Power Rankings: Pats 2008 thread

[Disco Volante]

Every week it seems we have multiple threads complaining about our spots on a certain lists and I thought it'd be easier to keep everything condensed to one thread.

Week 2

CBS Sportsline
Pats: #8 (Last Week: 17)
I buried them last week when Tom Brady went down. Maybe that was a bit premature. They still might be a playoff team.

Cold, Hard, Football Facts
Pats: #5 (Last Week: 5)
The Patriots ran 33 times and passed 23 times in a methodical 19-10 road win over the Jets. They were held under 20 points for the second week in a row – the first time that’s happened since Weeks 12-13 in 2005 (also against the Chiefs and Jets). New England is on pace to complete 176 passes to wide receivers this year for 2,112 yards and 8 TDs; in 2007, the Patriots completed 292 passes to wideouts for 3,814 yards and 39 TDs. New England’s underdog status won’t follow them back home against the Dolphins. Miami, meanwhile, is the last team to beat the Patriots in the regular season, back in December 2006. The Dolphins are 1-20 since then; the Patriots are 25-2 (including playoffs).

ESPN
Pats: #6 (Last Week: 9)
They're still the AFC East team to beat even if they don't have superduperstar QB Tom Brady. Matt Cassel played it safe against the Jets, and that was good enough. They should be 3-0 with the Dolphins coming to Foxborough.

Football Locks
Pats: #3 (Last Week: 3)
New England reminded the league they're more than just Tom Brady... Their offensive line is solid, their defensive line is solid, their receivers are great, their linebackers are seasoned (in a good way), their coaching is top notch, and Cassel did what he needed to do against the Jets-- not turn the ball over.

Pro Football Weekly
Pats: #4 (Last Week: 7)
Matt Cassel jerseys selling by the dozens now.

Walter Football
Pats: #17 (Last Week: 19)
No Comment

USA Today
Pats: #1 (Last Week: #1)
No Comment

Yahoo
Pats: #7 (Last Week: 10)
How long until LaMont Jordan becomes the team’s primary ball carrier?

 

[Rob0729]

Every week it seems we have multiple threads complaining about our spots on a certain lists and I thought it'd be easier to keep everything condensed to one thread.

Week 2

CBS Sportsline
Pats: #8 (Last Week: 17)
I buried them last week when Tom Brady went down. Maybe that was a bit premature. They still might be a playoff team.

ESPN
Pats: #6 (Last Week: 9)
They're still the AFC East team to beat even if they don't have superduperstar QB Tom Brady. Matt Cassel played it safe against the Jets, and that was good enough. They should be 3-0 with the Dolphins coming to Foxborough.

Football Locks
Pats: #3 (Last Week: 3)
New England reminded the league they're more than just Tom Brady... Their offensive line is solid, their defensive line is solid, their receivers are great, their linebackers are seasoned (in a good way), their coaching is top notch, and Cassel did what he needed to do against the Jets-- not turn the ball over.

Walter Football
Pats: #17 (Last Week: 19)
No Comment

A handfull of the other sites (CHFF, FOX, etc.) haven't updated yet. Pete Prisco is a moron.

Never heard of Walter Football or Football Locks. I am guessing Walter Football doesn't know much about football since they have the Seahawks ahead of the Pats. Right now, I don't know if the Seahawks will get to .500. Football Locks has the Pats too high at this point.

 

[Rob0729]

none of them as bad as Vick Carrucci's powerranking though. He only ranks the top 12, but the Pats ain't in there (the only 2-0 team not in there).

Monday night win keeps the Cowboys on top

 

[Rob0729]

PFW has them 4th

NFL Zone - NFL pro football information and updates from Pro Football Weekly

Michael Silver over at Yahoo Sports have them 7th

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...slug=ms-32questions091608&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

 

[ALP]

Never heard of Walter Football or Football Locks. I am guessing Walter Football doesn't know much about football since they have the Seahawks ahead of the Pats. Right now, I don't know if the Seahawks will get to .500. Football Locks has the Pats too high at this point.

same thing i was thinking...LOL

 

[Lampshade]

none of them as bad as Vick Carrucci's powerranking though. He only ranks the top 12, but the Pats ain't in there (the only 2-0 team not in there).

Monday night win keeps the Cowboys on top

Vic has never needed much of an excuse to put Buffalo among the best in the league.

 

[FloridaPatsFan]

My biggest beef with power rankings is that a lot of writers/websites will rank a team higher than a team deserves based on the potential of a team....but rank a team lower based on the same potential to be a mediocre team.

A typical example of that would be that if the Colts lose this weekend and are 1-2........but some other team is 2-1 and playing well, they'll still list the Colts higher based on potential....

Which means that the person doing the rankings is allowing for a degree of emotion to be involved in the rankings....

I personally have agreed with Troy Aikman's rankings because they are solely based on facts and not feelings.

 

[Rob0729]

My biggest beef with power rankings is that a lot of writers/websites will rank a team higher than a team deserves based on the potential of a team....but rank a team lower based on the same potential to be a mediocre team.

A typical example of that would be that if the Colts lose this weekend and are 1-2........but some other team is 2-1 and playing well, they'll still list the Colts higher based on potential....

Which means that the person doing the rankings is allowing for a degree of emotion to be involved in the rankings....

I personally have agreed with Troy Aikman's rankings because they are solely based on facts and not feelings.

Personally, I think Power Rankings are useless other than for entertainment value, but I think there is no standard for anyone in these rankings. That is why they are all so all over the place.

 

[FloridaPatsFan]

Personally, I think Power Rankings are useless other than for entertainment value, but I think there is no standard for anyone in these rankings. That is why they are all so all over the place.

Agreed...Even though I don't put much stock in them, I still check them out.

Not sure if NFL.COM is going to continue to to carry Aikman's rankings this year, but they have zero favoritism involved. A much more accurate approach to see who is the real deal and who is the paper tiger. I'm not even a big Aikman fan but I do like to look at his rankings.

 

[NEPatriot]

After a Jets win, we are in a good position. Winning 6 more games will make us a #1 candidate again.

 

[Jackson 2]

none of them as bad as Vick Carrucci's powerranking though. He only ranks the top 12, but the Pats ain't in there (the only 2-0 team not in there).

Monday night win keeps the Cowboys on top

Vic is sort of an up and down type of guy whose viewpoint seems to change depending upon his audience. His appearances on the WEEI Big Show last year featured lots of pro-Pats, spygate is much ado about nothing observations, etc. His commentary regarding the Pats on Sirius NFL Radio was clearly different. As noted elsewhere here, he is a Buffalo guy and that's OK. But, as mentioned above, his tune changes depending upon his audience (not a characteristice which differentiates him from a lot of other media members). Just my observations.

 

[trench]

A low sample size to work with after only 2 weeks, but Sagarin has them rated #1...

USATODAY.com

 

[spacecrime]

My biggest beef with power rankings is that a lot of writers/websites will rank a team higher than a team deserves based on the potential of a team....but rank a team lower based on the same potential to be a mediocre team.

A typical example of that would be that if the Colts lose this weekend and are 1-2........but some other team is 2-1 and playing well, they'll still list the Colts higher based on potential.....

What's wrong with that? Are you really saying the 2-0 Cardinals are a better team than the 1-0 Colts?

What you are looking for is a list of teams listed in order of winning percentage.

That is not the list of teams listed in order of best to worst.

The Chargers are 0-2, and there is no way you can say that all the 1-1 teams are better than they are.

Power rankings are subjective, based on the writer's opinion.

 

[alvinnf]

A low sample size to work with after only 2 weeks, but Sagarin has them rated #1...

USATODAY.com

Being number 1 is great, but I think I'll need some sort of an 8 week course to figure that chart out.

 

[Disco Volante]

FOX Sports
Pats: #5 (Last Week: 7)
Bill Belichick is the best coach of all-time, period. It's very easy to despise his (lack of) human traits publicly, but admire the organization and framework of a team that could start a quarterback who didn't start since high school and beat a team with arguably the greatest passer in NFL history.

 

[jmt57]

My biggest beef with power rankings is that a lot of writers/websites will rank a team higher than a team deserves based on the potential of a team....but rank a team lower based on the same potential to be a mediocre team.

A typical example of that would be that if the Colts lose this weekend and are 1-2........but some other team is 2-1 and playing well, they'll still list the Colts higher based on potential....

Which means that the person doing the rankings is allowing for a degree of emotion to be involved in the rankings....

I personally have agreed with Troy Aikman's rankings because they are solely based on facts and not feelings.

Aikman is still doing his Aikman Efficincy Ratings from his website but week two isn't out yet. After week one the Pats were 10th overall; 9th on offense and 8th on defense.

Aikman Efficiency ratings Troy Aikman
Troy Aikman

 

[Disco Volante]

Covers
Pats: #6 (Last Week: 10)
After a one-week hiatus, it's back to big lines for the Pats. They're huge favorites against the pesky Dolphins.

Sports Illustrated
Pats: #2 (Last Week: #1)
Laugh at me if you'd like, but let someone knock 'em off, then I'll move them down. Hey, how'd you like Adalius Thomas' 20-yard sack of Favre? A double sack. He brought down Leon Washington and Brett, all in the same package. If I'd have been on the stat crew, I'd have given him two for the price of one, three if he'd have managed to grab the ref's ankle, in passing, and tripped him up, too.

 

[patsfanindoltsland]

My biggest beef with power rankings is that a lot of writers/websites will rank a team higher than a team deserves based on the potential of a team....but rank a team lower based on the same potential to be a mediocre team.

A typical example of that would be that if the Colts lose this weekend and are 1-2........but some other team is 2-1 and playing well, they'll still list the Colts higher based on potential....

Which means that the person doing the rankings is allowing for a degree of emotion to be involved in the rankings....

I personally have agreed with Troy Aikman's rankings because they are solely based on facts and not feelings.

completely agree.

 

[Wendel]

Prisco is so dumb, he's going to look like such a moron when we make the playoffs.

 

[Disco Volante]

Doc Sports
Pats: #5 (Last Week: 11)
Some questions about Matt Cassel were answered on Sunday. But he still has a lot left to prove in my book. New England's defense has obviously risen to the task, but looking ahead on the schedule there will still be several teams with the speed to challenge this aging bunch. The home team is 12-5 ATS in their series with Miami and the Patriots are 6-2 ATS in Foxboro against the Fins.