despite my earlier prediction, did make the playoffs, although it was pretty tight and they couldn’t even finish with a positive point differential. The Vikings also got in, which I expected, but their record is better than I thought it would be. They have a negative point differential as well, but wins are wins, and Minnesota will be hosting at least one playoff game.
But did the right teams get in? Are there any deserving teams who will NOT get to see the postseason? Let’s start in the AFC. The only team who really didn’t deserve to make it is Miami. You could maybe say the Ravens are undeserving, but they won 10 games and have a healthy +35 point differential. And the candidates to replace them are not incredibly convincing. Really, it’s only Pittsburgh and New England who can make a case. Sorry, Jets and Titans fans, 6 and 7 game losing streaks (respectively) get no sympathy from me. The Steelers might not have the best point differential (-38), but Mike Tomlin found a way to get this team to a winning record (again) despite an awful 2-6 start. New England was in the mix on the last day, but couldn’t find a way to beat the Bills. So I would put Pittsburgh in Miami’s place, but it’s pretty close, so I have no big issue with the result.
Over in the NFC, there are a few more possibilities. Let’s start by saying that the Bucs are only in due to the NFL’s insistence on having division winners make the playoffs. Tampa Bay didn’t have a winning record, only won their division by 1 game (all three other teams finished at 7-10), has a -45 point differential (last in their own division, by the way), and backed in with a 30-17 loss to Atlanta). Now, according to our rankings, the Buccaneers are the best team in the AFC South. Nobody from the NFC South is any good. My point is simply that the Bucs nowhere near the 4th best team in the conference, as their seeding would indicate. In fact, I think they’re nowhere near the 7th best team in the NFC. I can easily slot Detroit, Green Bay, and Washington ahead of them. They all have equal or better records and all have superior point differentials. So now we’ve got them down in 10th. If you want to go by point differential, they’re 13th (!). Suffice to say, they don’t deserve to be there. The other dubious entrants are Seattle and N.Y. The teams I’d choose to replace them are Washington and Green Bay. I think both those teams deserve to be in ahead of Tampa, but it’s less obvious that they should replace the Seahawks or Giants. Kind of like Pittsburgh over Miami, I think maybe yes, but not very strongly.
I do feel strongly that the Lions should be in. They’re obviously better than the Buccaneers, they beat the Giants 31-18, and although they lost a crazy 48-45 shootout to Seattle, it’s clearly the Lions who are playing better lately. I think a lot of NFC defensive coordinators breathed a sigh of relief when Detroit was eliminated by Seattle’s O.T. win over the Rams. Nobody wants to play the Lions right now, and because Roger Goodell won’t take my calls about playoff qualification rules, nobody has to. An 8-2 run followed a 1-6 start that had the Lions all the way down in 29th (check out how depressed I sound!). Detroit made it all the way up to 10th on our final regular season rankings, which is an absurd turnaround. The official 64tacos wrap-up of Detroit’s season can be found here. It was a crazy year, but there’s lots to like going forward. Next year? Playoffs or bust!
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