Power Ratings and Such
1. Power Ratings
|
Team
|
Conf
|
Rank
|
|
Team
|
Conf
|
Rank
|
|
New England
|
A
|
113.2
|
|
New Orleans
|
N
|
112.6
|
|
Indianapolis
|
A
|
111.7
|
|
Minnesota
|
N
|
106.3
|
|
Baltimore
|
A
|
108.2
|
|
Atlanta
|
N
|
105.6
|
|
Cincinnati
|
A
|
107.7
|
|
Dallas
|
N
|
105.5
|
|
Pittsburgh
|
A
|
104.8
|
|
Arizona
|
N
|
105.2
|
|
NY Jets
|
A
|
104.6
|
|
Philadelphia
|
N
|
103.6
|
|
Houston
|
A
|
103.1
|
|
Green Bay
|
N
|
102.8
|
|
Miami
|
A
|
102.9
|
|
NY Giants
|
N
|
101.9
|
|
Denver
|
A
|
102.8
|
|
San Francisco
|
N
|
101.1
|
|
San Diego
|
A
|
101.9
|
|
Chicago
|
N
|
98.6
|
|
Tennessee
|
A
|
95.3
|
|
Seattle
|
N
|
97.8
|
|
Jacksonville
|
A
|
94.5
|
|
Carolina
|
N
|
97.5
|
|
Buffalo
|
A
|
93.3
|
|
Washington
|
N
|
92.2
|
|
Kansas City
|
A
|
89.8
|
|
Tampa Bay
|
N
|
90.5
|
|
Cleveland
|
A
|
87.6
|
|
Detroit
|
N
|
87.5
|
|
Oakland
|
A
|
85.3
|
|
St. Louis
|
N
|
84.4
|
2. Predictions Last Week
We were 7-8, our third straight losing season, making us 44-36 on the season. We’re still beating the coin flip. …
3. Predictions This Week
|
|
Arizona
|
28
|
St. Louis
|
10
|
|
|
Atlanta
|
25
|
NY Giants
|
24
|
|
|
Buffalo
|
17
|
Jacksonville
|
20
|
|
|
Cincinnati
|
25
|
Oakland
|
6
|
|
|
Cleveland
|
16
|
Detroit
|
18
|
|
|
Indianapolis
|
22
|
Baltimore
|
21
|
|
|
Miami
|
25
|
Carolina
|
22
|
|
|
New Orleans
|
41
|
Tampa Bay
|
21
|
|
|
NY Jets
|
14
|
New England
|
24
|
|
|
Philadelphia
|
25
|
Chicago
|
23
|
|
|
Pittsburgh
|
25
|
Kansas City
|
13
|
|
|
San Diego
|
21
|
Denver
|
24
|
|
|
San Francisco
|
18
|
Green Bay
|
21
|
|
|
Seattle
|
21
|
Minnesota
|
32
|
|
|
Tennessee
|
22
|
Houston
|
33
|
|
|
Washington
|
10
|
Dallas
|
24
|
IV. Comments
I was going to say something about Belichick, but I think I missed the moment.
Well, what I was going to say was this. Writing about baseball about 15 years ago, I wrote that a “blunder” is a coaching decision that has three characteristics, and only three:
1) It occurs at a key moment of the game,
2) It goes against the conventional wisdom, and
3) It doesn’t work.
Whether it is “right” or “wrong”. . .this has nothing to do with whether it becomes a blunder, because really, none of us has better information about that than Belichick himself does. Belichick thought it was the right call; I really haven’t seen anyone even attempt to demonstrate that it was the wrong percentage play. But it was against the book, and it didn’t work, so. . ..
My other comment was: has there ever been an equally famous blunder by such a well-respected coach? Most blunders that I could think of (I didn’t pull out Neyer’s book to check) but most of them seem to be by more marginal coaches or managers. What was really odd this time was, it was Belichick.
Sorry about not getting a real NFL article done this week. I’ll get something up on Tuesday.
Bill