NFL Mid Way Power Ranking. 1-17.
The Screen flashed And buzzed, Seemingly. With The Alertness Of A Lightning Strike And Then A sudden Shudder. A Gasp, Followed by A Break In Action. Followed By A Climatic thud. Then The Game Was Practically Over. Tom Brady And all His Mythical Might It stunted And So Too Sis The Bucs Comeback Bid Against The Saints. A Late 4th Quarter Interception That The word “Uncharacteristic” can Only Begin To Elucidate. Resulting To A Pick-six And A Loud Blow. Brady’s Rapport With His Number 1 Wide Receiver Mike Evans, Is Not There. This Adds Another Wrinkle To be Smoothen Out. The Road To Repeat, Appear Clearer Than It was Two Months Ago, But Now Obstacles and New terrain Make For A Added Obstacle Along the Course.
The First Quarter NFL Season, when The Bright Untainted Lights Adorn Our Summer Muses, The Teams, With A “Virgin’s Glow.” Teams Charge Forth, out Of The Offseason. Complete With health And Vitality, Rumbling Through The Tunnels unto The Field Into Our Living rooms Or In front of Fans In Stands, Claiming The Field’s Home Once Again —The Only Time I’m Overwhelm With Envy—And Into The Heart And then Unto Our Note Pads, Forever The Objects Of Our Affections. (So Dreamy). This Is The Part Where I Write Sonnet About It All, instead I'll Defer To These Stats And Play-By-Play Background That Read With Ease And Study Of Shakespearean Portentousness.
In The Beginning Team’s Are Channeling The Scribes And Inner Spirit Of Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, “Allow Me To reintroduced Myself, My Name Is….” The second Quarter Is When They Come Out Channeling Their Inner Aubrey “Drake” Graham, “I Stop Asking Myself and Started Feeling themselves” Unless Your Outside Of The Top 10, The It's Back To Jigga “it’s a Hard Knock Life for Us’.
The Past 4 weeks Has to Unearth some Truths. Who Is Playing Their Best Now? Who’s Gauging to Play Their Best come, Winter. And Those Treading on Thin Ice. The Raiders Lose ground In the AFC, Then Lose Their Head Coach. “I Didn’t Have To cut the Tie; It Severed Itself.” Week Seven Closed. The AFC Power Brokers Were “Playing Musical Chairs with These Squares.” I Can Hear The Chimes Of NFL Pundit Crying “come Back Baby” As The Watch The Chiefs Descent Into Madness. If Only To Forgo Having To BackTrack, every Time We Proclaim The Bills, Ravens Or Titans The Best In The AFC That The Formality Of A Dominant chiefs Made Formulaic Work Of The Constants Shuffling.
Come Week Eight, It was All DMX, “Y’all Gone Make Me Lose My Mind.”
The Cardinal Took Home Their First Lost In A Bizarre Fashion With There Now Being No Unbeaten Teams. Two HOT NFC teams, But Neither Appear Dominant. A Toppled Bucs, That Is For The Most Right Where They Were Last. The AFC Needs New Management Its All NFC Holding The keys And Driving The Playoff Push.
All Stats, Grades, Storylines Are Of Week 8, A Courtesy Of The Usual Suspects, Profootballfocus And ESPN, Unless Otherwise Stated—Guess What, It's Not Otherwise Stated.
Enjoy!
1. Green Bay Packers. 7-1
“You Know What I’m Hot.” That’s Seven in A Row and Counting. But If There Anything That can Humble Momentum, Its Human fragility. I Don’t Believe Anybody Can testify They considered the Packers Finished After Week One. Three Points The Product Of A Team With two MVP Caliber Candidates Couldn’t Be The Reality for This Team. I Don’t Think Anybody, Can Honestly Testify That Rodgers Had Lost All His shuddering Field tilting Passing Abilities. Since Their Three-Point Against The Saints, The Packers have Scored 189 On A 27 Average Per Offer in The Last 7. The Biggest Win Game week 8 Against Incomparable odds. The Against The Cards It took A Wire To wire Performance To Knock of The Only remaining Undefeated Squad in the NFL. Minus Devante Adams And Whomever those Arms And Legs Who Line Up Parallel to Him Along the Line The Scrimmage, i.e., Marquez Valdez-Scantling and Allen Lazard. Of course, It Showed Rodgers Finished With 184,22/37, 2 touchdowns 5.0 Per Attempt. The Offense Has Slowed To A Crawl. An Average Of 24 Points Per Contest Over The Last Three. One Caveat to All this winning Dishing Out. With the exceptions Of The Cardinal's win, Now The Packers haven’t faced A team Projected to be In The Playoffs since The Saints, who were And Still Are On the Middle Ground As Far as “contenders” Are concerned. The Cards Game Was a Fortunate turn Of A Events For A Packers Team Entering True Mid-season Form. But The Packers Won’t Be Creeping Up On Teams Moving Going Forward.
2. Dallas Cowboys. 6-1
3. Arizona Cardinals. 7-1
4. Los Angeles Rams. 7-1
“No Hype Real Thing.” Lately, The rams Have Been Getting All of the Hoopla. Are they the Best Team In the League? Matthew Stafford Continued His Brilliant Inaugural Season In LA Sunday. Stafford Crossed the Jordan And Breaking The “Chasm” Through And Out Of Detroit, the Former Number Overall Pick Has Found Himself Along the Way To Unfamiliar territory. Not Only Are The Rams grasping At A 98% Chance To Make The Playoffs, But Also the 6th Best odds to win the Superbowl. Still Are They Good. The Rams Haven’t Tasted Defeat In Four Weeks—Fresh Off Of Some brutal thrashing Of The Lions And Texans. Now LA’s Good Team, There is Only One Good Team In LA Preparing For A Weekend Showdown With the Titans t. Stafford, He’s Favored To win MVP. Why? The Georgia Product Holds The Helms Of The Second Highest Rated offense In The NFL. This Offense Has Produced The 3rd Most Points In the League (245 in 8 Weeks). Chief Component Of That Offense, The Passing Game, Good For, 4th Best Passing Attack. In The Weeks Pass, there Have Been Mounting Threats To Stafford Status As The League’s MVP. But After Passing for 334 yards and three touchdowns against his former team, The Lions, Stafford Is Putting forth An Incontrovertible Argument For The League’s Premiere Hardware. Stafford Followed That Impressive Performance By dwarfing A Mostly inept Texans Team in every way in a 38-22 win Sunday, for 305 yards and three touchdowns in three quarters. Wide Receiver Cooper Kupp Is Doing Whatever He Wishes With the Opposing Teams Secondary. Kupp’s Production Is Garnering enough Acclaim As-Is. I See No Reason To Expound On All The History Behind His Tallies For The Season; They Are Impressive, And The Position Of wide receiver Will never Be the Same, statistically. It's Not All Stafford and Stats For The Ram,s Though. The Defense Is Rated And Its ridiculous. The Team Is 1st In Sacks Despite All-Pro Aaron Darnold Having A Quiet Season. Darnold Ahs recorded 6 Sacks in 8 Games. The team Sack Leader In Leonard Floyd, the Long Time Chicago Bear With Eight. Third is Sebastian Taylor-Joy, With 3, And A Number Guys With 2 And So Forth. Former All-Pro Von Miller Hasn’t Recorded his First Snap For His New Team yet, But By Credit Alone, This is The Best Pass Rush In The league On Paper. The Coverage Unit, Lead By Jalen Ramsey, Is Good, Not Great.
Ramsey’s Presence Alone Alters Anything The Oppose Teams Intends To employ With the Rams Are On The Schedule. Back To Kupp And Ultimately The Answer To My Question. For All The Gaudy Number, And Gaudy Is Not And Overstatement, Kupp Is At Best A Number Two wide Receiver On Any Other team. He is Exceptional between Short And Intermediate Yardage. Kupp’s Eats up Snaps Primarily In The Slot where He Takes Some 67% Of His Snap with The Other shares Of His Snap Worked On The Outside Tight Formations. Because So, Opposing Kupps Hasn’t Been Many Elite corners Back. The Singular Corner Kupp’s Has Faced Off Against With credits To His Name Is Perhaps Adoree Jackson of The Giants. He, Jackson, Ranks 15th According to pro football focus And Held Kupp To 1 Catch For 3 yards When They Line Up Opposite One Another. Which Bring Me to my Penultimate Point. Stafford The Ram Haven't Faced As Stiff A Competition In the NFC, As Say the Cards, Bucs Over In The Packers. They Had The 2nd weakest Schedule To this Point, Though that’s Set to Change. Saved only By The Week 4 Win Against the Bucs And The Lost To The Cardinals, Otherwise, The Rams have Beaten the Giants, Lions, Seahawks, Chicago. Not Many Top 10 Teams For What I could Tell, Strength Of Schedule Is Not As Paramount In the Pros As In College But There Is Another Knock Against The Rams. The Rams Needed The Last Minute Blunder, Or Favor, By Jared Goff To Outlast the Lions and The Defense Surrender 22 Points In The Final 10 Or More Minutes of Week 8’s Matchup To The Aforementioned Woeful Texans--Albeit in Garbage time. Finally, And Perhaps Most Damming. The Rams Have A Thin Depth Chart, Underscore By Fact That They Texans Out Paced the Team Once The Starters Sat Through the Rest of the Game. Behind, Or Along with Side Kupp, At Wide Receiver Would Be Robert Woods and Van Jefferson, Not exactly world Beaters. The Primary Tight end Is Tyler Higbee. The Running Game Is Mediocre. An Injury To Any of The team starters Could Prove Cataclysmic.
5. Baltimore Ravens. 5-2
6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 6-2
“ The Game Of Chess is Like A Sword-Fight. You Must Think First Before You move” There is A Shock value, In the Moment that Needs To be rationalized and Then Subside Before You Dig Into The Underworking of A Game. That’s The reality Of A, The Superbowl Favorite Falls In Some Deafening Fashion. Tom Brady Had A Uncharacteristically Sloppy Game, two interceptions, One That ended The Game. The Hall A Famers Was Off Point On His Reads, Even When He Faced Relative Pressure, Which is Also Uncharacteristic. But After Sundays Loss, You Study The Team And The Tape, And You Think, ‘That’s Ok.’ The Saints Have from time Been the impetus For Some Besetting Sins In The Golden Child. They Beat The Bucs Twice Last Season. If Anything, this Game Prove That They are Already Dominant Bucs Team Has Some More To Work To do; More Ground to Tread. Brady Failed to Connect With Mike Evans On Three Crucial throws, One Of which was Late In-Game, Ahead Of The Throw, That Resulted in the Game Finishing interception. Credit The Saint’s Corner For Disrupting Brady’s peerless Timing. The Absence Of Antonio Brown Has Become More The Capacious Revelation For And His Brady’s Inconsistent rapport With The Other Lot Of receivers That Compose The walls Of Tampa Dreaded Offensive Chamber. Chris Godwin Had A stellar Game, eight reception For 140. The Passes offense Produced One Of Its worse Grades This Season, And It Took A Wire-to-Wire Performance By A Good Team To Dispel The champs. The Lost Could Be A Good Omen for The Bucs. Their Last Lost To The Saints Precipitated Their Run On The Playoffs In route To A Championship.
7. Tennessee Titans. 6-2
I Don’t Want To Say, But You Cannot convince Me Otherwise. You Cannot Be A Superbowl Contender if Your Best Player Is A Running Back. It won't Happen In This Era Of XLR8 At warp Speed. Given Unstoppable. Kevlar’d. Indomitable. Steamroller. King. These Are A Few of The epithets That Combine To forge Derrick Henry. Another Year Breaking Tackles and Breaking Record Put Henry, The Reigning Offensive Player Of The Year, In The MVP Conversation. A Might Prospect So “Unfathomable” It Made The Prospect of Henry Repeating His 2000 Yard Look Marginal In Most respects. Of course, As We learn Form Stephen King’s Novel, 11/22/63--A Personal Favorite Of Mine. When We Fight To Rewrite History, History Fights Back. Henry Broke the fifth Metatarsal In His Foot, And The Best Back In The League Is Going To Shelved, Favorable Projections; he Returns near the end of The Season as the titans Prepare For The Playoffs. Realistically, the Prognosis is not So Generous. Henry’s Absents Does More Than Just Impact The Tennessee Offense Its Transforms It. Tennessee has one Of The Lowest Ranking Passing offenses of Any top 10 team, 21st. The Counterpoise This Dearth Of Air Yards By Controlling Time Of Possession, Which Affords Them The Luxury Of Running An Inordinate Amount Of Plays Per games. The Titans Are the top 5 In Both Categories. The Yards Per Play Average Is Flat. Their Opponents Out Gain Them On Average. Converting Better On Third Down Is going To be Paramount with Henry in Tow. Thankfully The AFC South Is a division Of the Team’s Cannibalizing Themselves.
8. Buffalo Bills. 5-2.
9. Las Vegas Raiders. 5-2
10. New Orleans Saints. 5-2
The Saints Are Coming off A crucial win Against the Bucs This Sunday. At 5-2, A Far More Propitious Insignia in An NFC Where Its Clear 4 wins Through 8 Weeks won't cut It. From Here On They Are Going To Be Without Starter Quarterback Jameis Winston For The reminder Of The Season, After He Suffered A Knee Injury, Midway Through Sunday’s Win. Gracefully, The Saints Haven’t Had To Lean on Their Passing Offense. An aspect of Their Offense That Only Averages 50 More Yards Than the Last place Bears. With Less Than 50% Of Their Plays Ran, This Season Being Passes. The Saints Haven’t been Leaning Much On Offense Capability At All. The Rushing Game Is ranked 9th Overall, It Makes Up for The next 50 Plus Percent of Plays, But Alvin Hasn’t Eclipse 500 yards Yet for The Season. He’s Only Pushing 3.7 Yards Per Play; Winston was Only A Warm Improvement Over The Second option, Trevor Siemen. How Much Further Are The Saints Willing Lean On Their Top 10 defense And Their Sickeningly Stifling Corners.
11. Cincinnati Bengals. 5-3
“Be Humble, Sit Down.” Its Lesson Learned But There Is Allows Room In The Curriculum Vitae For Another Lesson: Buy Not Into the Hype Of Young Teams. The Bengals Have A S Strong Second quarter Of The Season In the Works, and By No Means Does Sunday’s Embarrassing, And I Mean, embarrassing, Loss To The Jets, Cage The Cats.
12. New England Patriots 4-4
Don’t Look Now the Patriots Are Still In the Playoff Picture. Mac Jones Continues to Outperform His Rookie counterparts. This broad receiver Group Is the Best roster that Has Deployed In Years. The Pats Are Still Facing So Stiff Odds To beat To Reach The Second Season, But After Beating The Chargers
13. Los Angeles Chargers.5-3
It Saddens me. It Does, but I’m Going To levy the DMX On these Chargers. Excuse the violence. “Didn't want to kill him, so instead of putting the Mac on him, I did the only thing I could do, turn my back on him.” I’m Bailing Out on the Chargers As of This Post. There Is Still A Strong Chance For them to Make A rush The playoffs, 53% According To ProfootballFocus.com, But those Final wild Card A lot Are Going To Be Hotly Contested Come December. This Declarative Shift In Allegiance, the Likes of which we May Not Have Seen Since Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, is only In Partly A Credit to the Lost to Against To New England Patriots This Sunday, 27-24. The Chargers Have Bumped Me Out Since Week 7, Being Eviscerated By The Ravens. That Promising Shootout Win Against Cleveland And The Convincing Win The week Before Against The Raiders Are in the Rearview. The Pats And the Chargers Have A Sordid history Of tearing At each Other In A Soft East Coats west Coast beef That’s Been Mostly Sided And Continues To Be No Matter How Much the Decades March On. The Chargers Were one Of The Few teams that Came Close To Knocking Off The Ill-Fated “Perfect” Pats of the Late ‘00s’ when the two teams met in The AFC Championship Some Time Ago when fullbacks Justified a Roster Spot. Of course, they Failed. But Phillip Rivers, Norv Turner, LT And Co, And An Impressive Bolts Team Made A Run On the Pats’ Dominance Of The AFC. It Never Came Together For them. They were Always Just that, impressive. The Chargers Have Always Been Explosive But Never Dominant. In 2009, one Of The Best Charger’s Season In Recent Memory. The Team Went 13-3. Entered The Playoffs as AFC Favorites Before Bulking Against The Jets In The Divisional Round. The Chargers Are faltering Mid Season. Another History Lesson. 2014, When The Bolts Won their first 5 of 6 Before Finishing 4 of 10. The Chargers Faced A Underrated Passing Attack That Has been “far more formidable than once thought.” But This Game was About A Snake Bitten Charger’s Team and Those Tasteless Navy Blue Uniforms.
14. Cleveland Browns. 4-4
15. Pittsburgh Steelers. 4-3
16. Kansas City Chiefs. 3-4
17. Denver Broncos. 4-4
