Winning Stats Power Rankings - Week 7

A new weekly article I'll have starting this week is the Winning Stats Power Rankings, Strength of Schedule, and Consistency rankings.  I did this last year as well, and this basically remains the same.  It takes into account the 16 stats we look at every week in Inside the Numbers, compares them with all other teams, and sees how they rank against each other.

You'll notice that Wins and Losses don't play into this at all, like most of the subjective rankings.  Remember, it has 9 years of data to bounce off of, so it looks for the same things that have resulted in the most wins over the past 9 years, even if they aren't leading to wins this season.

I'll have some commentary after each set of data, and you can sort on all columns.  We also have a Winning Stats page, where you'll get Colts season stats, as well as these tables, updated on Tuesdays.  It's for those of you that just can't wait for the data.  You can sort any column by just clicking on the header.

Let's get to the rankings:

Power Rankings:

Some thoughts:

• I'm going to focus on the Adjusted Rankings, as that gives a better view as to how well the teams have been playing.  Overall, the Colts come in at #2, and have held steady in the top 5 pretty much all year.  The Giants took over the top spot this week after taking care of the Cowboys on Monday night.  Yes, that same Giants team that both the Colts and Titans made look really bad. 
  
• You'll also notice the 2-5 Chargers ranked at #3.  Truth be told, their numbers have been very good this season, only being "outplayed" once all year, against the Rams.  However, they've been very bad in select categories in each game, and have gotten destroyed in Special Teams, which admittedly aren't a big component of these rankings (improvement for another day).  That means I fully expect them to actually start winning games soon.
• The Colts offense is #1 in the league.  I'm interested to see how missing several weapons will change that ranking.  The defense is very much middle-of-the-road, which is an improvement over years past.  This absolutely needs to continue if the Colts want to make the playoffs.

Strength of Schedule:

A couple things here:

• The Colts have played the 12th toughest schedule in the NFL, which seems about right.  The Broncos and Jaguars certainly aren't helping that ranking.  The Defense has played a tougher schedule than the Offense has, which I didn't expect.
• The Texans, Titans, and Jaguars have played the 3 toughest schedules in the league so far.  Anyone want to argue what the toughest division in football is?
• The Colts future schedule is extremely tough, ranking only behind the Eagles.  It also includes a big challenge for the defense.  Getting Bob Sanders back would be a big help right about now...

Consistency:

A few things here:

• The Colts offense = Consistent, the Colts Defense = Not Consistent.  Anyone Surprised?
• This isn't take into consideration whether teams are consistently good or consistently bad, just consistent.  Take, for example, the Saints defense, which is ranked 28th overall, is the most consistent defense.  They've just been consistently bad.