October 18, 2022 • 41 mins
The NFL Power Rankings podcast with Colleen Wolfe and Dan Hanzus begins looking at the 6,000 mile gap between the top-3 teams and the rest of the league. Dan explains why the Dallas Cowboys jumped four spots from 10 to 6 and then he shares why he's buying into the Giants as a 10 or 11 win team. Later, Colleen and Dan detail what's going wrong with the Buccaneers and Tom Brady and then Dan wonders if the Jets could be last year's Bengals? The Power Rankings podcast finishes up with Colleen and Dan reacting to another Broncos tragedy.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
NFL Power Rankings is a production of the NFL in
partnership with I Heart Radio from the Chris Wesley podcast studio.
It's the Power Rankings Podcast. I'm Dan Hansas, joined by
Colleen Wolf, Connie Fox, Connie, how are you welcome back?
(00:28):
She's back, She's bad, she feels great today. Yeah, Hi, Yeah,
I missed you as well. That song was wonderful. Um,
you know, it's good that you're back because some weird
things are going on in our league right now. The
Power Rankings job has never been more difficult. I don't
(00:51):
know how you're doing. I don't know what to do.
I did the entire on Monday. When I was putting
together the Power Rankings this week, I had one hand
typing on the keyboard, the other blowing into a brown
paper bag to keep from hyperventilating because this is hard. Yeah,
it doesn't make sense. Nothing really makes sense. I'm not
really sure, like who what teams are good. I don't
(01:12):
know what teams are actually bad. I don't really know
what direction is up, what's down? Like it's it's crazy,
and I'm just happy I don't have to do the ranking.
I'm glad that's your job and you know, Judge, and
it is. And we're going to get to the top
eight to start here. So let's take a look at it. Um.
We have the Bills coming off they went over. The
(01:32):
Chiefs stay at number one. The Eagles, the NFL's loan
undefeated team, take out Dallason and football. They stay at two.
I hope that's okay with you. It's probably not. The
Chiefs stay at three, okay. And those are the three
teams that I feel safe saying are great football teams.
Great even though the Chiefs have a couple of losses,
they're a great team and they are cut above. Then
(01:54):
there's a huge gap. And then we start with the
bottom of five teams in the first quadrant, Vikings at four,
which I'm not sold that that doesn't make sense to me.
But then who do you put above them? I have
the Bengals at three and three at five up four spots,
the Dallas Cowboys coming off a loss on Sunday night,
but a noble one. On some level, I thought up
four those Geri Men all the way up from thirteen
(02:16):
to seven, which feels strong with their five and one.
It's not the power standings, but it's where we are
now I don't know what to kind of do with them.
And then the Ravens let me down. They dropped three
spots to number eight. And that's part of the issue here, Connie.
Where the teams that I had in the top ten
last week, a lot of them kind of messed up.
(02:40):
They played poorly, like the Ravens are a perfect example.
The Ravens go to the meadow Lands to face the
four and one Giants. Nobody's really taking the Giants seriously
yet entering week six, Giants fans were, and then they
let a lead get away. So the Ravens made total
senses a number four team, but instead I have to
drop them, and it's the Vikings that I have at
(03:01):
number four. So let's start with them there five and one.
But again power rankings not power standings. I'm not blown
away by them. What did you think about them against
the Dolphins? So here, here's where I want to start,
because you talk about the top three teams being like
that is that's the top tier, no question about agree?
Right now? Yeah? And then a huge gap I'm talking like,
(03:22):
that's what I want to know. Okay, So that's six
thousand mile gap, Like if you didn't have to put
teams slot them in at certain numbers. Where would you
start the rankings with the vikings, like would you let's
say there's like an unlimited amount of spots here, you
can put in some some voids, like would you start
them at ten? Would you start them? I mean, they
(03:44):
feel like in a normal season, And I don't know
if this is answering your question, but your question kind
of confuses me. In a normal season, that is what
I'm getting at. There. They feel like a right now
with their good start at ten to twelve type team.
Because of the completely uncertain nature of the league right now,
I had to slot them higher then I feel like
(04:05):
they are because typically in this exercise, and I hope
as the season goes on we get a little more
clarity on the situation. Any team that I have in
like the top seven or so, but especially the team
that comes in at number four, like I see them
as a credible super Bowl contender, but I'm not. I'm
not there with the vikings. I mean, I'll say like
(04:25):
what Kirk Cousins said after the game, and it'd be good.
You know, I want you to listen to it very much.
The inverse of of one. I would walk off the
field after we had lost and said, we're playing so well,
we're playing so well, and somehow, some way we lost.
But we're playing at very high level this year. I'm saying, gosh,
we can play better, but we want And it's just
kind of an inverse and uh, I'll take you know
(04:48):
this any day. So he's invoking those salty ghosts of
the Mike Zimmer era. They're getting up, they're getting a
bump here because they're they're closing, but they're not dominant.
And Kirk Cousins he is after the game just like
drenched in diamond chains on the plane, like he's having
a great time. But it's hard for me to picture
(05:09):
the Vikings as the fourth best team in the NFL
when their offense is just like an on and off switch,
like it just goes in these waves. And it was
just so many three and outs. I mean they're during
a certain point in this game, Minnesota had as many
furts downs as they had three and outs. They had seven,
Like this was ten of their fifteen drives ended in
(05:32):
a three and out. Like I just am not totally
sold there. Of course, you know they have a two
game lead in the division. They are one of the
few teams that have five wins. It feels like the
entire league right now is three and three or under
five hundred. But the defense looked good. It's just I
can't I didn't really think that the Vikings were going
(05:52):
to put it all together. And I still feel like
it's almost week three in my mind, like it's too
early to say that they are going to be able
to really put in a push here for the division
with the Packers looking in the way that they are.
But Kevin O'Connell and his first year as a head coach,
is that going to happen? I don't know what's going
on UM with the Vikings in terms of trust level,
(06:15):
UM it part of me does feel the same way
you do, and I think, not to put words in
your mouth, but like that there's probably like a the
inconsistencies probably will lead to that classic Minnesota lose three
in a row or four out of six, and it
kind of brings their record back to where you think
it probably should be. UM, because that's what I think
of them. I think they're good but not great team.
(06:37):
But that's just where we are right now as we
look also elsewhere in Tier one. You know, the Bengals
at five is another example, like, yeah, I really like Cincinnati.
I've been higher. I know there are other off brand
power rankings throughout the media sphere, uh that you don't
really have to pay attention to this power rankings. But
I'm sure if you were to, for I guess just
(06:59):
because you're wasting time, maybe you're in prison and you
have time to kill. I don't know, um you would
you look at my rankings and then look at these
other rankings. My love of the Bengals, or what seems
like love, is probably going to shine above other power rankings.
I've kind of stuck with them through thick and thin
through the start of the season. And what gets him
into the top five is two things. One again winning,
(07:22):
just winning in week six is going to give you
a bump in a very unsettled landscape in the top
half of this league. And two, I thought it was
really good to see two things Joe Mixing looking like
Joe Mixing again, but most importantly Jamaar Chase and Joe
Burrow unlocking that magic, especially in the second half. And
I said with Steve Wich last week Connie that one
(07:42):
of Zach Taylor's jobs heading into New Orleans popped the
hood on this offense and figure out why Jamar Chase
isn't an explosive playmaker, and that's exactly what he was.
My biggest issue is whether or not their offense is
going to be okay now going forward? Have they figured
it out? Is this now the the equation? Is this
what they're going to use going forward? But when you
(08:05):
have one good game and you win by four, like
that's now all of a sudden they're a top five team.
But like you can even say this with the Vikings
because the Vikings outside of like they're only lost the
Vikings was against the Eagles, and they're only dominant win
was Week one against the Packers. So you have just
this like weird water down middle, huge soft underbelly of
(08:29):
the league. And just like with the Vikings, what in
a normal season quote unquote normal season, Cincinnati feels like
a team they would live in that like twelve to
fifteen range, maybe closer to twelve, maybe even eleven. But
the way things are now, they get the W And
I think what kind of drove me to really give
him the bump? Here up for spots is Joe. Joe
(08:50):
Burrow is just so special and I watched I watched
these games and when he's getting better and better, they
were so out of sinc to start the season. The
offensive line was a mess. That's gotten better and better
and it's allowing Burrow to be comfortable and be the
dude that he is. So with t Higgins and Tyler
Boyd and now Jamar Chase unlocked, I could see this
team going off on a bit of a rampage. They
(09:11):
absolutely good, especially when you consider that all three losses
were on game ending field goals. They needed to come
from behind win again this time, but their run defense
is an issue. The Saints ran all over them for
over two hundred rushing yards. Their next game, though, is
against the Falcons, and they got one of the most
(09:31):
surprising wins two of the week. That was just like
another team, right, So that could be an issue coming
up on Sunday, Yes it could and the Falcons. That's
the other thing here, Conny, I was talking about our
friend Dave Damaschek on his podcast on Dave, the teams
that we thought were gonna stink in our league are
better than we thought. And the teams that we thought
(09:53):
were gonna be good or kind of the middle of
the pack. Most of them have come down and that's
created this bizarre situation where you would usually say, oh,
Cincinnati gets to go to Atlanta now, and that's a
good spot for No. The Falcons are certified frisky. They
just beat the Niners, another team that I would have
loved to put up at number four this week. But
then they let me down the Cowboys And this is
(10:13):
probably unprecedented in in uh in the history of the
power rankings since I've been doing it. To move hot
like a big move in the top ten off a loss. Again,
does it feel quite right? No, But at the same time,
you got to look at the landscape of the league.
I thought it was noble. The way they were able
to battle back. The Eagles incredible. You know, they wake
(10:37):
up the well the second quarter. The Eagles have scored
more points through six games in the second quarter than
any team in the history of the NFL. So they
put up twenty in the second quarter that you know,
took a twenty three lead I believe it was into
the second half, and they got the running game going Dallas,
they got some stops on defense, made it an interesting game.
Now Cooper Rush, it's time for Cooper Rush to step
(10:59):
step aside. Good job, a great story, great story, but
you finally saw what would happen when Cooper Rush gets
put in a negative game script and a tough road environment.
Three interceptions. But now Dak Prescott is there are reports
that he is ready to return against the line, so
Dak back to stabilize the offense with one of the
best defenses in football. I felt like you had to
(11:20):
move them up after a good showing against one of
the big three of the Eagles. Well, yeah, and obviously
Cooper Rush has done a great job. He's kept Dallas's
season alive. He's done better than I think most people
expected him to do. He's a good backup quarterback. But
you know they want like a little bit. I feel
like if you watch these Cooper games and I know
you're you're just like I mean, I feel like he did,
(11:43):
he did his job. But also in each of the
last three games, I think he got away with passes
and until the Eagles game, I think if we would
have continued down this path, or if Da God forbid
for Cowboys fans had a setback, it probably wouldn't be
good news. But you're right on balance. He did his job.
I'm sorry, I don't want to be negative. You want
to talk negative about the Cowboys. UM, I am definitely
(12:06):
not here for it. What um? But I think too uh?
Speaking of run defenses that have had some issues. When
the Eagles took over in the fourth for that game
ceiling drive that they had, I mean they ran ten
times on that drive. Every third down was more than
manageable for them. Like four out of the last six games,
(12:28):
the Cowboys defense have allowed over a hundred and twenty
rushing yards. So they have the Lions and the Bears
up next, and both of those teams have top ten
rushing offenses. That could be a major problem. But they
are playing their next four games against the NFC North,
so you know that pretty in an uncertain league, that's
a pretty soft landing space right now. The team right
(12:48):
behind the Cowboys is the Giants, who have lost one
game this season to the Cowboys. Giants, what are the
time for power moves? Presented by Energizer, They're up six
spots uh two, number seven if you look at the
season rank trajectory. Great work by Drew Christensen. Our editor
who who does does incredible work. They started at twenty eight.
(13:11):
I'm just gonna go through week by week as the
old susor has been trying to figure out the Giants
being really good for some reason five and one. They
went from to start the season one nineteen down to
twenty two. After the Cowboys lost in week four nineteen
thirteen seven, they just hang around, Connie. You really didn't
want to take them out of that like ground that
(13:34):
they were in, that like late teens, early twenties. Yeah,
quote unquote normal year. Yeah, they're like a twelve or
thirteen mystery team for me. But in this year they
keep winning. They keep beating teams that I like, like
the Ravens. Another great performance, especially late forcing two turnovers
of Lamar getting the go ahead touchdown of course from
(13:54):
se Kwon Barkley. And again every game ends Connie with
Brian Dable shot from the camera coming off the sidelines,
pumping his fist, pointing to his parents or whoever in
the crowd, and everybody's slapping them on the back. I
know you don't like the Giants either. Story here in
the middle. I'm fair, I'm balanced. I will give people
(14:15):
props when they deserve it, and it hard for you
even to say, no, I'm not. I'm serious. The Giants
have been fun to watch, and I'm going to get like,
you know, strike me down, like just the skeleton next
to me of the studio. It's It's true, I am
guilty of watching uh wink Martindale and the defense looking
(14:38):
really good, especially against Lamar Jackson and his former team,
and you know that he just wanted that win so bad.
And somehow this offense is they're creatively making it work
and they don't have any receivers. They just have se
Quan Like. I don't know how long they can go
on with this formula, but they're doing it now and
(14:59):
they have wins over the Packers and the Ravens. So
then it's kind of like, well, should they be higher
or are we not using the Packers as a measuring
stick anymore? Where Where does that fall? I think it's
fair to ask. I think again, as the season takes
shape and we understand how unpredictable this whole thing is.
(15:20):
A team like the Giants, well coached, with a superstar
running back, an improved offensive line, and a defensive coordinator
who's getting the very most out of his defense. That's
gonna win games in a league with a lot of
teams that are kind of in the middle, They're gonna
win a lot of close games this year. I don't
think that's flukey. I'm kind of buying in now that
this could be, you know, a ten eleven win Giants team.
(15:41):
So that's why they are where they are. And the Ravens,
by the way, what are we doing Ravens? You know
they are up to three losses in which they had
led by at least ten points at some point in
a game that matches a team record. It's Week six,
it's it's not going well for the Ravens like this.
This is an ugly, ugly loss, and Jackson has a
(16:05):
lot to answer for it. I mean, this was one
of his his worst Lamar show. Lamar blew that game.
But John Harbo needs to get some heat too, because
blowing all these games not a good look. Let's check
out Tier two, as we call it, I call a
quadrant number two. I don't know if that makes sense.
Buccaneers at nine down three, that's something off in the mix.
(16:25):
Uh down in Tampa the Chargers, I don't know what
to do with the charge charges another one, you know,
beat up on Denver on Monday night football, and maybe
even I'll slide you up at four and two to
the number four spot, but not even close. The defense
was fine, but the offense. Niners down seven to eleven,
which might seem like a big drop, but there's a
lot of injuries to that defense that are now really
(16:46):
affecting the bottom line. Rams up three with a win
over the Panthers. The Jets, my Jets up four. I
thought I showed some good like discipline here, not to
go two nuts after beating the Packers and Lambeau all
the way up to thirteen. Tightens down three to fourteen
on a buy tough luck. But things are weird right now.
Packers down seven to fifteen, which is as low as
(17:07):
they've ever been since I've done this in four years,
and the Raiders also sitting on a bye. They just
get shifted a little bit, uh due to I was
wondering about the wondering machinations are match mashing it? I
think it's machinations, I think, But anyway, the I was
wondering how you approached bye weeks in your rankings now
that we had the first first bye weeks last week
(17:30):
another one. Obviously we like what happens. This once again
shows the instability of NFL right now that usually almost
always with a bye week, I never move a team.
I either lock them into their spot or they get
dropped one or raised one um based on what's going
on around the team. But things are so strange now
and fluid that bye weeks teams are moving around, which
(17:53):
is an unintended after effect of a very strange I
feel like you you kind of told me at the
beginning of the season about your number thirteen slot and
how that is just like a weird, kind of mystical
place for teams to be. You don't really know what
that team is, but I feel like just a full
the full middle of your power rankings are team. There's
(18:17):
a lot of miss I just I stuck the We'll
get to the Jets in a second. Let's start with
the Bucks. The Bucks are at nine. There's a lot
wrong um with the Bucks. Why just don't they don't
seem to have a lot of juice right now. The offense,
it's so hard offense to gain yards and score points,
which nobody predicted. They just keep imploding in the red zone.
(18:39):
Like nothing about this offense is tapped in, like their
their pepper, spraying themselves with penalties and mistakes, like they
can't get out of their own way. Brady can't even
get a yard on a sneak anymore. Like it is.
That was kind of like the moment it is going
on here, and it's just it's kind of weird and
sad to watch. And then we saw Tom Brady freaking
(19:01):
out on the sideline. I mean, we've seen that before,
but now it just seems a little different, knowing what
we know about what's going on in his personal life
and then seeing his professional life with the way that
the Bucks are performing. I don't know what's wrong with
the Bucks offense, but him, him and Godwin are not
on the same page at all. There's just so many miscommunications. Yeah,
(19:23):
and of course everything now is being examined with Brady,
who goes to Robert Kraft's birthday party turned wedding surprise
wedding surprise wedding on Friday, misses a team walked through
on Saturday as a result, which and then is uncharacteristically
inaccurate and Sunday's game, uh, leading to Todd Bowles having
(19:43):
to answer questions about whether Brady's treated different, Well, of
course he's treated different. He's Tom Brady. But that's never
a good look. UM. So we have a situation Brady,
and I was sending out tweets about gotta be better,
We'll be ready to go Sunday with It's not just him,
it's other players on the team. In the photo, Um,
I think his frustration is palpable. You see it, You
(20:04):
see the pressure on and we can't get in his
head and figure out what else is going on behind
the scenes. But I think you could connect some dots
that this has been a very difficult a few months
for Mr Brady, and think about what this Tampa often
struggled against Pittsburgh defense without t J. Watt, the reigning
defensive player of the Year, and without three of its
starting cornerbacks, and they couldn't get it done. It makes
(20:28):
me wonder if Pittsburgh has figured out how to get
pressure without t J. Watt. But also it makes me
even more concerned about this Bucks team and the fact
that their old line is having major issues. We knew
that's been a storyline since training camp. Their rookie guard
is having major growing pains and that's messing them up.
With Leonard Fournett in the backfield not having any time
(20:50):
like he's getting swarmed. I think they'll grind it out.
And I think because their defense is still very good.
The defense overall, with the one blip of the Kansas
City primetime game a couple of weeks ago, has been
as good as advertised. I think they'll be okay, but
I think it's a little to a grind and surprising
also a grind the Niners um and as I said,
they dropped look further than I would have usually because
(21:13):
you at a certain point you can't look the other way.
On how many injuries. Um, they were down to four
of eleven of their eleven projected starters on their defense
by the end of the loss of the Falcons. And
I saw, and I know, uh, Greg Rosenthal on around
the NFL pointed to Marcus Mario or excuse me, Jimmy
(21:35):
Garoppolo in this offense not being built to play from behind.
I I see that. But they also had a couple
of big misses on players that could have put them
back in the game, on catching run balls, which is
what they're all about there. The act bros. The real
thing is this defense, which is you're seeing the cracks
now because they've simply lost too many key players. That's
they're they're just way too wounded right now and the
(21:55):
team is not built to accommodate that whatsoever. None this
is at the end, like you said, there was only
four healthy defensive starters to end game. Eleven of twenty
two starters were missing, like this was. This was a
mess for them. And when you don't have guys like
Nick Bosa and Eric Armstead coming in, like you're going
(22:15):
to give up a season high twenty eight points to
fon Galanta who hadn't been doing anything offensively. No, they
looked very competent, the Falcons. Uh. In fact, there a
team to keep an eye on in a wide open league.
The Packers, as we talked about the Packers are kind
of a mess. They're kind of sloppy. Uh. Speaking around
the NFL, we have a new trope where we tracked
(22:37):
the teams that when things are going bad, either offensive
or defensively, go to the media and say, well, it's
time to simplify things in their play calling or their scheme.
And it's usually kind of a indirect shot, a transparent
indirect shot at the coaching staff's ability to lead. I'm
not saying there's a you know, uprising a foot in
(22:59):
frustration is real. So keep an eye on what's going
on with the Packers. They have all the way down
to fifteen, and they just looked non competitive against Yes,
the Jets, who I have at fourteen, and I again,
I try to have some at thirteen. Yes, I try
to have discipline. Uh with my favorite team one way
(23:20):
or the other, whether they're really bad or really good.
Not to be too emotional about it. Uh, but the
Jets with this young team, and I love the new
Moniker of the baby Jets, they expect to win. Now
those winds that seem like Lucky Flukey wins against Cleveland
and then Pittsburgh, that kind of that was the base.
And then they blew out the Dolphins in the fourth
(23:41):
quarter in a game that got really tight and you
could see the switch flip. So by the time they
got to Green Bay, they expected to win. Sauce Gardner
expects to win, Breeze Hall expects to go over a
hundred yards rushing, They expect to get to the quarterback,
and they destroyed Aaron Rodgers and that offensive line. Quentin
Williams is playing like an All Pro and leading a
(24:02):
really strong UH front for front seven. It's it's all
there Connie for the Jets, while they need Connie because
I'm again I'm trying to quarter. I need to see
more from the quarterback. If Zach Wilson matures and develops,
they could be the Bengals. They really could. But that's
(24:22):
a big gasque because he's not Joe Burrow right now,
not even close. But they're they're getting get done. Three
straight wins and the Packers and Dolphins wins like this
was they beat them by a combined score of sixty
seven to seven, like and I just want to say
a lot of Jets fans in my mentions, they're not
happy that I haven't picked the Jets. I apologize this
(24:45):
is not a personal thing, but I think now I
have to start picking the Jets because I'm starting to
believe in them. And Sauces is the one that's that's
making me do it. Like I love the energy, the
swag of wearing the cheese head, throwing his arms up
like he's in Rome at the Colosseum. That came after
Reese Hall jumped into the Lambeau leap after his touchdown
(25:08):
run that basically sealed the game. That's swag. That's stuff
that we haven't seen as Jet sans since Bart Scott
was interviewed by Sal Pal at Foxboro in the two
thousand ten playoffs and said, can't wait, Like the Jets
believe look out this is. There were so many aspects
of their game that shined, Like the running game came
up huge, as you just mentioned with Breecee Hall. They
(25:30):
had two rushing touchdowns, the defense was swarming, four total sacks.
Special teams even got in there with the block punt
and a field goal like this was. This was a fun,
fun watch, And I feel like a lot of times
these teams, you know, people make a little too much
about like, oh, they have that swag, but honestly, that's
(25:51):
a lot of times what the sea, especially with a
young team, and they get the Broncos next, who are
a disaster on offense and in past protection, and Russ
isn't seeing the field? Am I gonna lock up the Jets?
Something around the NFL pock just just my all right,
let's take a break and hit the back half of
the thirty two teams of our league. You're right back,
(26:31):
all right, Welcome back to the power ranking is presented
by Energized. So let's go through seventeen through the third quadrant.
Patriots up four spots and looking frisky as seventeen. Falcons
up four spots, up to eighteen after taking out the
forty nine. Isn't really out playing them while they did it.
The Saints down three spots to nineteen, Seahawks up four spots,
(26:51):
the twenty, the Cults up seven spots to one, the
Steelers up five after Mitch Drabinsky saved the day. Uh
to number twenty two, the Dolphins down five to three,
and the brown goes after another grim prime time performance
by their offense, clock in down one spot. Uh. Let's
(27:13):
start here with the Patriots. I am um, I'll take
a little victory lap on this one. Connie Zappy Fever.
I have a lot of respect for what Bailey Zappy
has done here. But there was so much talk entering
the season about the Patriots losing the plot in terms
of their philosophy and their understanding of what scheme and
(27:35):
and continuity and and the idea of installing a new
offensive game plan without Josh McDaniels. And you know, having Matt,
Patricia and Joe Judge in the building, what did you like?
My god? Bill Belichick is doing it all because he
is the greatest coach of all time. He tied George
Allis for career wins with a dominating showing against the Browns.
(27:58):
And yes, Bailey z Appy he gets a ton of
credit the fourth round pick in place of Mac Jones. Connie.
Belichick has a huge role in that as well, with
of course Patricia and Judge. To a certain extent, he's
playing like a veteran in his third start, like a
good veteran. Yeah. And you know who didn't go to
Robert Croft's wedding surprise wedding. It wasn't Bailey Zappy. It
(28:22):
wasn't Bill Belichick either, because he had to prepare for
this game, and Zappy was prepared. Kind of fascinating, right,
Like Buill didn't go, Bill was like I got work,
Tom went, Buill didn't go. Bill still is with the Patriots.
Bill didn't go. Yeah, he had he had the Browns
(28:44):
to prepare for. That's not a great look for I
know it's not. But the Patriots, Hey, they look good
and I like the fact that they've they have simplified
things for Bailey z Appy and it has worked. There's
like a lot of short throws. You're not hearing any
of the players saying. It's very different between that eternally
being the case and players being like, we need to
(29:04):
simple five. Ucially a quarterback to to Rogers caliber like
that is no good. So the Patriots, obviously Zappi looked good.
And then the defense they forced Brissette into three turnovers,
They limited the Browns rushing offense like that was a
full effort by them. I mean, are they are the
Packers better than the Patriots? I don't know. I don't
(29:29):
really know what imagine. Imagine me telling you that we
would be having this conversation back in August. No, that's why,
I don't know why we even have conversations in August.
I don't know why. Yeah, August exists at this office. Um.
Speaking of quarterbacks that are surprising us this year, Gino
Smith and the Seahawks. They come in at number twenty,
up four spots from twenty four. And yes, I tease
(29:51):
it with Gino, but what was interesting about the latest
Seahawks win. It was it wasn't about Gino that that
that defense actually stepped up. I think a lot of
that connects Connie to how bad the Cardinals in and
that horrendous scheme with Cliff King's barry. It's good, but
credit where credit is due. The Seahawks getting stops In
quarterback Threek Woolen is a Rookie of the Year candidate.
(30:13):
Four interceptions in four games, including the clincher uh against
Hollywood Brown, who got hurt on that play as well.
He recovered the fumble to Tyreek Woolen like this was
their rookies first of all are really standing out like
they had a great draft. But the defense, I've been
waiting the entire season, the all all five games I've
(30:34):
been waiting and then games six that showed up. It's like, Connie,
where are you, like you were supposed to meet me today? No, no, no,
I'm still waiting for the Seattle Seahawks defense. They haven't
showed up yet. So um yeah, I was just like
stranded for a while waiting for them to pick me up.
And finally he said you'd meet me at the dog Park. No,
Seattle Seahawks defense hasn't arrived. It's all their fault. I
(30:57):
blame them for everything, but they won Seattle. The game
like that was, they allowed zero touchdowns to the card offense.
The only touchdown that game was on special teams, like
they sacked Kyler six times. This was. This was every
time that Arizona went for it on fourth down, which
I don't know why they kept doing because like, nope, yeah,
(31:23):
I don't know if I'm not I'm holding on the
Seattle uprising on defense and more opinning it on the
Cardinals stink um right now. Um. But at the same time,
I'm sure Pete slept well. This is the grand plan
which we were all like, I don't know what the
Seahawks are doing, and the grand plan in Indianapolis that
matt Ryan would come and stabilize that offense. And it
hasn't really been the case until I was waiting, all Dan,
(31:47):
come on your son, he's it's his graduation. No, no,
I'm waiting for the Colts offense to hit its stride.
It did happen on Sunday with a three hundred eighty
nine yard performance of three touchdowns and forty fifty eight
passing for Mattie Ice. But the most important thing, I thought,
fifty eight dropbacks, no sacks against the Jaguars, which says
(32:10):
a lot about Jacksonville and you know, Trayvon Walker and
what was supposed to be a better defense. But it
does tell you that maybe Frank Reich has something starting
to fall into place for the Cults because it looks
so bad. I was really starting to worry about Frank
Reich and I was even and you love yourself from
some Frank Reich. Yeah, I was thinking to myself after
(32:31):
the game or before the game on Sunday, all right,
if they lose this game, like, are we going down
a path where Frank Reich he's going to get fired
and then ultimately next season he's going to join Doug
Peterson in Jacksonville and go to like the enemy. I
had this whole thing in my head. But what's it
like inside your head? So busy? There's just so much
(32:51):
stuff always happening, disorganized up there is something you can do,
like to Rex, like in general? Is there anything you
do like the past time? I don't know. It could
help you just sleeping, I think, but even that's difficult. Um,
So I have started figure skating again and that works.
How is it physically awesome? Is your is your body
(33:12):
able to return to that? It has been so amazing.
Seems hard. I thought so too, and that's why I
kind of avoided skating for a while because I was
worried and afraid to see where I was. And I've
gone like three times now and I'm almost back to
exactly where I was. Like, um, I'm working on my
(33:33):
doubles already. I'm doing like spins all of it. So
it's great anyway. The cults, yeah, they look great with
no Jonathan Taylor or Nahem Hines too, so like you know,
you can always they'll be okay, they'll be in that
race in December. Uh. Finally it's stuck with the Broncos. Uh,
you know the thing that was so disappointing, and God,
all these island games with Denver. It's absurd how many
(33:56):
times America has been forced to sit down and watch it.
How much longer will we have to go through this?
It starts with Russell Wilson completing his first ten passes
is including that thirty nine yard touchdown pass to Greg
del Chitz, and it was like, okay, alright, finally, and
I am not saying this is all at all? Is
a Russell Wilson, fantasy owner. That's not where any of
(34:16):
this is coming from. And then snap your fingers and
I was it. That was another dispiriting, gruesome displayoff offense
for Russell Wilson, the highly paid trade import and Nathaniel Hackett,
the head coach who was the quarterback guru under Aaron Rodgers.
That feels like a long time ago. You want to
(34:37):
talk about who is a head coach and a ton
of danger right now? It is Nathaniel Hackett. I know
it's his first year, but look out with new ownership
there and this team completely lost. This was another Broncos
tragedy that we had to watch and it's just becoming
too much. But it is so weird to see Russell
(34:58):
Wilson look the way that he does like this is
I thought this was an m v P caliber quarterback
who every year we're like, oh, he's never gone an
m v P vote, And you know, look at all
the things he can do. He's still in his peak.
He's still in his prime. He can make things happen.
He's fourth quarter come back you know, come back king
all the time. I don't know I was gonna say
(35:20):
come backing all of the time and then yeah, come back, king,
I told you there's a lot going on in the brain.
Um it's Wilson. Everyone wants to put everything on Wilson.
A lot of it's on Wilson, and you could even
you know, Troy was calling him out on the ESPN
crew for missing some reads that he should have made.
(35:41):
But god, the scheme is really rough to the there's
just right, you know. Aigman also called out some of
the routes that were being run is just being subpar.
And those third downs? How many third downs? Third in
medium's third and longs where Wilson takes the snap and
maybe for people that are more like strategically inclined than I, uh,
(36:02):
you could point out that's on the quarterback too. He
should have been recognizing certain things. But as soon as
the ball snapped, there's four guys darting at Wilson and
the plays over before it starts. It's just a broken offense.
The defense is great, but the offense is the worst.
They were They were just blowing up Wilson like play
after play. And not only that, but they haven't committed
(36:25):
to the run, so they're not really putting Wilson. They
don't have anyone, I mean, and Gordon looking so sad
on the sideline, wishing for a revenge game. Never gotten anyone,
Williams out for the year, You're you're using Latavius Murray, who,
let's be honest, is just not an impact player at
this stage of his career. And yeah, Melvin Gordon didn't
(36:46):
feel bad for him. He said after the game, it
really hurt to a kind of be benched and not
kindo be be benched essentially. And then the bad job
by the Chargers who were putting them up in the
screen with that's awful. Let's cleaning up the game day operation.
They don't like that at all. But also he wasn't
given any type of heads up either, like at halftime,
so he was just kind of sitting there waiting for this.
(37:10):
I hate that for him. The second half and overtime
for Denver fifteen yards passing, twenty four yards lost on
sacks alone. Tier four, let's start with the Browns at
(37:39):
down five spots. They're not very good, the Browns, and
it's the defense that's the reason why the Cardinals down
seven to twenty six. A very tough why. There's some
real tough watches in this group, this whole group is
just like down. Yeah, the Jaguars down to to Trevor
Lawrence got off the mat a little bit there, but
the defense took a step back. As I said, with
(38:00):
the Colts, the Lions on the by down two to
the Bears commit enders, Texans, and Panthers round out the list.
They don't move at all. The Browns yeah, like I said, um,
Joe Woods, an events coordinator, could be in trouble here
because the scheme is not working. They're not getting stops.
The Patriots with with a third string quarterback. Let's keep
(38:21):
let's remember that it was Brian Hoyer replacing Mac Jones
and then Bailey's Appy just shredded them. Uh and they
they're bad against the run. And then you've got Nick
Chub getting twelve carries in that game, which just like
the whole thing, it feels a little off with Cleveland,
a little off. It's a lot off. The Browns. The
fact that they are two and four after facing as
you mentioned, Bailey's Appy, Marcus Mariota, Mitchell Trobiskie, Joe Flacco,
(38:47):
and Baker Mayfield, Like this is not okay. And when
you look at their schedule they're getting ready to go
up against Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow to a Josh Allen
and Tom Brady. So things are bad now, but they
could get a lot worse. They could get a lot worse. But,
like you know the theme that we were talking about
the beginning of this episode, he also don't know, like
(39:09):
all these teams are kind of pretty close. Could they
put it together and make some changes. Maybe they need
to simplify the playbook on defense and the scheme and
that could get them better. They still have Nick Chubb,
who is arguably the best running back in football. Give
him the rock, don't put Jake Brisket and at a
place where he could be exposed like he was against
Bill Belichick, which was his you know something you could
(39:31):
see coming from a million miles away right behind the Browns.
Excuse me, let's finished by talking about the Cardinals, who, um,
I don't know what they're gonna do now. Marky's Hollywood
Brown As we saw on that interception that that ice
the game for Seattle, suffers a foot injury that's gonna
knock him out for multiple weeks. They pivot and trade
(39:52):
for Robbie Anderson, and I just gotta be honest with you.
I this is not I don't want to get on
Robbie Anderson, but I don't know if this is a
good spot for Robbie Anderson. Who's a guy who's known
to show his frustration both on the sideline and with
a coaching staff when the ball is not coming his way,
and now he's going to an offense where they have
no idea how to get the ball to their wide receivers.
(40:12):
He is a streaker. He's a guy that not he
doesn't get nude and run on the field or maybe
he has, yeah, but he's a guy who can beat
you deep, and that's what they need in their offense.
You have DeAndre Hopkins. He's coming back this week, but
losing Hollywood is a big thing. He was like the
only good story on this offense this year. Yeah, well,
they at first feared it was season ending for Hollywood
(40:34):
and he'll be hopefully he'll be back six weeks. It
looks like four to six weeks um. And then when
they have DeAndre Hopkins back, I think that that will
change things because he's such a game changer. But how much. Honestly,
at this point, I don't know how much the return
of DeAndre Hopkins is going to matter if it's going
to save them that much. Like there's just too much
(40:56):
wrong with this team and there's not enough talent, I
think to make a difference. That's well said, Connie, And
that is a look at the League of thirty two.
And as I said, check it out on NFL dot
com slash Power Rankings for the full rundown that I
put together. Uh, it is the Big three and a
(41:17):
whole lot of let's see pretty much. That's where we are.
Thank you for everybody for listening and watching. And remember
we're here every Tuesday trying to figure this thing out. Cutty,
come on, we'll be back, maybe with more answers, maybe
probably more questions. Till next week later. NFL Power Rankings
(41:44):
as a production of the NFL in partnership with I
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
NFL Power Rankings is a production of the NFL in
partnership with I Heart Radio from the Chris Wesley podcast studio.
It's the Power Rankings Podcast. I'm Dan Hansas, joined by
Colleen Wolf, Connie Fox, Connie, how are you welcome back?
(00:28):
She's back, She's bad, she feels great today. Yeah, Hi, Yeah,
I missed you as well. That song was wonderful. Um,
you know, it's good that you're back because some weird
things are going on in our league right now. The
Power Rankings job has never been more difficult. I don't
(00:51):
know how you're doing. I don't know what to do.
I did the entire on Monday. When I was putting
together the Power Rankings this week, I had one hand
typing on the keyboard, the other blowing into a brown
paper bag to keep from hyperventilating because this is hard. Yeah,
it doesn't make sense. Nothing really makes sense. I'm not
really sure, like who what teams are good. I don't
(01:12):
know what teams are actually bad. I don't really know
what direction is up, what's down? Like it's it's crazy,
and I'm just happy I don't have to do the ranking.
I'm glad that's your job and you know, Judge, and
it is. And we're going to get to the top
eight to start here. So let's take a look at it. Um.
We have the Bills coming off they went over. The
(01:32):
Chiefs stay at number one. The Eagles, the NFL's loan
undefeated team, take out Dallason and football. They stay at two.
I hope that's okay with you. It's probably not. The
Chiefs stay at three, okay. And those are the three
teams that I feel safe saying are great football teams.
Great even though the Chiefs have a couple of losses,
they're a great team and they are cut above. Then
(01:54):
there's a huge gap. And then we start with the
bottom of five teams in the first quadrant, Vikings at four,
which I'm not sold that that doesn't make sense to me.
But then who do you put above them? I have
the Bengals at three and three at five up four spots,
the Dallas Cowboys coming off a loss on Sunday night,
but a noble one. On some level, I thought up
four those Geri Men all the way up from thirteen
(02:16):
to seven, which feels strong with their five and one.
It's not the power standings, but it's where we are
now I don't know what to kind of do with them.
And then the Ravens let me down. They dropped three
spots to number eight. And that's part of the issue here, Connie.
Where the teams that I had in the top ten
last week, a lot of them kind of messed up.
(02:40):
They played poorly, like the Ravens are a perfect example.
The Ravens go to the meadow Lands to face the
four and one Giants. Nobody's really taking the Giants seriously
yet entering week six, Giants fans were, and then they
let a lead get away. So the Ravens made total
senses a number four team, but instead I have to
drop them, and it's the Vikings that I have at
(03:01):
number four. So let's start with them there five and one.
But again power rankings not power standings. I'm not blown
away by them. What did you think about them against
the Dolphins? So here, here's where I want to start,
because you talk about the top three teams being like
that is that's the top tier, no question about agree?
Right now? Yeah? And then a huge gap I'm talking like,
(03:22):
that's what I want to know. Okay, So that's six
thousand mile gap, Like if you didn't have to put
teams slot them in at certain numbers. Where would you
start the rankings with the vikings, like would you let's
say there's like an unlimited amount of spots here, you
can put in some some voids, like would you start
them at ten? Would you start them? I mean, they
(03:44):
feel like in a normal season, And I don't know
if this is answering your question, but your question kind
of confuses me. In a normal season, that is what
I'm getting at. There. They feel like a right now
with their good start at ten to twelve type team.
Because of the completely uncertain nature of the league right now,
I had to slot them higher then I feel like
(04:05):
they are because typically in this exercise, and I hope
as the season goes on we get a little more
clarity on the situation. Any team that I have in
like the top seven or so, but especially the team
that comes in at number four, like I see them
as a credible super Bowl contender, but I'm not. I'm
not there with the vikings. I mean, I'll say like
(04:25):
what Kirk Cousins said after the game, and it'd be good.
You know, I want you to listen to it very much.
The inverse of of one. I would walk off the
field after we had lost and said, we're playing so well,
we're playing so well, and somehow, some way we lost.
But we're playing at very high level this year. I'm saying, gosh,
we can play better, but we want And it's just
kind of an inverse and uh, I'll take you know
(04:48):
this any day. So he's invoking those salty ghosts of
the Mike Zimmer era. They're getting up, they're getting a
bump here because they're they're closing, but they're not dominant.
And Kirk Cousins he is after the game just like
drenched in diamond chains on the plane, like he's having
a great time. But it's hard for me to picture
(05:09):
the Vikings as the fourth best team in the NFL
when their offense is just like an on and off switch,
like it just goes in these waves. And it was
just so many three and outs. I mean they're during
a certain point in this game, Minnesota had as many
furts downs as they had three and outs. They had seven,
Like this was ten of their fifteen drives ended in
(05:32):
a three and out. Like I just am not totally
sold there. Of course, you know they have a two
game lead in the division. They are one of the
few teams that have five wins. It feels like the
entire league right now is three and three or under
five hundred. But the defense looked good. It's just I
can't I didn't really think that the Vikings were going
(05:52):
to put it all together. And I still feel like
it's almost week three in my mind, like it's too
early to say that they are going to be able
to really put in a push here for the division
with the Packers looking in the way that they are.
But Kevin O'Connell and his first year as a head coach,
is that going to happen? I don't know what's going
on UM with the Vikings in terms of trust level,
(06:15):
UM it part of me does feel the same way
you do, and I think, not to put words in
your mouth, but like that there's probably like a the
inconsistencies probably will lead to that classic Minnesota lose three
in a row or four out of six, and it
kind of brings their record back to where you think
it probably should be. UM, because that's what I think
of them. I think they're good but not great team.
(06:37):
But that's just where we are right now as we
look also elsewhere in Tier one. You know, the Bengals
at five is another example, like, yeah, I really like Cincinnati.
I've been higher. I know there are other off brand
power rankings throughout the media sphere, uh that you don't
really have to pay attention to this power rankings. But
I'm sure if you were to, for I guess just
(06:59):
because you're wasting time, maybe you're in prison and you
have time to kill. I don't know, um you would
you look at my rankings and then look at these
other rankings. My love of the Bengals, or what seems
like love, is probably going to shine above other power rankings.
I've kind of stuck with them through thick and thin
through the start of the season. And what gets him
into the top five is two things. One again winning,
(07:22):
just winning in week six is going to give you
a bump in a very unsettled landscape in the top
half of this league. And two, I thought it was
really good to see two things Joe Mixing looking like
Joe Mixing again, but most importantly Jamaar Chase and Joe
Burrow unlocking that magic, especially in the second half. And
I said with Steve Wich last week Connie that one
(07:42):
of Zach Taylor's jobs heading into New Orleans popped the
hood on this offense and figure out why Jamar Chase
isn't an explosive playmaker, and that's exactly what he was.
My biggest issue is whether or not their offense is
going to be okay now going forward? Have they figured
it out? Is this now the the equation? Is this
what they're going to use going forward? But when you
(08:05):
have one good game and you win by four, like
that's now all of a sudden they're a top five team.
But like you can even say this with the Vikings
because the Vikings outside of like they're only lost the
Vikings was against the Eagles, and they're only dominant win
was Week one against the Packers. So you have just
this like weird water down middle, huge soft underbelly of
(08:29):
the league. And just like with the Vikings, what in
a normal season quote unquote normal season, Cincinnati feels like
a team they would live in that like twelve to
fifteen range, maybe closer to twelve, maybe even eleven. But
the way things are now, they get the W And
I think what kind of drove me to really give
him the bump? Here up for spots is Joe. Joe
(08:50):
Burrow is just so special and I watched I watched
these games and when he's getting better and better, they
were so out of sinc to start the season. The
offensive line was a mess. That's gotten better and better
and it's allowing Burrow to be comfortable and be the
dude that he is. So with t Higgins and Tyler
Boyd and now Jamar Chase unlocked, I could see this
team going off on a bit of a rampage. They
(09:11):
absolutely good, especially when you consider that all three losses
were on game ending field goals. They needed to come
from behind win again this time, but their run defense
is an issue. The Saints ran all over them for
over two hundred rushing yards. Their next game, though, is
against the Falcons, and they got one of the most
(09:31):
surprising wins two of the week. That was just like
another team, right, So that could be an issue coming
up on Sunday, Yes it could and the Falcons. That's
the other thing here, Conny, I was talking about our
friend Dave Damaschek on his podcast on Dave, the teams
that we thought were gonna stink in our league are
better than we thought. And the teams that we thought
(09:53):
were gonna be good or kind of the middle of
the pack. Most of them have come down and that's
created this bizarre situation where you would usually say, oh,
Cincinnati gets to go to Atlanta now, and that's a
good spot for No. The Falcons are certified frisky. They
just beat the Niners, another team that I would have
loved to put up at number four this week. But
then they let me down the Cowboys And this is
(10:13):
probably unprecedented in in uh in the history of the
power rankings since I've been doing it. To move hot
like a big move in the top ten off a loss. Again,
does it feel quite right? No, But at the same time,
you got to look at the landscape of the league.
I thought it was noble. The way they were able
to battle back. The Eagles incredible. You know, they wake
(10:37):
up the well the second quarter. The Eagles have scored
more points through six games in the second quarter than
any team in the history of the NFL. So they
put up twenty in the second quarter that you know,
took a twenty three lead I believe it was into
the second half, and they got the running game going Dallas,
they got some stops on defense, made it an interesting game.
Now Cooper Rush, it's time for Cooper Rush to step
(10:59):
step aside. Good job, a great story, great story, but
you finally saw what would happen when Cooper Rush gets
put in a negative game script and a tough road environment.
Three interceptions. But now Dak Prescott is there are reports
that he is ready to return against the line, so
Dak back to stabilize the offense with one of the
best defenses in football. I felt like you had to
(11:20):
move them up after a good showing against one of
the big three of the Eagles. Well, yeah, and obviously
Cooper Rush has done a great job. He's kept Dallas's
season alive. He's done better than I think most people
expected him to do. He's a good backup quarterback. But
you know they want like a little bit. I feel
like if you watch these Cooper games and I know
you're you're just like I mean, I feel like he did,
(11:43):
he did his job. But also in each of the
last three games, I think he got away with passes
and until the Eagles game, I think if we would
have continued down this path, or if Da God forbid
for Cowboys fans had a setback, it probably wouldn't be
good news. But you're right on balance. He did his job.
I'm sorry, I don't want to be negative. You want
to talk negative about the Cowboys. UM, I am definitely
(12:06):
not here for it. What um? But I think too uh?
Speaking of run defenses that have had some issues. When
the Eagles took over in the fourth for that game
ceiling drive that they had, I mean they ran ten
times on that drive. Every third down was more than
manageable for them. Like four out of the last six games,
(12:28):
the Cowboys defense have allowed over a hundred and twenty
rushing yards. So they have the Lions and the Bears
up next, and both of those teams have top ten
rushing offenses. That could be a major problem. But they
are playing their next four games against the NFC North,
so you know that pretty in an uncertain league, that's
a pretty soft landing space right now. The team right
(12:48):
behind the Cowboys is the Giants, who have lost one
game this season to the Cowboys. Giants, what are the
time for power moves? Presented by Energizer, They're up six
spots uh two, number seven if you look at the
season rank trajectory. Great work by Drew Christensen. Our editor
who who does does incredible work. They started at twenty eight.
(13:11):
I'm just gonna go through week by week as the
old susor has been trying to figure out the Giants
being really good for some reason five and one. They
went from to start the season one nineteen down to
twenty two. After the Cowboys lost in week four nineteen
thirteen seven, they just hang around, Connie. You really didn't
want to take them out of that like ground that
(13:34):
they were in, that like late teens, early twenties. Yeah,
quote unquote normal year. Yeah, they're like a twelve or
thirteen mystery team for me. But in this year they
keep winning. They keep beating teams that I like, like
the Ravens. Another great performance, especially late forcing two turnovers
of Lamar getting the go ahead touchdown of course from
(13:54):
se Kwon Barkley. And again every game ends Connie with
Brian Dable shot from the camera coming off the sidelines,
pumping his fist, pointing to his parents or whoever in
the crowd, and everybody's slapping them on the back. I
know you don't like the Giants either. Story here in
the middle. I'm fair, I'm balanced. I will give people
(14:15):
props when they deserve it, and it hard for you
even to say, no, I'm not. I'm serious. The Giants
have been fun to watch, and I'm going to get like,
you know, strike me down, like just the skeleton next
to me of the studio. It's It's true, I am
guilty of watching uh wink Martindale and the defense looking
(14:38):
really good, especially against Lamar Jackson and his former team,
and you know that he just wanted that win so bad.
And somehow this offense is they're creatively making it work
and they don't have any receivers. They just have se
Quan Like. I don't know how long they can go
on with this formula, but they're doing it now and
(14:59):
they have wins over the Packers and the Ravens. So
then it's kind of like, well, should they be higher
or are we not using the Packers as a measuring
stick anymore? Where Where does that fall? I think it's
fair to ask. I think again, as the season takes
shape and we understand how unpredictable this whole thing is.
(15:20):
A team like the Giants, well coached, with a superstar
running back, an improved offensive line, and a defensive coordinator
who's getting the very most out of his defense. That's
gonna win games in a league with a lot of
teams that are kind of in the middle, They're gonna
win a lot of close games this year. I don't
think that's flukey. I'm kind of buying in now that
this could be, you know, a ten eleven win Giants team.
(15:41):
So that's why they are where they are. And the Ravens,
by the way, what are we doing Ravens? You know
they are up to three losses in which they had
led by at least ten points at some point in
a game that matches a team record. It's Week six,
it's it's not going well for the Ravens like this.
This is an ugly, ugly loss, and Jackson has a
(16:05):
lot to answer for it. I mean, this was one
of his his worst Lamar show. Lamar blew that game.
But John Harbo needs to get some heat too, because
blowing all these games not a good look. Let's check
out Tier two, as we call it, I call a
quadrant number two. I don't know if that makes sense.
Buccaneers at nine down three, that's something off in the mix.
(16:25):
Uh down in Tampa the Chargers, I don't know what
to do with the charge charges another one, you know,
beat up on Denver on Monday night football, and maybe
even I'll slide you up at four and two to
the number four spot, but not even close. The defense
was fine, but the offense. Niners down seven to eleven,
which might seem like a big drop, but there's a
lot of injuries to that defense that are now really
(16:46):
affecting the bottom line. Rams up three with a win
over the Panthers. The Jets, my Jets up four. I
thought I showed some good like discipline here, not to
go two nuts after beating the Packers and Lambeau all
the way up to thirteen. Tightens down three to fourteen
on a buy tough luck. But things are weird right now.
Packers down seven to fifteen, which is as low as
(17:07):
they've ever been since I've done this in four years,
and the Raiders also sitting on a bye. They just
get shifted a little bit, uh due to I was
wondering about the wondering machinations are match mashing it? I
think it's machinations, I think, But anyway, the I was
wondering how you approached bye weeks in your rankings now
that we had the first first bye weeks last week
(17:30):
another one. Obviously we like what happens. This once again
shows the instability of NFL right now that usually almost
always with a bye week, I never move a team.
I either lock them into their spot or they get
dropped one or raised one um based on what's going
on around the team. But things are so strange now
and fluid that bye weeks teams are moving around, which
(17:53):
is an unintended after effect of a very strange I
feel like you you kind of told me at the
beginning of the season about your number thirteen slot and
how that is just like a weird, kind of mystical
place for teams to be. You don't really know what
that team is, but I feel like just a full
the full middle of your power rankings are team. There's
(18:17):
a lot of miss I just I stuck the We'll
get to the Jets in a second. Let's start with
the Bucks. The Bucks are at nine. There's a lot
wrong um with the Bucks. Why just don't they don't
seem to have a lot of juice right now. The offense,
it's so hard offense to gain yards and score points,
which nobody predicted. They just keep imploding in the red zone.
(18:39):
Like nothing about this offense is tapped in, like their
their pepper, spraying themselves with penalties and mistakes, like they
can't get out of their own way. Brady can't even
get a yard on a sneak anymore. Like it is.
That was kind of like the moment it is going
on here, and it's just it's kind of weird and
sad to watch. And then we saw Tom Brady freaking
(19:01):
out on the sideline. I mean, we've seen that before,
but now it just seems a little different, knowing what
we know about what's going on in his personal life
and then seeing his professional life with the way that
the Bucks are performing. I don't know what's wrong with
the Bucks offense, but him, him and Godwin are not
on the same page at all. There's just so many miscommunications. Yeah,
(19:23):
and of course everything now is being examined with Brady,
who goes to Robert Kraft's birthday party turned wedding surprise
wedding surprise wedding on Friday, misses a team walked through
on Saturday as a result, which and then is uncharacteristically
inaccurate and Sunday's game, uh, leading to Todd Bowles having
(19:43):
to answer questions about whether Brady's treated different, Well, of
course he's treated different. He's Tom Brady. But that's never
a good look. UM. So we have a situation Brady,
and I was sending out tweets about gotta be better,
We'll be ready to go Sunday with It's not just him,
it's other players on the team. In the photo, Um,
I think his frustration is palpable. You see it, You
(20:04):
see the pressure on and we can't get in his
head and figure out what else is going on behind
the scenes. But I think you could connect some dots
that this has been a very difficult a few months
for Mr Brady, and think about what this Tampa often
struggled against Pittsburgh defense without t J. Watt, the reigning
defensive player of the Year, and without three of its
starting cornerbacks, and they couldn't get it done. It makes
(20:28):
me wonder if Pittsburgh has figured out how to get
pressure without t J. Watt. But also it makes me
even more concerned about this Bucks team and the fact
that their old line is having major issues. We knew
that's been a storyline since training camp. Their rookie guard
is having major growing pains and that's messing them up.
With Leonard Fournett in the backfield not having any time
(20:50):
like he's getting swarmed. I think they'll grind it out.
And I think because their defense is still very good.
The defense overall, with the one blip of the Kansas
City primetime game a couple of weeks ago, has been
as good as advertised. I think they'll be okay, but
I think it's a little to a grind and surprising
also a grind the Niners um and as I said,
they dropped look further than I would have usually because
(21:13):
you at a certain point you can't look the other way.
On how many injuries. Um, they were down to four
of eleven of their eleven projected starters on their defense
by the end of the loss of the Falcons. And
I saw, and I know, uh, Greg Rosenthal on around
the NFL pointed to Marcus Mario or excuse me, Jimmy
(21:35):
Garoppolo in this offense not being built to play from behind.
I I see that. But they also had a couple
of big misses on players that could have put them
back in the game, on catching run balls, which is
what they're all about there. The act bros. The real
thing is this defense, which is you're seeing the cracks
now because they've simply lost too many key players. That's
they're they're just way too wounded right now and the
(21:55):
team is not built to accommodate that whatsoever. None this
is at the end, like you said, there was only
four healthy defensive starters to end game. Eleven of twenty
two starters were missing, like this was. This was a
mess for them. And when you don't have guys like
Nick Bosa and Eric Armstead coming in, like you're going
(22:15):
to give up a season high twenty eight points to
fon Galanta who hadn't been doing anything offensively. No, they
looked very competent, the Falcons. Uh. In fact, there a
team to keep an eye on in a wide open league.
The Packers, as we talked about the Packers are kind
of a mess. They're kind of sloppy. Uh. Speaking around
the NFL, we have a new trope where we tracked
(22:37):
the teams that when things are going bad, either offensive
or defensively, go to the media and say, well, it's
time to simplify things in their play calling or their scheme.
And it's usually kind of a indirect shot, a transparent
indirect shot at the coaching staff's ability to lead. I'm
not saying there's a you know, uprising a foot in
(22:59):
frustration is real. So keep an eye on what's going
on with the Packers. They have all the way down
to fifteen, and they just looked non competitive against Yes,
the Jets, who I have at fourteen, and I again,
I try to have some at thirteen. Yes, I try
to have discipline. Uh with my favorite team one way
(23:20):
or the other, whether they're really bad or really good.
Not to be too emotional about it. Uh, but the
Jets with this young team, and I love the new
Moniker of the baby Jets, they expect to win. Now
those winds that seem like Lucky Flukey wins against Cleveland
and then Pittsburgh, that kind of that was the base.
And then they blew out the Dolphins in the fourth
(23:41):
quarter in a game that got really tight and you
could see the switch flip. So by the time they
got to Green Bay, they expected to win. Sauce Gardner
expects to win, Breeze Hall expects to go over a
hundred yards rushing, They expect to get to the quarterback,
and they destroyed Aaron Rodgers and that offensive line. Quentin
Williams is playing like an All Pro and leading a
(24:02):
really strong UH front for front seven. It's it's all
there Connie for the Jets, while they need Connie because
I'm again I'm trying to quarter. I need to see
more from the quarterback. If Zach Wilson matures and develops,
they could be the Bengals. They really could. But that's
(24:22):
a big gasque because he's not Joe Burrow right now,
not even close. But they're they're getting get done. Three
straight wins and the Packers and Dolphins wins like this
was they beat them by a combined score of sixty
seven to seven, like and I just want to say
a lot of Jets fans in my mentions, they're not
happy that I haven't picked the Jets. I apologize this
(24:45):
is not a personal thing, but I think now I
have to start picking the Jets because I'm starting to
believe in them. And Sauces is the one that's that's
making me do it. Like I love the energy, the
swag of wearing the cheese head, throwing his arms up
like he's in Rome at the Colosseum. That came after
Reese Hall jumped into the Lambeau leap after his touchdown
(25:08):
run that basically sealed the game. That's swag. That's stuff
that we haven't seen as Jet sans since Bart Scott
was interviewed by Sal Pal at Foxboro in the two
thousand ten playoffs and said, can't wait, Like the Jets
believe look out this is. There were so many aspects
of their game that shined, Like the running game came
up huge, as you just mentioned with Breecee Hall. They
(25:30):
had two rushing touchdowns, the defense was swarming, four total sacks.
Special teams even got in there with the block punt
and a field goal like this was. This was a fun,
fun watch, And I feel like a lot of times
these teams, you know, people make a little too much
about like, oh, they have that swag, but honestly, that's
(25:51):
a lot of times what the sea, especially with a
young team, and they get the Broncos next, who are
a disaster on offense and in past protection, and Russ
isn't seeing the field? Am I gonna lock up the Jets?
Something around the NFL pock just just my all right,
let's take a break and hit the back half of
the thirty two teams of our league. You're right back,
(26:31):
all right, Welcome back to the power ranking is presented
by Energized. So let's go through seventeen through the third quadrant.
Patriots up four spots and looking frisky as seventeen. Falcons
up four spots, up to eighteen after taking out the
forty nine. Isn't really out playing them while they did it.
The Saints down three spots to nineteen, Seahawks up four spots,
(26:51):
the twenty, the Cults up seven spots to one, the
Steelers up five after Mitch Drabinsky saved the day. Uh
to number twenty two, the Dolphins down five to three,
and the brown goes after another grim prime time performance
by their offense, clock in down one spot. Uh. Let's
(27:13):
start here with the Patriots. I am um, I'll take
a little victory lap on this one. Connie Zappy Fever.
I have a lot of respect for what Bailey Zappy
has done here. But there was so much talk entering
the season about the Patriots losing the plot in terms
of their philosophy and their understanding of what scheme and
(27:35):
and continuity and and the idea of installing a new
offensive game plan without Josh McDaniels. And you know, having Matt,
Patricia and Joe Judge in the building, what did you like?
My god? Bill Belichick is doing it all because he
is the greatest coach of all time. He tied George
Allis for career wins with a dominating showing against the Browns.
(27:58):
And yes, Bailey z Appy he gets a ton of
credit the fourth round pick in place of Mac Jones. Connie.
Belichick has a huge role in that as well, with
of course Patricia and Judge. To a certain extent, he's
playing like a veteran in his third start, like a
good veteran. Yeah. And you know who didn't go to
Robert Croft's wedding surprise wedding. It wasn't Bailey Zappy. It
(28:22):
wasn't Bill Belichick either, because he had to prepare for
this game, and Zappy was prepared. Kind of fascinating, right,
Like Buill didn't go, Bill was like I got work,
Tom went, Buill didn't go. Bill still is with the Patriots.
Bill didn't go. Yeah, he had he had the Browns
(28:44):
to prepare for. That's not a great look for I
know it's not. But the Patriots, Hey, they look good
and I like the fact that they've they have simplified
things for Bailey z Appy and it has worked. There's
like a lot of short throws. You're not hearing any
of the players saying. It's very different between that eternally
being the case and players being like, we need to
(29:04):
simple five. Ucially a quarterback to to Rogers caliber like
that is no good. So the Patriots, obviously Zappi looked good.
And then the defense they forced Brissette into three turnovers,
They limited the Browns rushing offense like that was a
full effort by them. I mean, are they are the
Packers better than the Patriots? I don't know. I don't
(29:29):
really know what imagine. Imagine me telling you that we
would be having this conversation back in August. No, that's why,
I don't know why we even have conversations in August.
I don't know why. Yeah, August exists at this office. Um.
Speaking of quarterbacks that are surprising us this year, Gino
Smith and the Seahawks. They come in at number twenty,
up four spots from twenty four. And yes, I tease
(29:51):
it with Gino, but what was interesting about the latest
Seahawks win. It was it wasn't about Gino that that
that defense actually stepped up. I think a lot of
that connects Connie to how bad the Cardinals in and
that horrendous scheme with Cliff King's barry. It's good, but
credit where credit is due. The Seahawks getting stops In
quarterback Threek Woolen is a Rookie of the Year candidate.
(30:13):
Four interceptions in four games, including the clincher uh against
Hollywood Brown, who got hurt on that play as well.
He recovered the fumble to Tyreek Woolen like this was
their rookies first of all are really standing out like
they had a great draft. But the defense, I've been
waiting the entire season, the all all five games I've
(30:34):
been waiting and then games six that showed up. It's like, Connie,
where are you, like you were supposed to meet me today? No, no, no,
I'm still waiting for the Seattle Seahawks defense. They haven't
showed up yet. So um yeah, I was just like
stranded for a while waiting for them to pick me up.
And finally he said you'd meet me at the dog Park. No,
Seattle Seahawks defense hasn't arrived. It's all their fault. I
(30:57):
blame them for everything, but they won Seattle. The game
like that was, they allowed zero touchdowns to the card offense.
The only touchdown that game was on special teams, like
they sacked Kyler six times. This was. This was every
time that Arizona went for it on fourth down, which
I don't know why they kept doing because like, nope, yeah,
(31:23):
I don't know if I'm not I'm holding on the
Seattle uprising on defense and more opinning it on the
Cardinals stink um right now. Um. But at the same time,
I'm sure Pete slept well. This is the grand plan
which we were all like, I don't know what the
Seahawks are doing, and the grand plan in Indianapolis that
matt Ryan would come and stabilize that offense. And it
hasn't really been the case until I was waiting, all Dan,
(31:47):
come on your son, he's it's his graduation. No, no,
I'm waiting for the Colts offense to hit its stride.
It did happen on Sunday with a three hundred eighty
nine yard performance of three touchdowns and forty fifty eight
passing for Mattie Ice. But the most important thing, I thought,
fifty eight dropbacks, no sacks against the Jaguars, which says
(32:10):
a lot about Jacksonville and you know, Trayvon Walker and
what was supposed to be a better defense. But it
does tell you that maybe Frank Reich has something starting
to fall into place for the Cults because it looks
so bad. I was really starting to worry about Frank
Reich and I was even and you love yourself from
some Frank Reich. Yeah, I was thinking to myself after
(32:31):
the game or before the game on Sunday, all right,
if they lose this game, like, are we going down
a path where Frank Reich he's going to get fired
and then ultimately next season he's going to join Doug
Peterson in Jacksonville and go to like the enemy. I
had this whole thing in my head. But what's it
like inside your head? So busy? There's just so much
(32:51):
stuff always happening, disorganized up there is something you can do,
like to Rex, like in general? Is there anything you
do like the past time? I don't know. It could
help you just sleeping, I think, but even that's difficult. Um,
So I have started figure skating again and that works.
How is it physically awesome? Is your is your body
(33:12):
able to return to that? It has been so amazing.
Seems hard. I thought so too, and that's why I
kind of avoided skating for a while because I was
worried and afraid to see where I was. And I've
gone like three times now and I'm almost back to
exactly where I was. Like, um, I'm working on my
(33:33):
doubles already. I'm doing like spins all of it. So
it's great anyway. The cults, yeah, they look great with
no Jonathan Taylor or Nahem Hines too, so like you know,
you can always they'll be okay, they'll be in that
race in December. Uh. Finally it's stuck with the Broncos. Uh,
you know the thing that was so disappointing, and God,
all these island games with Denver. It's absurd how many
(33:56):
times America has been forced to sit down and watch it.
How much longer will we have to go through this?
It starts with Russell Wilson completing his first ten passes
is including that thirty nine yard touchdown pass to Greg
del Chitz, and it was like, okay, alright, finally, and
I am not saying this is all at all? Is
a Russell Wilson, fantasy owner. That's not where any of
(34:16):
this is coming from. And then snap your fingers and
I was it. That was another dispiriting, gruesome displayoff offense
for Russell Wilson, the highly paid trade import and Nathaniel Hackett,
the head coach who was the quarterback guru under Aaron Rodgers.
That feels like a long time ago. You want to
(34:37):
talk about who is a head coach and a ton
of danger right now? It is Nathaniel Hackett. I know
it's his first year, but look out with new ownership
there and this team completely lost. This was another Broncos
tragedy that we had to watch and it's just becoming
too much. But it is so weird to see Russell
(34:58):
Wilson look the way that he does like this is
I thought this was an m v P caliber quarterback
who every year we're like, oh, he's never gone an
m v P vote, And you know, look at all
the things he can do. He's still in his peak.
He's still in his prime. He can make things happen.
He's fourth quarter come back you know, come back king
all the time. I don't know I was gonna say
(35:20):
come backing all of the time and then yeah, come back, king,
I told you there's a lot going on in the brain.
Um it's Wilson. Everyone wants to put everything on Wilson.
A lot of it's on Wilson, and you could even
you know, Troy was calling him out on the ESPN
crew for missing some reads that he should have made.
(35:41):
But god, the scheme is really rough to the there's
just right, you know. Aigman also called out some of
the routes that were being run is just being subpar.
And those third downs? How many third downs? Third in
medium's third and longs where Wilson takes the snap and
maybe for people that are more like strategically inclined than I, uh,
(36:02):
you could point out that's on the quarterback too. He
should have been recognizing certain things. But as soon as
the ball snapped, there's four guys darting at Wilson and
the plays over before it starts. It's just a broken offense.
The defense is great, but the offense is the worst.
They were They were just blowing up Wilson like play
after play. And not only that, but they haven't committed
(36:25):
to the run, so they're not really putting Wilson. They
don't have anyone, I mean, and Gordon looking so sad
on the sideline, wishing for a revenge game. Never gotten anyone,
Williams out for the year, You're you're using Latavius Murray, who,
let's be honest, is just not an impact player at
this stage of his career. And yeah, Melvin Gordon didn't
(36:46):
feel bad for him. He said after the game, it
really hurt to a kind of be benched and not
kindo be be benched essentially. And then the bad job
by the Chargers who were putting them up in the
screen with that's awful. Let's cleaning up the game day operation.
They don't like that at all. But also he wasn't
given any type of heads up either, like at halftime,
so he was just kind of sitting there waiting for this.
(37:10):
I hate that for him. The second half and overtime
for Denver fifteen yards passing, twenty four yards lost on
sacks alone. Tier four, let's start with the Browns at
(37:39):
down five spots. They're not very good, the Browns, and
it's the defense that's the reason why the Cardinals down
seven to twenty six. A very tough why. There's some
real tough watches in this group, this whole group is
just like down. Yeah, the Jaguars down to to Trevor
Lawrence got off the mat a little bit there, but
the defense took a step back. As I said, with
(38:00):
the Colts, the Lions on the by down two to
the Bears commit enders, Texans, and Panthers round out the list.
They don't move at all. The Browns yeah, like I said, um,
Joe Woods, an events coordinator, could be in trouble here
because the scheme is not working. They're not getting stops.
The Patriots with with a third string quarterback. Let's keep
(38:21):
let's remember that it was Brian Hoyer replacing Mac Jones
and then Bailey's Appy just shredded them. Uh and they
they're bad against the run. And then you've got Nick
Chub getting twelve carries in that game, which just like
the whole thing, it feels a little off with Cleveland,
a little off. It's a lot off. The Browns. The
fact that they are two and four after facing as
you mentioned, Bailey's Appy, Marcus Mariota, Mitchell Trobiskie, Joe Flacco,
(38:47):
and Baker Mayfield, Like this is not okay. And when
you look at their schedule they're getting ready to go
up against Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow to a Josh Allen
and Tom Brady. So things are bad now, but they
could get a lot worse. They could get a lot worse. But,
like you know the theme that we were talking about
the beginning of this episode, he also don't know, like
(39:09):
all these teams are kind of pretty close. Could they
put it together and make some changes. Maybe they need
to simplify the playbook on defense and the scheme and
that could get them better. They still have Nick Chubb,
who is arguably the best running back in football. Give
him the rock, don't put Jake Brisket and at a
place where he could be exposed like he was against
Bill Belichick, which was his you know something you could
(39:31):
see coming from a million miles away right behind the Browns.
Excuse me, let's finished by talking about the Cardinals, who, um,
I don't know what they're gonna do now. Marky's Hollywood
Brown As we saw on that interception that that ice
the game for Seattle, suffers a foot injury that's gonna
knock him out for multiple weeks. They pivot and trade
(39:52):
for Robbie Anderson, and I just gotta be honest with you.
I this is not I don't want to get on
Robbie Anderson, but I don't know if this is a
good spot for Robbie Anderson. Who's a guy who's known
to show his frustration both on the sideline and with
a coaching staff when the ball is not coming his way,
and now he's going to an offense where they have
no idea how to get the ball to their wide receivers.
(40:12):
He is a streaker. He's a guy that not he
doesn't get nude and run on the field or maybe
he has, yeah, but he's a guy who can beat
you deep, and that's what they need in their offense.
You have DeAndre Hopkins. He's coming back this week, but
losing Hollywood is a big thing. He was like the
only good story on this offense this year. Yeah, well,
they at first feared it was season ending for Hollywood
(40:34):
and he'll be hopefully he'll be back six weeks. It
looks like four to six weeks um. And then when
they have DeAndre Hopkins back, I think that that will
change things because he's such a game changer. But how much. Honestly,
at this point, I don't know how much the return
of DeAndre Hopkins is going to matter if it's going
to save them that much. Like there's just too much
(40:56):
wrong with this team and there's not enough talent, I
think to make a difference. That's well said, Connie, And
that is a look at the League of thirty two.
And as I said, check it out on NFL dot
com slash Power Rankings for the full rundown that I
put together. Uh, it is the Big three and a
(41:17):
whole lot of let's see pretty much. That's where we are.
Thank you for everybody for listening and watching. And remember
we're here every Tuesday trying to figure this thing out. Cutty,
come on, we'll be back, maybe with more answers, maybe
probably more questions. Till next week later. NFL Power Rankings
(41:44):
as a production of the NFL in partnership with I
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
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