NFL Power Rankings Week 16 Raiders rise Broncos plummet

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NFL Power Rankings, Week 16: Raiders rise, Broncos plummet Published: Dec 19, 2016 at 11:58 PM Elliot Harrison Playoff football. Yep, Week 16 qualifies. Thus, it's no surprise that, with so many upcoming games having postseason implications, teams from the top to the 20th spot are playoff-viable. Granted, as you descend into the later teens, "chances" morph into . But hey, point is that many of the teams in the soft underbelly of the Power Rankings are even-steven, and could emerge out of the mediocre mosh pit to sneak into . Before we get down there, though, two things to sort out: A) The up/down arrows mean little compared to rank. In order to get this jigsaw puzzle right, some teams dropped farther than you would think (SEE: Broncos), while others didn't move up a ton despite winning by wide margins (SEE: Colts). B) Recency bias is prevalent. Teams that have lost three of four (SEE: Redskins) were hit hard this week. Mid-December is the most important time of the NFL season in which to be hot. OK, on to your hot takes, fresh out of the sports oven ... Very status quo week. Bet ya an egg salad sandwich @ any place of your choice no one moves more than 2 spots. Viktor Me sick (@THEREDMESSICK) Looks like you owe me an egg salad sandwich, Viktor. Think hard about the in your next rankings. They've beat a lot of those good teams you have in front of them now ;-) Christopher Joslin (@cjoslin68) Cool, man. You look like one of those dudes at the party in "Eyes Wide Shut." I love my but they deserve to plummet in the rankings after that showing, at home, to the . Jason W. (@The_real_J_Web) I agree. I , as you can see below. The and moved in opposite directions this week. So did their entire divisions. That made adjusting the Power Rankings quite challenging. Though I imagine you can tell me where I me sed up (or got it right!): is the place. Let the di sension commence! The lineup below reflects changes from . Simple directive for the : Ground the . If New England does that, , the Pats get to open quite a present on the night before Christmas: home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. By on Sunday, the clinched their eighth straight division crown -- a new NFL record, snapping a tie at seven with the 1970s . The coach for the first five of those titles was Chuck Knox -- "Ground Chuck," as he was known. He certainly would have approved of the 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense the employed on Sunday (39 carries for 136 yards). That game wasn't about the running backs, though, or even exorcising his Denver demons. This was about controlling the engagement from stem to stern. Dak to the Future, Part II. Following , Prescott emboldened the hopes of fans . Everyone is on board again, with the sideline shots of dwindling to back to just two or three per half. gained his 159 yards. Ho hum. Yet, lost in the shuffle of all that fresh offensive star power, we've seen the re-emergence of a seemingly extinct species: what is known as a " pa s rusher." Its natural habitat has never been AT&T Stadium. So why it is now migrating to Big D -- in December, of all months -- baffles even the leading experts. Maybe we should put a tag on so we can track his movements. Or send out donation requests to "SAVE THE COWBOYS PASS RUSHER," with 50 mailing labels and a goal coin as the free gift for giving. Remember earlier this season when fans were asking, Apparently 30,000 of them drove down to San Diego this past weekend, because their roar for Irvin was deafening during the final salvo. So the guy didn't provide the immediate impact everyone demanded in the early portion of the season ... Well, in Oakland's five games since the Week 10 bye, Irvin has racked up 28 tackles, five sacks and a forced fumble. Not too shabby -- like the clinching their first playoff berth in 14 years and sitting in the driver's seat for a first-round bye. Next up: . Another NFC West title for the Pete Carroll's . And while many acro s the pro football landscape have spent recent weeks panicking -- or berating your hack writer for placing Seattle too high -- this team is likely going D.J. Moore Jersey to finish 11-4-1. The four lo ses that everyone's been freaking out over? , where even the '07 might lose ... , after a 2,500-mile plane flight ... , where superior ballclubs often fall to the ... and , again on the road. The key for this group now is getting that first-round bye. The are a different group at home. for the . threw the ball relatively well, especially considering his recent struggles on the road. Pittsburgh's defense made look pedestrian most of the day in a sub-mediocre performance. And before hitting the road. makes a must-win in the AFC North race. With a lo s, the would need the reeling . Glowing record, glaring concern in Kansas City right now. The blueprint for the in the second half the season was to get their pa s rushers healthy, run the football and then use the home-field advantage as the first or second seed to be a serious contender. Well, and are back and the running game is doing alright ... but playing at Arrowhead Stadium hasn't been much of an advantage at all. The barely escaped with in early November, sputtered in two weeks later and against what most analysts feel is an inferior team (Tenne see). Maybe not. The offense has averaged just 17.7 points per game in those three home games. Not gonna cut it. Nobody's buying into the . The keep winning. Improving to 10-4 with , Big Blue got extremely close to locking up a wild-card spot. There is a decent chance that only one other non-division winner will reach double-digit wins in the NFC. The . The Bucs , either. Of course, another win and the G-Men simply clinch a spot. New York can do that -- though the Linc has been a house of turds for and the offense in recent years. They've scored all of one touchdown since 2013 in Philly. Think it'll go down differently this time around. didn't exactly hurt his MVP candidacy . No, the ' franchise quarterback did not put up the numbers that we saw earlier this season. But you don't have to throw for five bills to be a good quarterback. Ryan performed like a top-flight QB against the , completing 17 of his 23 pa ses for 286 yards and two touchdowns. No turnovers. That's a 144.5 pa ser rating. Love the way OC Kyle Shanahan is using and , as well. How about the throwback unis we saw Sunday? with them, not . Give me and I'll swipe right. No fourth-quarter heroics from the this past weekend. No run game, either. Although the second statement is hardly a new development. It was the second quarter -- not the fourth -- that might have determined Detroit's fate on Sunday. , who hasn't fumbled all season, inside the ' 5-yard line. Instead of potentially taking a 10-7 lead, the ' momentum was nil (as was the number of succe sful trips inside the red zone for Detroit the rest of the day). Unle s pulls a Bobby Layne performance out of his butt and Zeke go off on the , the NFC North is coming down to . Scary stuff there for the Cheeseheads late in . Don't freak out. A division win on the road is a division win on the road, particularly when it comes in balmy, weather. Barring a major mi step , the will be playing for their eighth straight playoff berth . How ridiculous was , a converted wide receiver, rushing for 162 yards and two tugs on 16 carries? Almost as ridiculous as to e sentially ice the game. Thought Dirk Koetter's outfit proved itself, even , as a legit playoff contender. Despite several self-inflicted wounds, the Bucs had the ball with a true chance to steal the game on the road against the NFC's top club. Now, if the season ended today, Tampa Bay . But , the Bucs may well be come January 1st. That's about how you can sum up . With , and Pittsburgh set to , Baltimore's playoff hopes would have been on life support (whether Matthews would actually catch it is a whole 'nother adventure). Now the season comes down to . fans sure hope wasn't the only present of the holiday season for this good bunch of kids. Hats off to from Nashville. The have defied the odds since coming off the Week 13 bye, taking two close contests against the big, bad AFC West and keeping their playoff hopes alive. Once again, the 1956 football formula works in 2016 for this team: pound the run and play stout defense. , in particular, stood out on Sunday. Listened to Frank Wycheck on the ' radio broadcast for a bit and agreed with his take that it would be nice to see Tenne see use the big rookie more to soften up defenses for . Next up: . Thought would acquit himself well, but good grief -- the top-notch backup delivered a top-shelf performance, completing 12 of his 18 pa ses for 236 yards Brian Burns Jersey and touchdowns. Read those numbers again. That's 13.1 yards per attempt, and a touchdown pa s every 4.5 attempts. That's called being efficient. With Miami at 9-5, . Big drop for a Denver team that has now . The defense did its job Sunday. ( ) didn't complete a ball until the second quarter. , who wasn't phenomenal, is to do his job. The running game, meanwhile, might keep everybody out of playoff jobs. Gary Kubiak desperately has tried to inject life into a ground attack that doesn't amount to even a ground scuffle without , signing off the street, then starting him over the once-upon-a-time heir apparent, . Why circle this instead of team-wide failures in key moments? Because the face and friends, then and (who had two sacks Sunday) on New Year's Day. Denver must maintain at least a morsel of balance to keep those guys off Siemian. Harsh drop for the , no question. As my colleague Michael Robinson said on "Total Acce s: Endgame" Monday night, this team "had no energy." Reggie Wayne mentioned "no sense of urgency." The 29 yards rushing -- total -- didn't help, either. The now have lost three of four, with . Now the or are frontrunners for the sixth seed. Or Tampa Bay. Still not sure how the pulled it off. They the Holy crap. was brilliant, averaging nearly 9 yards per throw while not turning the ball over. picked up 100 yards rushing, only the second 100-yard performance by an Indy running back since 2012. Right tackle made his first career start, joining right guard and center to give the a rookie triumvirate on the offensive line. Yet, they crushed it against a top-tier front seven on the road in a loud park. Football makes no sense. Speaking of cents (and dollars), Luck is worth and then some. Next up: Wait, the win, are in first place in the AFC South and go in these rankings? Yep. versus one of the worst teams in pro football (so bad, in fact, that head coach Gus Bradley after the game), Houston looked anything but impre sive. heading into Week 16 doesn't bode well, either ... especially with the division-rival and delivering of the weekend. The beat both clubs, but who knows what to expect from at quarterback? The kid handled being thrust into duty well, and before evaluating further, we must see if he performs . That said, at this point of the season, it's about which teams are hot ... and not which teams escape. What to make of the ? Still alive in the postseason race? Blowout win? Against one of the worst teams of the modern era? Uh, yeah -- regarding both Rex Ryan future in Buffalo this week. Both men will find the next two weeks more promising if the run like they did Sunday. Shady McCoy scampered past the 1,000-yard mark on the season while the offense ran up 280 rushing yards on the haple s . Getting back to the point: It's difficult to consider firing a head coach who is 15-15 with his team still in the playoff hunt. And considering this is only Taylor's second year starting, and given the uneven play of established starters like , , , , , , and so on, can we really judge Taylor so quickly and definitively? Hands down of the NFL weekend. The hosted a team that had allowed its quarterback to be hit more than any other signal caller in the league, and whose offensive line was severely banged up. was also Not only did Minnesota carry these matchup advantages, but a chance to po sibly eliminate the -- provided the could beat Indy -- before hosting the should have motivated this team to play great football. Fail. Not sure the have ever looked worse in the Mike Zimmer era. for the , even if it came too late in the season to salvage said season. The energy pushing the team Monday night came from the stout legs of , whom, I am beginning to think, Jon Gruden loves more than life itself. played well, too. The backbone of these last two wins? A secondary that has improved so much since September. That was the league's third-ranked offense they held to 15 points. The '85 couldn't have done s#$% against Watch 10 minutes of Saints- on Game Pa s this week, and you'll see a quarterback discarding recent woes and whispers from sports writers to rip what been the league's second-ranked pa s defense coming into this contest to absolute shreds. Needle s to say, the aren't ranked that highly anymore. Much of the postgame conjecture centered around New Orleans running back 's over being pulled from the game with the at the 2-yard line. Never mind that the offense gained 488 yards and Brees put up 389 and four touchdowns. from the ' offense Sunday. Put another way, it was offensive. Cincy began the day strong, taking the ball right down the field on the opening drive of the game against Pittsburgh for a field goal. The tacked on two more touchdowns before even half the second quarter was gone. Then ... nothin'. was, in a word, really not productive. That was three words. Here are three more: First things first: The lost, and deserved to lose, But that call against on Sunday was ridiculous. It was obvious Moore wasn't trying to hit with his helmet. The quarterback got hit by , which e sentially caused Moore to hit him in the head. Given that, had the 11-yard sack stood, the would have knocked the out of field-goal range in a one-score contest, the (bad) judgement call might have cost Bruce Arians' team the game. Of course, that could've gone for a quick score when the team needed two scores didn't help, either. receivers dropping the football? Another week of in terms of deciding the future of the , and on the heels of a interception. The franchise quarterback was under intense pre sure on the final series against the Brady Christensen Jersey , over the middle on fourth-and-15. Is it fourth-and-long for this organization to stay put in San Diego? The irony was drenched in silver and black as Qualcomm Stadium erupted in cheers -- after picked off that football. Yep, it felt like a home game in that moment. Basically, one California team that appears to had half its fan base show up in San Diego to beat another California team (and divisional opponent) that to moving to Los Angeles ... where the used to play. At first, didn't like Doug Pederson Thought that carrying the momentum from scoring (on a sweet run) would spill over into overtime. The ' defense was holding quarterback in check, particularly on third down. But think about it: Why not go for the win on the road? Philadelphia isn't fighting for a playoff berth, and the opportunity to try for the victory presented an even rarer opportunity to display confidence in your rookie quarterback in a truly meaningful moment. How many of those are left in a 5-9 season? I've said it for weeks and will it reiterate here: can play. Whether that means he is a viable starter in terms of taking the to the next step (which, sadly, means getting over .500) remains to be seen. Yet, the quarterback deserves to be in the mix to start in 2017. Moreover, there is no way can be part of the equation in Chicago. The former "franchise" quarterback has now been outplayed by three backups -- , and Barkley -- since 2013. How about 113 more scrimmage yards from the emerging OK, this has been far too positive to be a blurb. On to the . Well, the white helmets Of course, the couldn't even get that right, as the rest of the jersey didn't match. If you're going to sport the look of the late-'60s , then go all the way and look like the late-'60s . Those teams sported a simple but sweet white-and-navy-blue color scheme that gave the early-'80s Eric Dickerson uni a 2,105-yard run for its money. Oh, yeah, the post-Jeff Fisher product on the field is much the same as it was before Now Fisher Got to get another job to pull that off. Need to type this blurb before a pa s rusher Geez, how many times can a defense enjoy an unimpeded path to the quarterback? Free rushers caved New York's chances in the fourth quarter, de-cleating (before ). No matter the howls after or all evening, one thing is certain: ain't playing. It's almost always a knee-jerk reaction for a head coach returns home from a road trip, especially with only two games left in the season. Then again, team bra s after the lo s to the (So why wait until after a road game? Awkward.) Either way, can you blame owner Shad Khan after watching one of the most unsucce sful coaching tenures in league history? Bradley's teams won only 14 of 62 games. Even if Tom Coughlin returns to this franchise as Gandalf the White, how do you win with a quarterback who threw for 92 yards on Sunday and leads the league in giveaways? The were, simply put, overmatched by the Yet, as discu sed in this space in past weeks, much effort was given from Chip Kelly's guys to climb back into the game. They simply don't have the personnel (injuries haven't helped). Which is why you see the ince sant tweets about the front office. 's gave aid to an Atlanta offense that didn't need any. We mention this because Hyde is not really a fumbler, and because he has produced a fine season for a one-win team: 950 yards rushing at 4.7 yards per tote, despite mi sing two games. Not bad. Often when a team is winle s or gets blown out, the first thing you can point to is giveaways, particularly from the quarterback position. Not the case with the , who Speaking of running the football, thought could have a big day against the ' front. Sure enough, Crowell ripped off a big run up the gut on the second play from scrimmage. Cleveland got away from the run, got down 14 points and was on its way to lo s No. 14. Maybe? This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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