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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/NFLPowerRankers on 2023-12-12 21:09:55.
Welcome to week 14 of the official r/NFL Power Rankings! Another eventful week saw Zach Wilson play his first game as a free agent, the Ravens walk off with a punt return, and the Lions look like the Lions of the last 50 years again. How far will the Chiefs fall while the team deals with foot and mouth disease? With three 6-7 teams, which NFC South team will lose their way into the playoffs? Did another blowout sway some Cowboy nonbelievers? How will Mike McDaniel weird his way out of the Dolphins next upset? Discuss! 31/32 Reporting
| # | Team | Δ | Record | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 49ers | – | 10-3 | The 49ers complete the season sweep of the Seahawks, and with the Eagles and Packers losses, find themselves as the #1 seed in the NFC and the first team to clinch a playoff berth. The final 4 games come @Cardinals, vs. Ravens, @Commanders and vs. Rams. The team is in control of their own destiny, and will most likely need to go 4-0 the rest of the way to retain the #1 seed. | |
| 2. | Ravens | – | 10-3 | 10-3 and top of the AFC. 2nd in defensive YPG allowed. 2nd in defensive PPG allowed. 6th in offensive YPG. 4th in PPG. 2nd in DVoA. Any way you slice it the Ravens through 13 weeks have proven to be a top tier team all while playing in a division that doesn’t have a single losing record thus far. They’re going to have to continue to prove their mettle if they want to earn a first round bye as they have the toughest remaining SoS in the league. Not much else to say so I’ll let Zay Flowers and Lamar’s absolutely incredible 2 point conversion wrap things up. | |
| 3. | Cowboys | +1 | 10-3 | Yeeeeah, here we go! This game got disrespectful, man. Attempting kicks from 59 and 60 yards, targeting Michael Gallup in the end zone, and letting an eighth grader run an end around, all in one game. AJ Brown learned not to talk shit to your elders, and Jake Ferguson kept his promise to hurdle a birdy. The road isn’t easy and we aren’t driving, but the division crown and the 1 seed are definitely in play. | |
| 4. | Eagles | -1 | 10-3 | Well, that sucked (again). Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown. At one point in the game against Dallas, that’s how the past 11 drives (starting with the 2nd quarter of the SF game) went for the Philly defense (excluding kneel downs). The Eagles started the season winning in spite of some issues on both sides of the ball, and now those issues are coming to roost against top teams. The good? At 10-3, they still control their destiny for the NFC East with a lighter schedule ahead than Dallas. The bad? See above (TD, TD, TD, TD, TD, TD, TD, FG, TD, TD). The ugly? This defense actually outscored the offense last week. | |
| 5. | Dolphins | – | 9-4 | Speechless | |
| 6. | Chiefs | – | 8-5 | I’m glad my quarterback is a sore loser. Being good at losing is for communists and Oakland sports fans. | |
| 7. | Lions | – | 9-4 | The Detroit Lions played awful football on Sunday, losing to the Bears by a final of 13-28. Normally reliable players on both sides of the ball—Amon Ra St. Brown, Alex Anzalone, Aidan Hutchinson, Graham Glasgow, and Taylor Decker—had their worst showing of the season, consistently failing reps and committing penalties in the most inopportune moments. Jared Goff was stymied by inside pressure and drops in key moments by receivers, and Justin Fields looked like a premiere NFL QB against our secondary. It wasn’t all terrible, as the Lions DLine was able to pressure Fields, ending with 8 QB hits and 3 sacks on the day, and the running game seemed to churn as it has. However, these were small victories in a massive defeat. If Detroit wants to turn it around in hopes of making a playoff run, it needs to start against the Broncos on SatNF. | |
| 8. | Bills | +2 | 7-6 | The Bills finally caught a break in a one score game, and the season is still alive. Not only that —the Dolphins blowing it against Tennessee has given them an outside chance at the division. As much as I would have loved a decisive win, Buffalo beat the Chiefs in the most hilarious way possible: sit back and let Toney beat them for you. Mahomes’ tantrum and the subsequent heat he took on social media is really just the icing on the cake. In all this thought, the reality is still that the Bills are fighting for the playoff lives. A win against the nuclear-hot Cowboys isn’t necessary, but it would certainly help. Despite the win, this team still hasn’t proved they can put opponents away in tight games. | |
| 9. | Browns | +2 | 8-5 | Stefanski has the best winning record starting when starting four or more QBs in a NFL season. AND he’s changed starters NINE times this year. Wow. The Browns are very much alive in what is proving to be a ridiculous division. If the Ravens, Steelers, and Bengals could all lose next week, that would be great. The Browns will take on the Bears in Cleveland this Sunday. | |
| 10. | Jaguars | -2 | 8-5 | Whatever team went to Ohio this week looked nothing like the one fielded in the last month. Defense often felt lethargic (sans being thrown direct interceptions,) offense felt lost (often throwing direct interceptions,) and it appeared to be an all around poor effort given what was and still midly is on the line. The Browns did their best effort to give the game to the Jaguars, but the Jaguars are professional throwers [editor: throwers of the game, not the football], it seems. Maybe they’ll right the ship as they did at the end of last season. Maybe they’ll get blown out so badly in Baltimore it’ll be hard to care. Stay tuned to find out! Or you know, don’t. | |
| 11. | Texans | -3 | 7-6 | Zach Wilson is the latest addition to the “I had a career day against the Texans” club that also includes Bryce Young and Desmond Ridder. Nico Collins went down with an injury early and without him or Tank Dell, the Jets defense was suffocating for the remaining receivers. Noah Brown returned from injury with a 0 catch/4 drop game. The defense was gashed by Nathaniel Hackett and Zach Wilson with Christian Harris getting burnt on several plays. There was no redeeming value in this loss, not one thing you could look at and say, “well we can build off that.” To add injury to insult, CJ Stroud left the game in the concussion protocol and is now questionable to go next week. With the playoffs now hanging in the balance, the Texans may have to turn back to Davis Mills to pull out some of that magic he had against the Colts last year one more time. | |
| 12. | Bengals | +6 | 7-6 | Corporate needs you to find the differences between this picture and this picture. (And its just a picture of Joe Burrow and Jake Browning) | |
| 13. | Broncos | +2 | 7-6 | My wife and I went to see the Nutcracker performed by our small town theater troupe this past weekend. It was a torturous experience but I had a hot salted pretzel so it was mostly worth it. About halfway through the performance, a middle aged woman tripped while returning to her seat and rolled down the stairs of the center aisle. There were gasps and several people rushed to help her, while the performance continued unabated. I’ve been involved in theater production for much of my life, and I’m also a clumsy son of a bitch, so I felt a strange kinship with each party. This poor woman was probably more embarrassed than she was hurt - it was a very mildly sloped set of stairs and she was already up and apologizing. The performers heard and saw the commotion, but as amateur theater performers, they’d been drilled on not breaking their performance when THEY fell, so they were doing their best to pretend nothing had happened. The orchestra continued on, and so too must they. The situation cleaned up and everyone returned to their seats. I’m sure most people forgot it had even happened by the end, but not me. It was all I could think about while watching the Broncos Chargers game, as the Chargers franchise tripped and fell over themselves repeatedly, while the crowd watched and the Broncos played on as if nothing had happened. I sat there, as before, too far away to help them and resigned only to sympathize with the embarrassment they must be feeling. Hang in there, Chargers. I’m sure most people will have forgotten how many times you’ve tripped and fallen by the end of the season. Surely. | |
| 14. | Rams | – | 6-7 | Playing well in the rain and on the road against the #1 AFC team when you were supposed to get blown out is certainly encouraging and a nice moral victory, but letting this one slip away late, like so many others, was heartbreaking. We had them. It would have been huge for playoff chances. Yet again, mistakes in key situations were the difference and this one had them all: coaching, dropped passes, blown coverages, and even some bad officiating luck. The already thin margin for error is now tighter in the race for the 7 seed. | |
| 15. | Colts | -2 | 7-6 | Tempting to no-show this blurb in honor of the Colts’ nonexistent screen defense Sunday, but the show must go on. Indy is lucky to currently hold the tiebreakers for the 7 seed, but … |
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