Week Five Power Rankings
By Dan Zinski
- Indianapolis Colts
- New England Patriots
- Dallas Cowboys
- Green Bay Packers
- Seattle Seahawks
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- Tennessee Titans
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Detroit Lions
- Washington Redskins
- Carolina Panthers
- Baltimore Ravens
- Denver Broncos
- Houston Texans
- Arizona Cardinals
- New York Giants
- Cleveland Browns
- San Diego Chargers
- Philadelphia Eagles
- San Francisco 49ers
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Oakland Raiders
- Chicago Bears
- Cincinnati Bengals
- New York Jets
- Miami Dolphins
- Minnesota Vikings
- Buffalo Bills
- Atlanta Falcons
- New Orleans Saints
- St. Louis Rams
Is the NFC getting stronger? I’ve got an even split now in the top six – 3 AFC teams, 3 NFC teams. The AFC seems to have more catastrophically disappointing clubs, with San Diego, Cincinnati and the N.Y. Jets all underachieving. Of course the NFC has New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago – but I just wasn’t that sold on either the Saints or Rams before the season, so I wouldn’t call their off-years catastrophic. I still think 1-3 San Diego will right the ship, which is why I’ve got them rated above some 2-2 teams. And I’m still thinking Philly is going to put something together before the year’s over, provided they can get Westbrook back in there, and not give up 12 sacks in a game anymore (even the Vikings’ O-line isn’t that bad).
I want to hand out kudos to one guy this week – Lane Kiffin, coach of the Oakland Raiders. I thought it was great how Kiffin’s team managed to put up 35 points despite only throwing 12 passes the whole game – all five touchdowns being scored by Daunte Culpepper, 2 on throws and 3 on runs. I was impressed by this because it shows that Kiffin is the kind of guy who understands how you have to game-plan based on the personnel you have. Are you listening Brad Childress? It doesn’t do any good to have what you think is a genius plan if you don’t have the players to carry it out. Take a page from Kiffin’s book – look at the guys you do have, then put together your plan based on that. Kiffin obviously figured that running and running was his best bet against Miami – and what happened? 35 points while only throwing 12 passes. Sounds pretty kick-ass to me.