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Stampede Blue's Power Rankings

Our resident stat guru, jdb, is keeping track of stats and compiling his own power rankings, which he posts in the diary section each week. After week three, jdb's stat system is starting shake out into a pretty good gauge for who the good teams and bad teams are.

For example, the Colts are in the top five in offense, but they are ranked right in the middle on defense. That's pretty accurate. Using jdb's stat system, I give you Stampede Blue's Power Rankings for Week 3:

  1. San Diego: Their offense can run. Their defense can maul. They play strong special teams, and Phillip Rivers hasn't screwed anything up... yet. Solid team all around.
  2. Chicago: The media was ready to roast Rex Grossman alive for costing the Bears a win in Minnesota when his 4th quarter pass was intercepted and returned for a TD. However, Grossman proved the pundits (and Vikings safety Darren Sharper) wrong by leading his team to victory on the road in Minnesota. The Bears start the season 3-0 in their division.
  3. Cincinnati: The Bengals blew away the Steelers in Pittsburgh this past Sunday. Their defense is improved and Carson Palmer looks a-okay.
  4. Baltimore: I said during the off-season this team was dangerous. Boy, I hate being right. The Ravens have committed only one turnover in three weeks. Steve McNair looks healthy and is guiding the offense well.
  5. Seattle: The loss of MVP Shaun Alexander will hurt this team. They will morph from a run-oriented team to a more traditional West-Coast offense passing team until Alexander comes back 100%.
  6. Indianapolis: Despite mounting injuries on defense, the Colts find ways to win. Marvin Harrison, at age 34, is leading the league in receiving yards and is second in catches.
  7. Dallas: Their 1-1 record is misleading. Losing to the Jags in Jackonsville is not a shocker. Dallas' defense will continue to get better. T.O.'s injury will not have much of an impact. Bledsoe's main targets are Terry Glenn and Jason Witten.  
  8. New Orleans: Yes folks, the Saints. They are 3-0 and are playing excellent football. They dominated Atlanta on MNF, and Sean Payton has the New Orleans offense looking sharp.
  9. New York Jets: Beware the Jets folks. They should be in first place in the AFC East had they not lost in Week 2 to the Patriots. Chad Pennington looks great in the new offense, and the Jets defense looks solid.
  10. Atlanta: Despite getting thrashed on Monday Night, the Falcones still have some weapons. Getting Jon Abraham back is paramount. Despite their strong defense and great running game, the Falcons are not going to take it to the next level this year. Michael Vick still cannot throw the ball accurately from the pocket.
Notable exceptions from the top 10:

New England: This team is not in good shape, folks. Their rookie kicker has had two FGs blocked in two weeks. Their defense looks anemic and they have no one to stretch the field on offense. If you saw Tom Brady's press conference after the Denver loss, you can see he is NOT happy.

Pittsburgh: They are a shell of their former selves. Roethlisberger has played bad football, making dumb mistakes and throwing INTs. Their defense is not the force it once was, and teams are teeing off on Pittsburgh's run, daring Roethlisberger to beat them.

Jacksonville: They rank 11th in the power rankings mainly because of their offense. Despite excellent RBs Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, a solid receiving corps, and a good o-line, the Jags have managed to score a whopping 15 ppg. The blame falls squarely on QB Byron Leftwich.

Many thanks to jdb for compiling the stats and creating a system to track them.

0 recs | Comment 3 comments

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Interesting system you've got here
The mathematical approach is always entertaining, good job putting this together! What's remarkable is how reasonable the results are. (How's that for alliteration?)

From a purely qualitative standpoint, then:

In terms of true legitimacy, I don't think I'd have my Saints much higher than 15th in the league - the proverbial "we aren't yet sure if they're for real" power rank position. Payton has done a helluva job coaching, and the fact that we overcame turnovers on our first three drives and a 13-0 deficit to beat GB...well, I'm on the verge of drinking the Kool Aid for sure.

Meanwhile, are you guys sold on San Diego? I know it's so easy to say this, but they really haven't played anyone yet. Speaking from first hand experience as a die hard Saints fan, I will tell you ANYONE can look brilliant when Aaron Brooks wears the opposing jersey. Further, Tennessee seems to be going through the motions and we aren't even a quarter way through the season. San Diego is tough, no doubt.

Personally I still rate your Colts at the top, though I suppose the Bengals will get national top billing after they shred the surprisingly weak-looking Pats this week.

by GeauxTigers on Sep 27, 2006 11:58 PM EDT   0 recs

I base my rankings
off the numbers jdb gives me. So far, they are shaking out pretty well. I disagree re: your Saints. They are certainly a top 10 team now. Whether they, or anyone in the top 10 now, will be top 10 by week 17 is a different story.

San Diego has looked very good. However, if/when they get their butts kicked by someone, they wil move out of the #1 spot.  

Please make an account and post a diary, add some comments, and make some noise. Accounts are free, and only require an email address.

by BigBlueShoe on Sep 28, 2006 9:23 AM EDT   0 recs

numbers
My approach to this is try to do a ranking that is completely objective, just based on numbers. I may not be personally sold on San Diego as #1, or the saints as #8 (if I had to subjectively rank them, I'd put them at #11 or so and probably move the jags into the top 10.

But this way I can blame any bad rankings on the math and that as the seasaon goes on they'll shake out better. :)

When someone smiles at me, all I see is a chimpanzee begging for its life.

by jdb on Sep 28, 2006 9:29 AM EDT   0 recs

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