byau
Active member
For the stats and numbers guys and for anyone that likes this type of discussion, here are the NFL Combined Power Rankings this week.
How The Seahawks Did This Week
From a rankings perspective, with three "rankings games", three ranked teams were guaranteed to lose. Add the Rams stunner against the Broncos, and you would see the winner of the Chiefs/Seahawks slide into the top 5 which is what happened.
I did notice as a whole the Chiefs movement up was larger than the Seahawks movement down. So analysts out there are still thinking possibly the Seahawks are dangerous.
And also from a rankings perspective, the Seahawks at this point have their own destiny in their hands with a tough schedule to close the year out. It is conceivable that they could easily claw their way back into the top 5 soon.
Considering that their are very few rankings games this week, even with a win against the Cardinals, we'd have to see a lot of upsets happen to get into the top 5.
Wins in the next two weeks though and the Seahawks will be back in that rankings conversation
From a non-rankigns point of view, losses of our big guys on offense (Unger) and defense (Mebane) were obvious. If you are into moral victories, the Seahawks, despite however they underplay their potential, have always managed to stay within striking distance up until the last drive or two drives of the game. And with one less injury, or one more ball bouncing our way, the Seahawks could easily be unbeaten.
Still, at the end of the day, it's a win or a loss.
NFL Combined Rankings Summary
Take the scores of 7 rankings and combine them. I use a system called "relative placement" which is advantageous in this type of subjective judging. I have used it many times in the past as a head judge of dance competitions which are pretty much all purely subjective judging.
Here are the source NFL power rankings
NFL.com
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Packers
4. Broncos
5. Cowboys
10. Seahawks (-3). Say what you want about Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch, but we just saw how relevant defensive tackle Brandon Mebane -- lost for the season in Week 10 -- is in terms of team MVP conversation. Well, that is if you consider keeping opponents from racking up nearly two bills on the ground to be valuable.
SBNation
1. Cardinals
2. Patriots
3. Packers
4. Chiefs
5. Broncos
13. Seahawks (-3). Parity Rules. The Chiefs took down the Seahawks in a Sunday slugfest, showing incredible toughness late in the game to stuff two Seattle fourth-down attempts, including Seattle's last-ditch effort for a game-winning 96-yard drive. Kansas City ran the ball well and wore out the Seahawks' defense with Jamaal Charles and the run game. Alex Smith only needed to complete 11 of 16 passes for 108 yards to move the Chiefs into a 7-3 tie with the Broncos in the AFC West.
ESPN
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Packers
4. Broncos
5. Chiefs
11. Seahawks (-2). Jamaal Charles exploited the hole left by Brandon Mebane's injury. The Chiefs had 6.3 yards per rush and 5.0 yards before contact per rush, most against Seattle since 2013.
CBS Sports
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Packers
4. Broncos
5. Chiefs
14. Seahawks (-6). In its first outing without DT Brandon Mebane, Seattle struggled against the Chiefs' ground game. Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson can run their way past most opponents but the Seahawks' 2-3 road record stings. The three remaining road games are at San Francisco, Philadelphia and Arizona, which are a combined 22-8.
FOX Sports
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Packers
4. Cowboys
5. Broncos
11. Seahawks (-1) The run defense took a major step back following the loss of Brandon Mebane. Although Russell Wilson made some incredible plays through the air and with his legs, the offense came up short on the last drive thanks to some great pass defense by the Chiefs.
Yahoo Sports
1. Patriots
2. Packers
3. Cardinals
4. Broncos
5. Eagles
9. Seahawks (-1) A lot is being made of Marshawn Lynch, like he's a reason for the Seahawks' issues. Let's think this through. Do we think Lynch debuted a new personality this year? No. And how were the Seahawks with all of Lynch's "distractions" or whatever you'd like to call them the past few years?
Washington Post Fancy Stats
aka the only numerical analysis non-subjective based power ranking
1. Cardinals
2. Patriots
3. Chiefs
4. Dolphins
5. Broncos
8. Seahawks (+1) No comments on site
NFL Combined Rankings Using Relative Placement
1st: New England Patriots (last week: 1st)
VOTES: 1,1,1,1,1,2,2
2nd: Arizona Cardinals (last week: 2nd)
VOTES: 1,1,2,2,2,2,3
3rd: Green Bay Packers (last week: 6th)
VOTES: 2,3,3,3,3,3, novote
4th: Denver Broncos (last week: 3rd)
VOTES: 4,4,4,4,5,5,5
5th: Kansas City Chiefs (last week: 9th)
VOTES: 3,4,5,5, novote, novote, novote
6th: Dallas Cowboys (last week: 8th)
VOTES: 4,5, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote
7th: Miami Dolphins (last week: unranked)
VOTES: 4, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote
8th: Philadelphia Eagles (last week: 8th)
VOTES: 5, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote
Fell Out Of Rankings:
a.k.a. no 1st through 5th Votes this week
Detroit Lions (last week: 5th)
Indianapolis Colts (last week: 7th)
Some Analysis With Relative Placement and What We Know
None of this is real deep, so if you see a comment and think to yourself "well, duh...", I have no problem with that
Ranking Shakers
All five games I listed last week had an effect on the rankings.
Here were the rankings shakers (in parentheses is last week's ranking)
Packers (#6) demolish the Eagles (#4) 53-20 (ranked team loses big)
Cardinals (#2) squeak by the Lions (#5) 14-6 (ranked team loses)
Patriots (#1) whip the Colts (#7) 42-20 (ranked team loses big)
Rams (unranked) surprise the Broncos (#3) 22-7 (UPSET WIN OVER RANKED TEAM!)
Chiefs (#9) beat our Seahawks (unranked) 24-20 (two peripherally ranked teams, the winner sildes up into the top 5)
Natural Breaks from a Tally perspective
Natural Break # 1 is 1st and 2nd. Patriots, while a clear 1st, have the Cardinals on their heels. Both teams win big, and at this point you could make an argument for either team.
Natural Break # 2 From a tally perspective it's the Packers all by themselves. They make a big jump with a huge win over Philly, but they still don't really break into the group which tells you how far and away the Patriots and Cardinals really are right now. It's hard to make an argument of putting Green Bay above those two, at least for another week.
Natural Break # 3: Denver, all by itself. Previously an elite team with the Patriots and Cardinals, but a stunner loss drops them. They could have conceivably dropped even further with three losses now, but you can't really make an argument of the teams under them being in the same group (Chiefs, Cowboys, Lions, etc)
Natural Break # 4: All the ranked and previously ranked teams fall into here. Some teams on the upswing (Chiefs), some on the downswing (Eagles), some holding status quo (Cowboys with a bye, Miami with a win against a .500 team). Not quite good enough to be up there with the Broncos but knocking on the door.
I really like these natural breaks, and think this is probably the most clear cut rankings so far with what's been going on. Not really much else to say about that.
Fancy Stats Outliers
Since Fancy Stats is the non-subjective ranking, I like seeing how it matches up with the others. And if you're the curious type you can reverse-engineer a bit the algorithm used to determine these rankings.
The outliers in this case:
Green Bay Packers, not placed. The only ranking to NOT place them. I'm surprised to because they had a huge win over a very good team. I'm guessing then whatever algorithm is used, it considers the entire season so far of the Packers and the win just was not enough to put them in the top 5. They did get #6.
Miami Dolphins, placed #4. Only ranking to place the Dolphins, and they got in at #4
Relative Placement Fun
Really no interesting relative placement fun. Clean majorities, and votes and rankings as you'd expect after what's gone on with the season. If anything, I want to say I am surprised that the Lions got NO votes at all. They lost a very close game to Arizona, compared to the Cowboys had a bye week and the Eagles lost also. I expected them to still be in it.
Games To Watch For Week 12: Potential Rankings Shakers
Only one rankings game this week (both teams are ranked) which guarantees one team will take a dip. Which also meansyou can expect a status quo of sorts for next week in the top of the rankings unless there are some upsets. The three games I see as the ranking shakers
Dolphins (#7) vs Broncos (#4): Broncos have injuries to major payers on their offense to contend with, Dolphins are up and down with a demolishing of the Chargers, a close loss to the Lions, and a convincing win against the Bills. Miami has a pretty good chance.
Lions (unranked) vs Patriots (#1): The Lions have got to be smarting from the loss to the Cardinals. The Cardinals shocked them with two touchdowns early, and after that the Lions D shut the Cardinals out. However, the high octane Lions offense did nothing all game, being held to only 6 points in the first game this season the Cardinals did not allow their opponents to score a touchdown.
Coming up, the Lions D will have a huge challenge against the Patriots offense. Not unreasonable to think they can handle it. Now it's a matter of if the Lions O comes out hungry enough. Possible upset right here in New England
Seahawks (unranked) vs Cardinals (#2): A lot to discuss here, in pretty much every thread on the front page.
To sum it up, while the Seahawks are injury-riddled and some say may not have shown that killer instinct they showed the last half of last year, they still keep games within striking distance no matter the opponent. If they are able to kick it into a higher gear in more of those games, it's conceivable they could be undefeated.
They are going up against a rolling Cardinals team with everything going for them. Possible coach of the year, best record of the NFL. And coming off a HUGE win with 2nd string QB against a very good Lions team. The Cardinals D has got to be feeling really good. And while I want to say the D won the game for them, Stanton getting two quick TDs early deserves some respect.
In other words, if any game is to put a chip on the Seahawks shoulder, it will be this one. Not unfathomable that the Seahawks can reach down deep and get this. But I also do not think the Cardinals will come in here without focus and underestimate the Seahawks either. This one will be a grind.
That's it! Go Hawks!
How The Seahawks Did This Week
From a rankings perspective, with three "rankings games", three ranked teams were guaranteed to lose. Add the Rams stunner against the Broncos, and you would see the winner of the Chiefs/Seahawks slide into the top 5 which is what happened.
I did notice as a whole the Chiefs movement up was larger than the Seahawks movement down. So analysts out there are still thinking possibly the Seahawks are dangerous.
And also from a rankings perspective, the Seahawks at this point have their own destiny in their hands with a tough schedule to close the year out. It is conceivable that they could easily claw their way back into the top 5 soon.
Considering that their are very few rankings games this week, even with a win against the Cardinals, we'd have to see a lot of upsets happen to get into the top 5.
Wins in the next two weeks though and the Seahawks will be back in that rankings conversation
From a non-rankigns point of view, losses of our big guys on offense (Unger) and defense (Mebane) were obvious. If you are into moral victories, the Seahawks, despite however they underplay their potential, have always managed to stay within striking distance up until the last drive or two drives of the game. And with one less injury, or one more ball bouncing our way, the Seahawks could easily be unbeaten.
Still, at the end of the day, it's a win or a loss.
NFL Combined Rankings Summary
Take the scores of 7 rankings and combine them. I use a system called "relative placement" which is advantageous in this type of subjective judging. I have used it many times in the past as a head judge of dance competitions which are pretty much all purely subjective judging.
Here are the source NFL power rankings
NFL.com
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Packers
4. Broncos
5. Cowboys
10. Seahawks (-3). Say what you want about Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch, but we just saw how relevant defensive tackle Brandon Mebane -- lost for the season in Week 10 -- is in terms of team MVP conversation. Well, that is if you consider keeping opponents from racking up nearly two bills on the ground to be valuable.
SBNation
1. Cardinals
2. Patriots
3. Packers
4. Chiefs
5. Broncos
13. Seahawks (-3). Parity Rules. The Chiefs took down the Seahawks in a Sunday slugfest, showing incredible toughness late in the game to stuff two Seattle fourth-down attempts, including Seattle's last-ditch effort for a game-winning 96-yard drive. Kansas City ran the ball well and wore out the Seahawks' defense with Jamaal Charles and the run game. Alex Smith only needed to complete 11 of 16 passes for 108 yards to move the Chiefs into a 7-3 tie with the Broncos in the AFC West.
ESPN
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Packers
4. Broncos
5. Chiefs
11. Seahawks (-2). Jamaal Charles exploited the hole left by Brandon Mebane's injury. The Chiefs had 6.3 yards per rush and 5.0 yards before contact per rush, most against Seattle since 2013.
CBS Sports
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Packers
4. Broncos
5. Chiefs
14. Seahawks (-6). In its first outing without DT Brandon Mebane, Seattle struggled against the Chiefs' ground game. Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson can run their way past most opponents but the Seahawks' 2-3 road record stings. The three remaining road games are at San Francisco, Philadelphia and Arizona, which are a combined 22-8.
FOX Sports
1. Patriots
2. Cardinals
3. Packers
4. Cowboys
5. Broncos
11. Seahawks (-1) The run defense took a major step back following the loss of Brandon Mebane. Although Russell Wilson made some incredible plays through the air and with his legs, the offense came up short on the last drive thanks to some great pass defense by the Chiefs.
Yahoo Sports
1. Patriots
2. Packers
3. Cardinals
4. Broncos
5. Eagles
9. Seahawks (-1) A lot is being made of Marshawn Lynch, like he's a reason for the Seahawks' issues. Let's think this through. Do we think Lynch debuted a new personality this year? No. And how were the Seahawks with all of Lynch's "distractions" or whatever you'd like to call them the past few years?
Washington Post Fancy Stats
aka the only numerical analysis non-subjective based power ranking
1. Cardinals
2. Patriots
3. Chiefs
4. Dolphins
5. Broncos
8. Seahawks (+1) No comments on site
NFL Combined Rankings Using Relative Placement
1st: New England Patriots (last week: 1st)
VOTES: 1,1,1,1,1,2,2
2nd: Arizona Cardinals (last week: 2nd)
VOTES: 1,1,2,2,2,2,3
3rd: Green Bay Packers (last week: 6th)
VOTES: 2,3,3,3,3,3, novote
4th: Denver Broncos (last week: 3rd)
VOTES: 4,4,4,4,5,5,5
5th: Kansas City Chiefs (last week: 9th)
VOTES: 3,4,5,5, novote, novote, novote
6th: Dallas Cowboys (last week: 8th)
VOTES: 4,5, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote
7th: Miami Dolphins (last week: unranked)
VOTES: 4, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote
8th: Philadelphia Eagles (last week: 8th)
VOTES: 5, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote, novote
Fell Out Of Rankings:
a.k.a. no 1st through 5th Votes this week
Detroit Lions (last week: 5th)
Indianapolis Colts (last week: 7th)
Some Analysis With Relative Placement and What We Know
None of this is real deep, so if you see a comment and think to yourself "well, duh...", I have no problem with that
Ranking Shakers
All five games I listed last week had an effect on the rankings.
Here were the rankings shakers (in parentheses is last week's ranking)
Packers (#6) demolish the Eagles (#4) 53-20 (ranked team loses big)
Cardinals (#2) squeak by the Lions (#5) 14-6 (ranked team loses)
Patriots (#1) whip the Colts (#7) 42-20 (ranked team loses big)
Rams (unranked) surprise the Broncos (#3) 22-7 (UPSET WIN OVER RANKED TEAM!)
Chiefs (#9) beat our Seahawks (unranked) 24-20 (two peripherally ranked teams, the winner sildes up into the top 5)
Natural Breaks from a Tally perspective
Natural Break # 1 is 1st and 2nd. Patriots, while a clear 1st, have the Cardinals on their heels. Both teams win big, and at this point you could make an argument for either team.
Natural Break # 2 From a tally perspective it's the Packers all by themselves. They make a big jump with a huge win over Philly, but they still don't really break into the group which tells you how far and away the Patriots and Cardinals really are right now. It's hard to make an argument of putting Green Bay above those two, at least for another week.
Natural Break # 3: Denver, all by itself. Previously an elite team with the Patriots and Cardinals, but a stunner loss drops them. They could have conceivably dropped even further with three losses now, but you can't really make an argument of the teams under them being in the same group (Chiefs, Cowboys, Lions, etc)
Natural Break # 4: All the ranked and previously ranked teams fall into here. Some teams on the upswing (Chiefs), some on the downswing (Eagles), some holding status quo (Cowboys with a bye, Miami with a win against a .500 team). Not quite good enough to be up there with the Broncos but knocking on the door.
I really like these natural breaks, and think this is probably the most clear cut rankings so far with what's been going on. Not really much else to say about that.
Fancy Stats Outliers
Since Fancy Stats is the non-subjective ranking, I like seeing how it matches up with the others. And if you're the curious type you can reverse-engineer a bit the algorithm used to determine these rankings.
The outliers in this case:
Green Bay Packers, not placed. The only ranking to NOT place them. I'm surprised to because they had a huge win over a very good team. I'm guessing then whatever algorithm is used, it considers the entire season so far of the Packers and the win just was not enough to put them in the top 5. They did get #6.
Miami Dolphins, placed #4. Only ranking to place the Dolphins, and they got in at #4
Relative Placement Fun
Really no interesting relative placement fun. Clean majorities, and votes and rankings as you'd expect after what's gone on with the season. If anything, I want to say I am surprised that the Lions got NO votes at all. They lost a very close game to Arizona, compared to the Cowboys had a bye week and the Eagles lost also. I expected them to still be in it.
Games To Watch For Week 12: Potential Rankings Shakers
Only one rankings game this week (both teams are ranked) which guarantees one team will take a dip. Which also meansyou can expect a status quo of sorts for next week in the top of the rankings unless there are some upsets. The three games I see as the ranking shakers
Dolphins (#7) vs Broncos (#4): Broncos have injuries to major payers on their offense to contend with, Dolphins are up and down with a demolishing of the Chargers, a close loss to the Lions, and a convincing win against the Bills. Miami has a pretty good chance.
Lions (unranked) vs Patriots (#1): The Lions have got to be smarting from the loss to the Cardinals. The Cardinals shocked them with two touchdowns early, and after that the Lions D shut the Cardinals out. However, the high octane Lions offense did nothing all game, being held to only 6 points in the first game this season the Cardinals did not allow their opponents to score a touchdown.
Coming up, the Lions D will have a huge challenge against the Patriots offense. Not unreasonable to think they can handle it. Now it's a matter of if the Lions O comes out hungry enough. Possible upset right here in New England
Seahawks (unranked) vs Cardinals (#2): A lot to discuss here, in pretty much every thread on the front page.
To sum it up, while the Seahawks are injury-riddled and some say may not have shown that killer instinct they showed the last half of last year, they still keep games within striking distance no matter the opponent. If they are able to kick it into a higher gear in more of those games, it's conceivable they could be undefeated.
They are going up against a rolling Cardinals team with everything going for them. Possible coach of the year, best record of the NFL. And coming off a HUGE win with 2nd string QB against a very good Lions team. The Cardinals D has got to be feeling really good. And while I want to say the D won the game for them, Stanton getting two quick TDs early deserves some respect.
In other words, if any game is to put a chip on the Seahawks shoulder, it will be this one. Not unfathomable that the Seahawks can reach down deep and get this. But I also do not think the Cardinals will come in here without focus and underestimate the Seahawks either. This one will be a grind.
That's it! Go Hawks!
