This week, we would like to spend some time examining the top three teams. The Cardinals have been near the top of our rankings all season including Week 5 when they held the number 2 spot with a 3-2 record. Since that time, their record has improved to 6-3. During Week 5, the Giants were still number 1 with a 4-0 record, and the Titans earned the number 3 spot also with a 4-0 record. Keep in mind that our Performance Rankings are based solely on in-game statistical performance. Again we stress, we do not take into account any subjective or emotional factors; we do not even take into account wins and losses. Wins and losses are a natural byproduct of our Performance measure: winning teams do well and losing teams do poorly.
In Week 5, while the Cardinals had two losses and the Giants and Titans had none, there were seven one-loss teams that were ranked below the Cardinals. Since that point in time, only one of those teams, the Panthers, have had as good a winning percentage as the Cardinals with three more wins and one loss. There were two teams that have gone 2-2 since that time as well, and they are the Redskins and Steelers. The Cowboys, Bills and Broncos, who were all 4-1 at Week 5, have since gone 1-3 to have a total record of 5-4. You will now find these teams at our number 22, 23 and 24 positions in our Rankings. So, needless to say, we do not feel the least bit remorseful at ranking the Cardinals at the number 2 spot back in Week 5 or now.
Let’s have some fun and take a closer look at the past of the top three teams and what the road ahead may look like. The Cardinals’ past opponents have a combined record of 40 wins and 41 losses. Their past opponents’ combined Relative Performance Measure or RPM is a poor -87. Many may think that the poor performance of their opponents is the reason why the Cardinals have done so well on our chart, but if you accept that you must say the same is true for the Giants and Titans. The Giants’ past opponents have a combined record of 32-49 and a -67 RPM while the Titans’ past opponents have a 34-47 record and a -54 RPM. This demonstrates that the strength of the opponents that the Cardinals faced is on an even par with those of the Giants and Titans.
If we look into the future, the Cardinals’ future opponents have a combined record of 30-33 and an RPM of -28. The Giants’ have a tough road ahead as their future opponents have a combined record of 40-23 and a +174 RPM. The Titans should cruise into the playoffs as their future opponents have a record of 27-36 and a -30 RPM.
If the Giants hold their number 1 ranking throughout the second half of the season while facing such a challenging schedule, we will be truly impressed. We won’t be surprised to see them fall back some in the RPM. However, remember that last year they won the Super Bowl after going 10-6 in the regular season.
Just for fun, we did look at some “traditional” power rankings. One had the Cardinals at number 6 – unchanged from Week 9 and the other had the Cardinals at number 8– up from number 9 in Week 9. Hopefully, the Cardinals will look at the Performance Rankings of PossessionPoints.com and realize that their team is as good as the Rankings say they are. Confidence is a huge part of football, and can make or break winners.
Not to neglect the bottom 5, they consist of the same teams as last week in a slightly different order. At the bottom of our rankings at 32 are the 2-7 Rams preceded closely by the 0-9 Lions, the 2-7 Seahawks, the 1-8 Bengals and the 2-7 Raiders.
No comments:
Post a Comment