NFL Power Rankings - Week 12

by Gus Elmashni

It seems that it doesn't matter what kind of game you bring to the table, the Cowboys are awfully hard to beat. They won in a shootout at Pittsburgh two weeks ago and then took care of business last week at home against Baltimore which happened to have the #1 run D in the league. The Cowboys are very good at dictating the tempo of the game and this could be the way they reach the promised land in Super Bowl LI (which happens to be in Texas this year but in Houston, not Dallas).

The GE formula still seems to favor the Vikings and Cardinals. At least the Eagles have somewhat reverted back to the mean. The Patriots, Raiders, Broncos, Chiefs, and Seahawks round out the upper quartile of teams based on the GE ranking system. I am not a firm believer in the Chiefs. After all, they lost at home to the Bucs (a team the Raiders and Broncos took care of and was destroyed by Arizona) and I don't see Alex Smith leading his team to the Super Bowl. Great game manager but doesn't have the moxie to take his offensive game to the next level in a high pressure situation like the playoffs.

Of course the Bears, Jets, Jaguars, 49ers, and Browns are in the bottom 5 as they should be. They have a combined record of 8-43. OUCH! I guess they better start preparing for the upcoming draft! DeShaun Watson or Jabrill Peppers can be franchise players!

Here are the Week 12 NFL Power Rankings based on the GE model.

1 DAL 1.647206838

2 MIN 1.165703789

3 ARI 1.147040717

4 NE 1.101096337

5 OAK 0.977303091

6 DEN 0.9386633

7 KC 0.935414327

8 SEA 0.901918188

9 BUF 0.884477692

10 PHI 0.847775086

11 BAL 0.802803937

12 WAS 0.780336476

13 ATL 0.771116374

14 NO 0.360217125

15 PIT 0.317700636

16 TEN 0.109164665

17 SD 0.097290596

18 CIN -0.092159974

19 DET -0.109231604

20 MIA -0.186018758

21 TB -0.272507761

22 CAR -0.396694368

23 LA -0.578289813

24 NYG -0.654807816

25 GB -0.668148441

26 HOU -0.794171755

27 IND -0.804822918

28 CHI -1.115587741

29 NYJ -1.540391163

30 JAX -1.606174659

31 SF -2.37229267

32 CLE -2.593929735