2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings

Pittsburgh Steelers: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#21)

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Last week: 23 (+2)

Record: 2-4

The Steelers have been night and day better since the bye. The return of Le’Veon Bell and Heath Miller to full health, giving the Steelers a talented runner and a safety net receiver respectively, have obviously helped, but I also think they are playing better as other guys are playing up to their abilities. David DeCastro, the Steelers’ first round pick in 2012, has established himself as one of the premier guards in the NFL in his first full season as a healthy starter. The Steelers now go on the road to Oakland this week and will have to avoid a trap they’ve fallen into countless times in the Mike Tomlin era. They are 6-17 ATS and just 12-11 straight up as non-divisional road favorites since Tomlin took over in 2007. Maybe at 2-4 they’ll see it as a must win and they won’t flop.

Week 7 Studs

RT Guy Whimper

RG David DeCastro

Week 7 Duds

TE Heath Miller

ROLB Jason Worilds

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Philadelphia Eagles: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#22)

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Last week: 22 (+0)

Record: 3-4

This week, Nick Foles struggled and got hurt and Matt Barkley absolutely sucked. And just like that, Michael Vick’s hamstring is magically better. Foles was awful before his injury, completing 11 of 29 for 80 yards, but Barkley was somehow even worse. He completed 11 of 20 for 129 yards, but he also threw 3 picks. Vick isn’t great either so this is a big setback as it looked like Foles could be their quarterback of the future after a strong 6 quarters against the Giants and the Buccaneers. It’s very possible that the quarterback of the future for Chip Kelly isn’t on the roster right now. He could easily take a quarterback in the first round this year, particularly if his former quarterback at Oregon Marcus Mariota comes out.

Week 7 Studs

LT Jason Peters

LG Evan Mathis

C Jason Kelce

RE Fletcher Cox

Week 7 Duds

QB Nick Foles

QB Matt Barkley

TE Brent Celek

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Arizona Cardinals: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#23)

stevenlourie 2013 NFL Power Rankings, 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings, Cardinals, Uncategorized

Last week: 23 (-4)

Record: 3-4

I feel like I never have anything to say about the Cardinals. They’re not terrible, but they’re not great. They have a solid defense held back by an erratic quarterback behind a terrible offensive line and an inability to establish the running game. They will definitely win at least 6 games and surpass their pre-season 5.5 win total over/under. That’s not a surprise. Teams with over/under win totals of 6 or less hit about 2/3rds of the time.

Week 7 Studs

ROLB John Abraham

Week 7 Duds

QB Carson Palmer

LT Bradley Sowell

RT Eric Winston

RG Paul Fanaika

LG Nate Potter

TE Rob Housler

SS Yeremiah Bell

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Buffalo Bills: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#24)

stevenlourie 2013 NFL Power Rankings, 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings, Bills, Uncategorized

Last week: 27 (+3)

Record: 3-4

The Bills may just be 3-4, but they’ve been pretty decent this season. They’ve had a tough schedule, with each of their opponents being 3-4 or better at this point. They’ve been underdogs in all 7 games and they have covered 5 of 7 spreads. The only game they’ve lost by more than a touchdown came in Cleveland after a pick six by backup Jeff Tuel. They beat a pair of top-15 teams on these Power Rankings in Buffalo (Baltimore, Carolina) and almost beat New England and Cincinnati. Their defense has been strong, allowing opponents to move the chains at just a 71% rate and they’ll only get better with Stephon Gilmore and Jairus Byrd healthy. Offensively, they are actually one of two teams to have scored 20 points or more in every game, along with Denver. Thaddeus Lewis isn’t great, but he can do enough for the Bills to win a few games going forward. Unfortunately, it’ll only serve to hurt their draft position and not for them to make the playoffs.

Week 7 Studs

ROLB Mario Williams

LOLB Jerry Hughes

DT Marcell Dareus

CB Nickell Robey

Week 7 Duds

RG Kraig Urbik

C Eric Wood

FS Jim Leonhard

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Washington Redskins: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#25)

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Last week: 26 (+1)

Record: 2-4

Robert Griffin had his best game of the season this week against an admittedly banged up Chicago defense. He led the Redskins’ offense to 5 touchdowns in a 45-41 win, throwing for 298 yards, 2 touchdowns, and an interception on 18 of 29 passing. He also rushed for 84 yards on 11 carries and now has rushed for 161 yards on 20 carries in 2 games since the bye. That’s all promising and could continue going forward. However, their defense allowing 4 touchdowns to a Bears offense led by Josh McCown for most of the game is very concerning. Their defense has been awful this season and won’t get any better with Stephen Bowen out indefinitely with a torn PCL.

Week 7 Studs

QB Robert Griffin

TE Jordan Reed

ROLB Brian Orakpo

LOLB Ryan Kerrigan

Week 7 Duds

RE Stephen Bowen

FS Brandon Meriweather

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Cleveland Browns: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#26)

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Last week: 24 (-2)

Record: 3-4

The switch to Jason Campbell was the right one. With the Raiders, he went 11-7 in 2010 and 2011 with a team that hadn’t won more than 5 games in a season since 2003 and has gone 10-22 in their next 26 games without him. He really didn’t look good in about 6 quarters of work in place of an injured Jay Cutler in Chicago last year, but he was facing two of the best defenses in the NFL last season in San Francisco and Houston in those two games and he had very little offensive supporting talent around him. He has 71 career starts so I’m not going to base my opinion on him off of 6 quarters last year. He’s decent. The Browns have a solid supporting cast. We saw Brian Hoyer win 3 games in 3 tries with the team earlier this season before tearing his ACL because he was able to get the ball to Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron downfield and rely on a solid defense. Jason Campbell should be able to do his best Brian Hoyer impression.

Week 7 Studs

LT Joe Thomas

Week 7 Duds

QB Brandon Weeden

RG Shawn Lauvao

MLB D’Qwell Jackson

MLB Craig Robertson

CB Buster Skrine

FS Tashaun Gibson

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New York Giants: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#27)

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Last week: 28 (+1)

Record: 1-6

The Giants won this week, but they were significantly less impressive this week than they were in a loss to the Bears, a game which they would have won if they were even competitive in the turnover battle. Against the Vikings, they didn’t move the ball well and relied on the turnover battle heavily. Eli Manning missed throws and throws that weren’t missed were dropped by receivers like Hakeem Nicks, who isn’t making himself a ton of money in a contract year. Meanwhile, Peyton Hillis looked like he was signed off the couch this week (which he was), rushing for 36 yards on 18 carries. We’ll see how they play going forward, but they might just be a fringe team all season.

Week 7 Studs

LE Justin Tuck

RE Jason Pierre-Paul

DT Shaun Rogers

ROLB Jacquian Williams

SS Antrel Rolle

Week 7 Duds

WR Hakeem Nicks

RE Mathias Kiwanuka

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St. Louis Rams: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#28)

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Last week: 25 (-3)

Record: 3-4

The Rams have 3 wins, but one was by a field goal at home over Arizona, one was over Jacksonville, and the other was a fluky game in Houston in which they won by 25 despite losing the yardage battle by over 200 and the first down battle by over 10. Now they don’t really have a quarterback as Sam Bradford is out for the season with a torn ACL, forcing fringe talent Kellen Clemens under center for the rest of the season. They’re going to have a hard time winning more than 5 games which is why they are down here despite having 3 wins.

Week 7 Studs

QB Sam Bradford

C Scott Wells

RE Robert Quinn

Week 7 Duds

RG Harvey Dahl

CB Trumaine Johnson

CB Janoris Jenkins

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Minnesota Vikings: 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings (#29)

stevenlourie 2013 NFL Power Rankings, 2013 Week 8 NFL Power Rankings, Uncategorized, Vikings

Last week: 29 (+0)

Record: 1-5

Some are calling Josh Freeman’s game against the Giants the worst quarterbacking performance in NFL history. I don’t know if I’d go that far or if I have the historical context to determine that, but it was pretty bad. He threw 33 incompletions (only 3 of which were drops) on 20 of 53 passing for 190 yards and an interception against a team that was previously one of the worst in the NFL defensively. ProFootballFocus said his performance graded out as the worst they’ve graded since they started in 2008 and it pretty much broke their grading system. It wasn’t totally his fault though. He definitely deserves a lot of the blame because his mechanics and accuracy looked awful, but he wasn’t put in a situation to succeed by the coaching staff. He had been with the team just 14 days and clearly didn’t know the playbook and understandably so. He deserves a few more starts because he has more upside than Christian Ponder or Matt Cassel, but he’s clearly regressed as a passer since this time last year so I think it’s more likely than not that the Vikings are looking for a new quarterback this off-season.

Week 7 Studs

LE Everson Griffen

DT Kevin Williams

SS Jamarca Sanford

Week 7 Duds

QB Josh Freeman

RT Phil Loadholt

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