The Hill's Final Power Rankings

It was a tough week for the Patriots. Another 4th quarter collapse. Another loss on the road. Another extremely serious and season altering injury with Bernard Pollard nearby. Brady has apparently been playing with 3 broken ribs. Sadly, these rankings do us no better. I missed last week's ranking due to being on vacation and I feel so poorly about this week that I've decided to post this while still vacationing. We are the second lowest ranked team entering the playoffs. That includes both the AFC and the NFC. Only one team you ask? Yeah. You might be surprised.

More after the jump.

Basic Changes:

The Chargers leapfrogged from 3rd place into 1st with their win this past week, while both the Colts and Saints continue to plummet.

The Broncos, on the other hand, drop even further (7 ranks further) after their depressing loss to Kansas.

The AFC owns 3 of the top 4 ranked teams entering the playoffs...

...However, the NFC has all 6 of their playoff teams ranked before the AFC reaches its 4th.

Biggest Rise: Carolina Panthers scratch into the top 10 with their recent dismantling of opponents. They jumped 9 ranks in the listing, the biggest move all season. Yeah, the team we beat 20-10 is in the top 10. Oh boy. They missed the playoffs.

Mention: The New York Jets jumped 8 spots in the ranking do to the rolling over and lack of trying by their last two opponents, both ranked in the top 5. That helped the Jets pick up 2 quality wins.

Biggest Drop: New York Giants collapse in recent weeks is hilarious as their defense has evaporated. They fall 9 ranks, one of the biggest drops of the season.

Mention: The Denver Broncos fall 7 spots after their embarrassing loss.

Final Rankings

Predicted AFC Playoff Picture (Actual)

1. Chargers (Colts) - I was off in the calculations by .27 of a points, which means both teams are basically equal.

2. Colts (Chargers)

3. Bengals (Patriots) - The Patriots have only 2 quality wins on the season, while the Bengals racked up a tremendous amount of quality wins early in the season.

4. Jets (Bengals) - Jets beat the JV Bengals. Of course, my predicted rankings don't account for division already clinched. The Jets nudge us out by under 2 points, but their score has been inflated due to lack of effort by recent opponents.

5. Steelers (Jets) - The Steelers were the only team that didn't make the playoffs that my rankings predicted would.

6. Patriots (Ravens) - The Ravens have played terribly lately so they're barely in the hunt.

My rankings seem accurate, in my opinion. I'm sure most people would say that the Steelers have been playing better the past couple of weeks than the Ravens (as have the Texans, the only team with a substantial point lead over the Ravens that didn't make the playoffs).

Predicted NFC Playoff Picture (Actual)

1. Saints  (Saints)

2. Cowboys (Vikings) - Under a point difference between the 'Boys and Vikes.

3. Vikings (Cowboys)

4. Cardinals (Cardinals)

5. Eagles (Packers)

6. Packers (Eagles)

I'd say that I was dead on with my rankings. The Panthers ended with a greater score than the Cardinals, but the Cardinals are needed as the 4th division leader.

Super Bowl Bound Tier (150+):

None

Championship Bound Tier (125-150):

Chargers (Rise)

Colts (Fall)

Saints (Fall)

Elite Tier (100-125):

Bengals (Fall)

Cowboys (Rise)

Vikings (Neutral)

Eagles (Neutral/Fall)

Packers (Rise)

Panthers (Rise...for next season with Moore at the helm)

Contender Tier (85-100):

Cardinals (Neutral)

Steelers (Neutral...too inconsistent)

Jets (Neutral/Rise...they were handed two wins, but they still had to go win them)

Patriots (Fall) - Injuries have doomed this club all year and the worst waited until the last minute to occur. Edelman is an able replacement for Wild, Wild, Welker, but he doesn't command the same respect. Defenses will be able to resort to the proven "Stop Moss Defense" to limit the Patriots offense. Our Defense is still a work in progress so I will expect them to be better next year. The 4th quarter collapses are a team effort as the offense decides to not score and the defense decides to sit it out. I'll cut some slack for the Texan 4th quarter as everyone was playing Injury Prevent Defense, which is equivalent to Pro Bowl level. I still believe that we can handle the Ravens at home in the first round. However, I also am predicting a Jet upset at Cincinnati. That's right. The Blob will have his defense ready to smother the Bengals and the offense will run all up and down the field. That's the end of the line for both teams, though, as the Patriots get beat in a 10 point contest in San Diego and the Colts pull out a 4th quarter victory in the Oil Drum versus the Jets.

Our offense, while it relies heavily upon Welker, has been diversifying its offensive portfolio. Welker is good for catching everything thrown his way, while Edelman will have a couple of drops we'll have to deal with that will end drives. That's to be expected with a rookie ex-QB playing WR. However, I'll make the bold prediction that the loss of Wes will have only a slight impact on the Patriots' performance. Following our inexcusable effort against the Saints, our defense picked up some swagger (although they DID let Henne drive down for the game winner). The offense didn't start clicking until the following weak against the Panthers where a couple things happened:

1) We stopped our passing game from consisting of dump offs to Wes and forced passes to Moss and started throwing to our Tight Ends and Running Backs

2) We developed a running game.

Maroney's Houdini-like actions after the first drive against the Jaguars and Texans mean that something is wrong. If he was healthy, he would have gotten reps in this past game. While losing Maroney is a huge hit, the re-emergence of Sammy Morris and Fred Taylor from their season long vacations on the IR is a major bonus for heading into the playoffs- two experiences backs who are complemented by Faulk (Creating the Holy Trinity of Broken Hips as they are the 3 oldest RBs in the league) and our RB Stable is looking pretty good. The involvement of Watson and Baker spread the field, open up situations and passes for Moss and the other receivers. As long as the TEs step up and the RBs perform, Edelman will put up Welker-esque numbers.

Of course, this all relies upon the health of our O-Line, where their new health will play a major role in this offense. Our mid-season TE disappearance had a lot to do with a lack of QB protection and the TEs played more of a blocker role. With Vollmer and Light running the Tackles, our O-Line is better than ever and, hopefully, will allow us to score more points than the opposing team can score in the 2nd half.

Spoiler Tier (75-85)

Texans (Rise)

Falcons (Neutral)

Broncos (Fall)

Titans (Rise)

Dolphins (Neutral)

Average Tier(50-75):

Ravens (Neutral)

Giants (Fall)

49ers (Neutral)

Bears (Neutral)

Bad Tier (25-50):

Raiders (Neutral)

Bills (Neutral)

Jaguars (Fall)

Browns (Rise)

Chiefs (Rise)

Go Home Tier(0-25):

Redskins (Fall)

Seahawks (Fall)

Buccaneers (Neutral)

Paper Bag on Head Tier (-0):

Lions (Neutral)

Rams (Neutral)

I hope everyone enjoyed these rankings! I'll be back next season with some extra tweaks in how the scores are calculated. I will also continue this with the Playoff teams remaining.

Thanks for reading!