32(32). Miami Dolphins 1-7

They’re still lower than the Colts because I think, at the end of the day, the Dolphins will have 1 win and the Colts will have two. Look at the rest of the Dolphins’ schedule. Their only realistic chance at another win is this week against Washington in Miami, but remember, the Dolphins are 1-10 at home in the last 2 years.

31(31). Indianapolis Colts 0-9

Meanwhile, the Colts have home games against Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Carolina left, as well as a trip to Jacksonville. They can find 2 wins in there. If they lose to Jacksonville this week, then we can talk about this team potential as a 1 or 0 win team, but I think they win this week. Blaine Gabbert might actually be worse than Curtis Painter and Indianapolis’ fierce pass rush will actually serve some purpose this week as the Jaguars don’t have the offense to pull away from them.

30(29). St. Louis Rams 1-7

Brandon Lloyd has brought their number of legitimate pass catchers up from 0 to 1, so hopefully they can keep him. I know they lost last week to Arizona, but that was more on their special teams. The Rams definitely look better in their past two games as they’ll only get better as Sam Bradford gets healthier and more in sync with Brandon Lloyd. Remember, they have games against Arizona, Seattle (2), and Cleveland left, plus a week 17 home game against San Francisco, who could be resting its starters. They could still get 3-4 wins.

29(26). Arizona Cardinals 2-6

The Cardinals are now 1-0 with John Skelton and 1-6 with Kevin Kolb. Quarterback controversy? Probably not since John Skelton didn’t even play well in a special teams led win against the lowly Rams, which featured John Skelton taking TWO safeties. Something tells me they won’t have the same kind of luck this week against a probably pissed off Philadelphia team.

28(28). Washington Redskins 3-5

I like their chances this week in Miami because Miami sucks at home and sucks in general, but will they get another win after that? Maybe one divisional one, maybe one random one, maybe, but this team still looks like a 5 win team that would be right in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes if they didn’t randomly get out to a hot start.

27(24). Seattle Seahawks 2-6

I literally stared at my computer screen for 10 minutes to come up with something interesting to say about the Seahawks. I can’t. They’re boring and they suck.

26(30). Jacksonville Jaguars 2-6

On bye last week.

25(27). Carolina Panthers 2-6

On bye last week.

24(22). Cleveland Browns 3-5

I would rant about how much the Browns suck, but this guy does a better job of it. They may have 3 wins, but they were against the Dolphins, the Colts, and the Seahawks. They’re averaging 5.7 yards per pass and 3.1 yards per carry and that’s not including the 20 sacks that Colt McCoy has taken. Their defense is only slightly better by default, but considering they couldn’t tackle at all last week, that’s more of a knock on their putrid offense than anything.

23(21). Kansas City Chiefs 4-4

The Chiefs were exposed last week as overrated frauds by losing by 28 at home to Miami. They’ve won 4 games against the 2-6 Vikings, the 0-9 Colts, the Jason Campbell-less Raiders, and the choking Chargers by a combined 101-61, but lost to the Bills, Lions, Chargers, and Dolphins by a combined 140-30. Ouch!

22(23). Minnesota Vikings 2-6

On bye last week.

21(19). Tennessee Titans 4-4

4 games ago, the Titans looked like they could win the division. Now, after blowout losses to Houston and Pittsburgh, as well as a win over the lowly Colts, and a home loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Titans are at 4-4 and look like one of the worst 4-4 teams in the league. Their 4 wins are against Indianapolis, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Denver. Baltimore is the only good team in the bunch and they also lost to Jacksonville, who, by the way, beat Tennessee. It’s now looking like the Titans might not even win against Carolina next week.

20(20). Oakland Raiders 5-4

The Raiders’ win over the Chargers is not as impressive as it seems. The Chargers just aren’t good anymore. Too many things wrong at once. The Chargers remind me if the 2010 Cowboys, finally bottoming out after years of underachieving under an awful head coach. But the Raiders are still in first place in this crappy division so there’s that. I just don’t trust Carson Palmer. One good game against an overrated Chargers division doesn’t change that.

19(10). San Diego Chargers 4-5

I have a feeling the Chargers just aren’t going to hit midseason form. Philip Rivers has never struggled like this before. I think we’re past wondering if he’s injured or not. We should be wondering if he died and was replaced with a look alike. I’m serious. He does know he doesn’t have to force it into double coverage on every throw right? Their 4 wins, Miami (1-7), Denver (pre-Tebow), Kansas City (an overrated 4-4), Minnesota (pre-Ponder).

18(25). Denver Broncos 3-5

Where are all the Tebow haters now? A young quarterback can’t have one bad game. His stats aren’t pretty, but he can pick up chunks of yardage on the ground, make clutch throws, open things up for his running game, and most importantly, motivate his teammates. He’s not the best passer and he’s not going to put up amazing passing stats, but he’ll win you games. The Broncos’ division sucks. I have them winning the division. Calling it now.

17(16). Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4-4

2 games ago they sat atop the division, at 4-2, holding the tiebreaker over New Orleans and Atlanta. Now they’re 4-4 and New Orleans has evened the score and jumped out to a game and a half lead. I don’t think they’ll catch them for the division and even worse, the Buccaneers dropped one to the Bears, which gives the Bears the tiebreaker in the very possible situation that these two teams finish tied for the 6^th and final playoff spot in the NFC. Needless to say, their game this week against Houston is huge.

 

16(17). Dallas Cowboys 4-4

The division still isn’t out of reach for them. The Giants may have a 2 game lead, but the Cowboys do play them twice before the season is over and the Giants, who normally struggle in the 2^nd half of the season, have a brutal 2^nd half schedule this year. However, they need to get their act together. One week they get destroyed by the Eagles, who were proven to be frauds the very next week by Chicago, and then they don’t look very good in beating the Seahawks. The Seahawks are a terrible road team that deserved to lose by more than 10 points given how many more yards the Cowboys had, but the Cowboys shot themselves in the foot countless times and let them hang around. Now Miles Austin is out with an injury.

15(9). Philadelphia Eagles 3-5

The Eagles get better as the season goes on and the Giants have a brutal 2^nd half schedule and tend to struggle in the 2^nd half anyway, but a 3 game lead is a lot to make up. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Eagles still won this division, but they have to count on the Giants getting at least 9 wins which means the Eagles will have to go 6-2 from here on out. They have the talent and Andy Reid coached teams do get better as the season goes on, but I’m putting New York slightly ahead of them for now. Needless to say, their matchup in a few weeks against the Giants, who beat them earlier, is going to be huge. If they lose that one, I think their season is over.

14(18). New York Giants 6-2

Since Tom Coughlin took over in 2004, the Giants are 47-17 (.734) in the first half of the season and 24-32 (.429) in the 2^nd half of the season. They started 6-2 last year and missed the playoffs at 10-6. Now they have a brutal 2^nd half schedule, @ San Francisco, vs. Philadelphia, @ New Orleans, vs. Green Bay, @ Dallas, vs. Washington, @ NY Jets, vs. Dallas. I wouldn’t give them the division yet because I could definitely see them finishing 9-7, but with the Eagles losing last week and the Cowboys struggling to find consistency, the Giants have to be the favorites at this point. Even 9 wins could win this division.

13(13). Cincinnati Bengals 6-2

I’m conservatively ranking the Bengals here. In 2 weeks, they could be a lot lower or a lot, lot higher with Pittsburgh and Baltimore next on their schedule. The Bengals have yet to beat a proven veteran team, but that doesn’t mean they can’t. It wouldn’t surprise me to see them beat either Pittsburgh and/or Baltimore, but for now, I’m ranking those two veteran squads above the Bengals in the division and making the Bengals prove themselves.

12(6). Buffalo Bills 5-3

Losing at home to the Jets obviously was a big hit to their division title and even playoff hopes. The Patriots and the Jets are both more veteran than them and the Jets flat out destroyed them last week. Is there room for 3 AFC East teams in the playoffs? Maybe, but the Bills will have to play better than they did last week to deserve one.

11(15). Chicago Bears 5-3

The Bears have come a long way since losing to the Lions in Detroit 3 games ago. Since then, they’ve won 3 straight beating two legitimate teams, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia, in the process. Their other win was a 29 point win over a Minnesota team that hasn’t lost by more than 7 all season, with the exception of that game. Their offensive line has been fixed and Earl Bennett is healthy and looks like a legitimate consistent target for Jay Cutler. We’ve seen this from them before and they’ve come back to prove their believers wrong, but right now I trust them more than I trusted them last year. I expect them to enact their revenge on the Lions this week in Chicago.

10(12). New York Jets 5-3

Like the Bears, the Jets are another team that a lot of people wrote off at 2-3, but with wins over the Dolphins, Chargers, and Bills, the Jets are looking better. The reason they’re higher than the Bears is because their early seasons struggles could be tied to injuries, particularly to center Nick Mangold so unless he gets hurt again, I don’t think there are any chances of them relapsing, whereas Chicago doesn’t have me so convinced. Like the Bears, the Jets have a chance for a revenge game this week against New England, but Brady and company haven’t lost 3 straight since 2002 so forgive me if I don’t like their chances. However, if they win that one, they’re in the driver’s seat in the division.

9(14). Atlanta Falcons 5-3

Atlanta was on bye again last week as they played the Colts, so there’s nothing to talk about here. Obviously, their game with the Saints this week is huge. They’ve already lost to the Buccaneers so if they lose to the Saints, they’re 0-2 against legitimate playoff contenders in their division. This game is especially important because it’s at home. If they lose this one, I really don’t like their chances to settle the score in New Orleans later this season, even though they won their last year.

8(8). Detroit Lions 6-2

On bye last week.

7(7). Houston Texans 6-3

The Texans have won 3 in a row for just the 4^th time in Matt Schaub’s career, but who did they beat? The Titans, the Browns, and the Jaguars. Not exactly the most talented group of teams. Still, they’re in the drivers’ seat in the awful AFC South and should be able to sleep walk to the division title. Honestly, if they don’t win another game, there’s still a 50/50 shot they win this division. Who else wins more than 6 games? Tennessee? Maybe? I’m interested to see how they response to that this week in Tampa Bay. This could be a classic let down game for this team.

6(3). Pittsburgh Steelers 6-3

I’m ranking Pittsburgh below Baltimore because they’ve lost twice to them. They played well enough to win against Baltimore last week, but they didn’t win because Joe Flacco was just a little bit better. This week they can take out their angry on the young Bengals, at least they better hope they can. The Bengals already have a better record than them somehow. They don’t want to lose head to head to them on top of that.

5(11). Baltimore Ravens 6-2

This looks like a classic, play to the level of the competition type team. They lose to Tennessee and Jacksonville and barely beat Arizona, but they’ve beaten Houston, Pittsburgh (twice), and the Jets. The good news for them is there are no bad teams in the playoffs, which looks like where they’re heading after securing the tiebreaker over the Steelers. The bad news is, we still have yet to see back to back good performances by Joe Flacco all season. Seriously, look up his stats. You don’t win a Super Bowl if you’re that inconsistent.

4(5). New Orleans Saints 6-3

The Saints didn’t prove a whole lot by beating Tampa Bay at home. This team still lost to St. Louis at St. Louis. They also lost to Tampa Bay in Tampa Bay and barely beat Carolina in Carolina. Last year, they lost road games to Seattle and Arizona and had trouble on the road against Cincinnati and San Francisco. This still isn’t a good road team and the road to the Super Bowl appears to go through Lambeau Field and possibly Candlestick Park in the NFC. The Saints have a chance to prove themselves on the road this week in Atlanta, where Matt Ryan has a career 22-4 record (2-1 against the Saints).

3(4). San Francisco 49ers 7-1

I wanted to put the 49ers 2^nd, but there should be some sort of rule about putting an Alex Smith quarterbacked team 2^nd. That just feels illegal. On top of that, the 49ers haven’t beat a good veteran team yet. Their 3 most impressive wins were against Detroit, Cincinnati, and Tampa Bay, 3 young teams. They have their first good, veteran test this week as the New York Giants come to town.

2(2). New England Patriots 5-3

Yes, they’re still here. To everyone who is writing them off, what happened last time you did that? Exactly. Look at their remaining schedule and tell me how they lose more than 1 more game. They have the Jets, the Chiefs, the Eagles, the Colts, Redskins, the Dolphins, the Broncos, and the Bills. I see 3 legitimate football teams on there, the Jets, Eagles, and Bills. However, losing to the Jets would mean losing 3 in a row, something they haven’t done since 2002, and losing to the Bills would mean going 0-2 against a divisional opponent, something they haven’t done since 2000, when Brady wasn’t even the quarterback. Besides, how good are the Eagles even?

Besides, after the Packers, there is no clear cut #2 team in the league this year. You can make arguments for a number of teams, but you can make counter arguments against all of them. The Ravens, their quarterback hasn’t had back to back good games all year and they’ve lost to Jacksonville and Tennessee. The Steelers, they lost to the Ravens, twice. The Patriots, they lost to the Steelers. The 49ers, they haven’t beaten a good veteran team. The Saints, they suck on the road. The Texans, do you really trust Matt Schaub? The Lions, they’re inexperienced and 1-2 in their last 3. I’m putting the Patriots at #2 because they have the most proven head coach/quarterback combo of the bunch. That’s the best tiebreaker I can come up with.

1(1). Green Bay Packers 8-0

Of course none of that really matters because the Packers are so much better than everyone. Yes, they have given up 69 points in their only two games against legitimate high powered offenses, but when you’re on pace to score the most points in a season (550) of any team other than the 2007 New England Patriots or the 1998 Minnesota Vikings, you don’t need to play a ton of defense. Aaron Rodgers is on pace to go 384-530 (72.5%) for 5238 yards (10.0 YPA), and 48 touchdowns to 6 picks. Quarterbacks aren’t supposed to do that. Besides, thanks to the lockout, there are fewer elite teams that any season in recent memory. You can make an argument the Packers are the only one. I listed the flaws with all of the teams under the Patriots’ write up. That’s not normal.