PFT’s Week Eight power rankings: Rams #11

[Prime Time]

He wants the Eagles to trade for Colin Kaepernick?
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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/10/27/pfts-week-eight-power-rankings/

PFT’s Week Eight power rankings
Posted by Mike Florio on October 27, 2015

1. Patriots (6-0; last week No. 1): The Patriots may wish they’d gotten on Thursday night the Joe Philbin Dolphins, not the Dan Campbell Dolphins.

2. Bengals (6-0; No. 2): Beating Pittsburgh in the regular season could be the key to avoiding a loss to them in January.

3. Packers (6-0; No. 3): Sunday’s trip to Denver could result in Aaron Rodgers seeing the best defense he’s ever faced.

4. Panthers (6-0; No. 4): If they can win when Cam Newton throws three interceptions, they won’t lose many times.

5. Broncos (6-0; No. 5): Of the four other 6-0 teams, Denver will play three of them.

6. Jets (4-2; No. 6): The Jets should emerge from their loss to the Patriots confident that they can beat anyone.

7. Falcons (6-1; No. 8): They’ll end up with a lot more than one loss if they can’t beat bad teams more convincingly.

8. Cardinals (5-2; No. 9): The Cards continue to pile up wins over bad teams.

9. Vikings (4-2; No. 10): How did Stefon Diggs last until round five?

10. Steelers (4-3; No. 7): The Landry Jones era is over. There was one?

11. Rams (3-3; No. 11): It’s probably time for teams playing the Rams to start game-planning to stop Todd Gurley.

12. Dolphins (3-3; No. 15): Those back-to-back wins won’t mean anything if the Dolphins get thumped on Thursday night in Foxborough.

13. Giants (4-3; No. 14): Consistent Inconsistency is the T-shirt slogan for the 2015 Giants.

14. Raiders (3-3; No. 18): The best team in the Bay Area is suddenly the one that doesn’t have a swanky new stadium.

15. Seahawks (3-4; No. 16): Michael Bennett hates Dallas. He now gets a chance to visit.

16. Eagles (3-4; No. 12): It’s not crazy to think that this team would instantly get better by trading for Colin Kaepernick.

17. Saints (3-4; No. 23): The division title could be difficult to win, but a wild-card berth is definitely in play.

18. Cowboys (2-4; No. 13): “My dog didn’t just bite you. He’s simply trying to show you how to properly eat your food.”

19. Washington (3-4; No. 22): If that’s how excited Kirk Cousins gets after beating the Bucs, he may have a Scanners moment if they ever beat a good team.

20. Bills (3-4; No. 17): Well, at least they’re not moving to Toronto.

21. Colts (3-4; No. 19): If Andrew Luck is still injured, it explains plenty. If he’s not injured, he has plenty of explaining to do.

22. Browns (2-5; No. 20): The owner’s hand is likely creeping toward the well-worn reset button.

23. Chargers (2-5; No. 21): The Major League strategy apparently is being employed in San Diego.

24. Bears (2-4; No. 24): If yelling at the G.M. gets a guy a one-way ticket out of town, a Rudy-style jersey line could soon be forming.

25. Jaguars (2-5; No. 32): It was obvious on Sunday that the Jaguars aren’t accustomed to leading in the second half.

26. Buccaneers (2-4; No. 25): Is it worse to blow a 24-point lead or lose by 24 points?

27. Chiefs (2-5; No. 30): Beating an NFL team led by Landry Jones is sort of like beating Missouri.

28. 49ers (2-5; No. 26): Can someone please explain how this team won two games?

29. Texans (2-5; No. 27): Can someone please explain how this team won two games?

30. Ravens (1-6; No. 28): Joe Flacco and company are now the opposite of elite.

31. Titans (1-5; No. 31): I hope Chip Kelly likes country music.

32. Lions (1-6; No. 29): The Lions handed out a different kind of trophy to their Lombardi.

 

[DCH]

Seems about right. The Browns are a bad team, and we didn't beat them as convincingly as the final score indicates. We'll work our way up the rankings if we keep winning.

 

[Prime Time]

Rams finally make it to Peter King's Fine Fifteen but only at #15. Plus there are two dumb comments by him.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/10/27/nfl-yahoo-live-stream-traffic-week-8-power-rankings

The Fine Fifteen

1. New England (6-0). Tom Brady just played one of the best games of his life. His reward: prepping for a mystery Miami team for a national TV game Thursday night.

2. Green Bay (6-0). So apparently Randall Cobb and Ty Montgomery, Aaron Rodgers’ first and fourth targets, will be healthier coming out of the bye. It is darn strange for an Aaron Rodgers team to be averaging 22.7 points over a three-game period. He needs help Sunday at Denver.

3. Cincinnati (6-0). Bengals have to hope the bye didn’t cool off an offense that has scored 33, 24, 28, 36, 27 and 34 points, respectively, in the first six games.

4. Carolina (6-0). America, meet Kawann Short.

5. Denver (6-0). On his bye week, Peyton Manning went to Lourdes. Had some Holy Water rubbed on his right shoulder and on his neck. Will it work? Tune in Sunday night. (Hey, no fair! You work for NBC! NBC’s got Packers-Broncos Sunday night! Uhhhhh, okay. Well, maybe he didn’t fly to France in the last week. But I will bet you he did something similarly radical for his health.)

6. New York Jets (4-2). Prediction: Jets will be 10-4 when they play the Pats in New Jersey two days after Christmas.

7. Pittsburgh (4-3). Ben Roethlisberger returns, and now we see the game we have been counting on all along Sunday at Heinz Field: Andy Dalton and the 6-0 Bengals--playing the best of any Cincinnati team in the Marvin Lewis era--at the 4-3 and very much alive Steelers.

8. Arizona (5-2). Tough early run for the Cards continues this week.(My own comment: WTH are you talking about? They've had an easy schedule so far. :shocked They’ve been at Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh already, and they’ll be at Cleveland and Seattle for the next two games. Good times for the frequent-flier accounts of the Cards beat guys (Kent Somers must have earned a trip to Paris by now), but this team has to be tired of the flights. Cool milestone, though, Monday night: Carson Palmer advanced to 75-75 after his 150th start, against Baltimore.

9. Miami (3-3). So here’s my surprise, Miami at number nine. Why? Well, the Dolphins have scored 82 points in the two Dan Campbell-coached games, and they’ve sacked the quarterback 10 times in those games (versus one sack in the first four). That’s just the start. The team is alive. The team is reborn. It’s cool to see. The Thursday-nighter in Foxboro will tell the tale of whether all the new goodness means anything.

10. Atlanta (6-1). Foes 38, Atlanta 31 in the last two games. Matt Ryan has had five straight sub-300-yard games. A good team, and a growing team. But hardly a dominant one.

11. Minnesota (4-2). Can the Vikings win with Teddy Bridgewater in the shotgun and Adrian Peterson out of his beloved I-formation? Stay tuned.

12. Oakland (3-3). The No. 12 entrant on the Fine 15 this week is the Oakland Raiders.

13. Seattle (3-4). Seahawks’ most impressive game of the year, in all ways other than protecting Russell Wilson, came in the 20-3 win over San Francisco Thursday night.

14. New York Giants (4-3). I’d feel better about the G-Men if they’d dominated a team that didn’t have a quarterback, rather than squeaked by on a late kickoff return for TD.

15. St. Louis (3-3). Three straight 125-yard-plus rushing games by Todd Gurley. (My own comment: a stupid, unnecessary remark about LA was removed. To read it click the link above.)

Also receiving votes:

16. Philadelphia (3-4). No idea what this team is, and that’s the mark of an inconsistent team.

17. New Orleans (3-4). Have beaten Atlanta and Indy, two decent squads, by 16 in the last two weeks. That’s progress.

18. Washington (3-4). Speaking of progress: Kirk Cousins.

19. Indianapolis (3-4). Next three games come against the 6-0 Panthers, 6-0 Broncos, 6-1 Falcons. Trouble.

20. Dallas (2-4). Can you come back yesterday, Tony Romo?

 

[Prime Time]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...nsensus-standings-heading-into-week-8/page/19

15. St. Louis Rams

Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Current Record: 3-3

Highest Ranking: 11 (Gagnon)

Lowest Ranking: 23 (Freeman)

What's Good?: It's easy to talk about running back Todd Gurley or the St. Louis Rams' talented defensive front each and every week. Sometimes, the play of others needs to be highlighted. This weekend, Mark Barron was a force against the Cleveland Browns. Barron transitioned from safety to linebacker to replace the injured Alec Ogletree, and the Alabama product played arguably the best game of his career. As a newly-minted weak-side backer, Barron racked up 19 tackles, two tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, a pass breakup and a quarterback hit, per Rams media manager Casey Pearce.

What's Bad?: Despite Gurley's dominance over the past three weeks, the running back's play hasn't opened up St. Louis' passing attack. Since Gurley became a starter, Nick Foles hasn't thrown for more than 171 yards in a contest. It starts with an inability to consistently throw the ball downfield. Most of Foles' passes are short or underneath coverage. Plus, the team's wide receiver corps is built for yards after the catch and not deep passes.

What's Next?: The Rams haven't established much consistency. Sunday's contest against the San Francisco 49ers is an opportunity to win two straight for the first time this year. A victory would mark only the second time the team has been over .500 since the start of the 2013 campaign.

Last Week's Ranking: 18

 

[Rmfnlt]

(My own comment: a stupid, unnecessary remark about LA was removed. To read it click the link above.)

MMQB has been annoying me more and more lately.

 

[Alan]

I no longer read MMQB anymore except for what gets posted here. It was a must read for me 10 years ago.

 

[Alan]

Prime Time: He wants the Eagles to trade for Colin Kaepernick?
Exactly! LOL! :shocked:

 

[Prime Time]

Not much to choose from these days when it comes to Rams news. Florio is a wiseass. Bleacher Report is based in San Francisco, enough said. ESPN's Nick Wagoner is mostly negative. Peter King and his crew are Patriots butt-kissers. The St. Louis PD writers mostly mail it in(Other than our own Shane of course). If anyone has any better options for Rams articles let me know.

Btw once the Rams begin to win on a regular basis, season after season, the reporting will get better as if by magic.

 

[Mojo Ram]

He wants the Eagles to trade for Colin Kaepernick?
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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/10/27/pfts-week-eight-power-rankings/

PFT’s Week Eight power rankings
Posted by Mike Florio on October 27, 2015

1. Patriots (6-0; last week No. 1): The Patriots may wish they’d gotten on Thursday night the Joe Philbin Dolphins, not the Dan Campbell Dolphins.

2. Bengals (6-0; No. 2): Beating Pittsburgh in the regular season could be the key to avoiding a loss to them in January.

3. Packers (6-0; No. 3): Sunday’s trip to Denver could result in Aaron Rodgers seeing the best defense he’s ever faced.

4. Panthers (6-0; No. 4): If they can win when Cam Newton throws three interceptions, they won’t lose many times.

5. Broncos (6-0; No. 5): Of the four other 6-0 teams, Denver will play three of them.

6. Jets (4-2; No. 6): The Jets should emerge from their loss to the Patriots confident that they can beat anyone.

7. Falcons (6-1; No. 8): They’ll end up with a lot more than one loss if they can’t beat bad teams more convincingly.

8. Cardinals (5-2; No. 9): The Cards continue to pile up wins over bad teams.

9. Vikings (4-2; No. 10): How did Stefon Diggs last until round five?

10. Steelers (4-3; No. 7): The Landry Jones era is over. There was one?

11. Rams (3-3; No. 11): It’s probably time for teams playing the Rams to start game-planning to stop Todd Gurley.

12. Dolphins (3-3; No. 15): Those back-to-back wins won’t mean anything if the Dolphins get thumped on Thursday night in Foxborough.

13. Giants (4-3; No. 14): Consistent Inconsistency is the T-shirt slogan for the 2015 Giants.

14. Raiders (3-3; No. 18): The best team in the Bay Area is suddenly the one that doesn’t have a swanky new stadium.

15. Seahawks (3-4; No. 16): Michael Bennett hates Dallas. He now gets a chance to visit.

16. Eagles (3-4; No. 12): It’s not crazy to think that this team would instantly get better by trading for Colin Kaepernick.

17. Saints (3-4; No. 23): The division title could be difficult to win, but a wild-card berth is definitely in play.

18. Cowboys (2-4; No. 13): “My dog didn’t just bite you. He’s simply trying to show you how to properly eat your food.”

19. Washington (3-4; No. 22): If that’s how excited Kirk Cousins gets after beating the Bucs, he may have a Scanners moment if they ever beat a good team.

20. Bills (3-4; No. 17): Well, at least they’re not moving to Toronto.

21. Colts (3-4; No. 19): If Andrew Luck is still injured, it explains plenty. If he’s not injured, he has plenty of explaining to do.

22. Browns (2-5; No. 20): The owner’s hand is likely creeping toward the well-worn reset button.

23. Chargers (2-5; No. 21): The Major League strategy apparently is being employed in San Diego.

24. Bears (2-4; No. 24): If yelling at the G.M. gets a guy a one-way ticket out of town, a Rudy-style jersey line could soon be forming.

25. Jaguars (2-5; No. 32): It was obvious on Sunday that the Jaguars aren’t accustomed to leading in the second half.

26. Buccaneers (2-4; No. 25): Is it worse to blow a 24-point lead or lose by 24 points?

27. Chiefs (2-5; No. 30): Beating an NFL team led by Landry Jones is sort of like beating Missouri.

28. 49ers (2-5; No. 26): Can someone please explain how this team won two games?

29. Texans (2-5; No. 27): Can someone please explain how this team won two games?

30. Ravens (1-6; No. 28): Joe Flacco and company are now the opposite of elite.

31. Titans (1-5; No. 31): I hope Chip Kelly likes country music.

32. Lions (1-6; No. 29): The Lions handed out a different kind of trophy to their Lombardi.

Most of these comments are spot on.

 

[CGI_Ram]

There are 10 teams with 2 or fewer wins.

That seems higher than normal, to me?

 

[Mojo Ram]

8. Arizona (5-2). Tough early run for the Cards continues this week.(My own comment: WTH are you talking about? They've had an easy schedule so far. :shocked They’ve been at Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh already, and they’ll be at Cleveland and Seattle for the next two games. Good times for the frequent-flier accounts of the Cards beat guys (Kent Somers must have earned a trip to Paris by now), but this team has to be tired of the flights. Cool milestone, though, Monday night: Carson Palmer advanced to 75-75 after his 150th start, against Baltimore.

You know it's a cupcake schedule when a road game vs Cleveland in week 8 is lumped in as one of the tougher games they've faced all year, and ALL of their wins have come against teams in the cellar of the power rankings.

 

[Mojo Ram]

There are 10 teams with 2 or fewer wins.

That seems higher than normal, to me?

It does. Parity or mediocrity?

 

[CGI_Ram]

It does. Parity or mediocrity?

I suppose it will level out, and I've not tried to look at recent seasons, but there are a lot of teams sucking.

 

[Mojo Ram]

I suppose it will level out, and I've not tried to look at recent seasons, but there are a lot of teams sucking.

I think there are quite a few good teams that are just not complete teams...Rams included.

 

[CGI_Ram]

I think there are quite a few good teams that are just not complete teams...Rams included.

Well; the 2011 NY Giants were not a complete team until their playoff run and SB victory. They lost 4 in a row heading into week 14.

The NFL is funny.

Get to the dance and take your chance.

 

[SuperMan28]

ESPN has us at 12. I was pretty shocked. That's a six slot jump. I still can't believe they did it...

All aboard the Gurley train?

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/10/28/nfl-dysfunctional-teams-colts-49ers-texans-cowboys-bills

The NFL Dysfunction Rankings
While five unbeatens dominate the power rankings, five other erstwhile contenders are plagued by discord and dissent. Let’s put that chaos in order
by Don Banks

It’s Week 8, and the NFL has not been shy to trumpet that in its 96-year history it has never gone this deep into a season with so many undefeated teams. New England, Green Bay, Denver, Carolina and Cincinnati are all sitting pretty at 6-0, and that makes everyone’s power rankings the most top-heavy in memory. A fearsome fivesome, if you will.

But I’ll tell you what also feels absolutely unprecedented, and that’s the amount of ugly discord out there, which is impossible to miss as NFL 2015 approaches midseason. Forget the top of the power rankings and take stock of the league’s dissension rankings. Because they too go five deep, are just as fascinating to contemplate and may even present the tougher calls.

Who you got at No. 1? Indianapolis (3-4), on the strength of its season-long behind-the-scenes melodrama featuring the dysfunctional triangle of lame-duck head coach Chuck Pagano, short-tempered general manager Ryan Grigson and unpredictable team owner Jim Irsay?

We already know Pagano and Grigson butt heads, but now comes word that the GM and the owner had a “heated conversation’’ after the team’s most recent loss, in which the Colts fell behind 27-0 at home to the Saints on Sunday before rallying to make it a game. Hey, at least they’re still talking.

As for Pagano, three straight playoff trips or not, he already seems destined to lose that bet he made on himself this year, and the feel-good vibe of 2012’s “Chuckstrong” storyline seems like a distant memory. There’s a whole lot of angst in Indy this season, and can you imagine how testy things might be if the Colts weren’t in first place?

What do you think about San Francisco at No. 2? I mean, after all, the 49ers (2-5) have been the epicenter of dysfunction for two years running now in the NFL, and these people certainly know their way home from here. As it turns out, it apparently wasn’t Jim Harbaugh’s fault after all. I’m sure Trent Baalke and Jed York have called to tell him that.

The 49ers are a certifiable mess. No one seems to know for sure if enigmatic quarterback Colin Kaepernick has support or contempt coming from his own locker room; the organization seems overmatched in every way, from the front office on down; and new head coach Jim Tomsula prefers to liken his club’s recent “heated” team meeting to a scene from an Italian restaurant. Or something like that. Can’t we all just get along?

“The biggest thing I said to them was, ‘Guys, it’s like an Italian dining room table,’ ” Tomsula said on his weekly KNBR radio show. “Everybody’s sitting around the table, and sometimes it gets heated, dishes get broken, people leave. [But] everybody’s got to come back to the table to eat. And when it’s all said and done, we’re hugging and kissing and we’re eating good food again.”

I get it. It’s ”Moonstruck,” Bay Area-style. Without the wedding in the end.

For now I’m going with Houston (2-5) at No. 3, but this is a team that really has a chance to move up as the season goes on. Because who knows how deeply the difference of opinion might really be between coach Bill O’Brien and general manager Rick Smith, and how far it extends past the botched Ryan Mallett episode? It only takes one careless spark to start a raging forest fire.

Quite understandably, O’Brien reportedly wanted Mallett gone as soon as the disgruntled backup quarterback missed the team’s charter flight to Miami last Saturday, even if it meant leaving only Brian Hoyer and a freshly signed team ball boy on the QB depth chart for the Dolphins game.

Smith is said to have blocked the move of whacking Mallett, at least until he was let go late Monday, which raises the question of just who is running the show for these Texans? And we don’t mean “Hard Knocks,” which come to think of it was the last time the Texans were remotely watchable.

I have to put Dallas (2-4) at No. 4, but then prepare for Jerry Jones, Jason Garrett and everybody else wearing the Cowboys’ star to tell me why Greg Hardy’s sideline fire and passion should not be confused with friction or a lack of harmony. You have to admit Hardy’s team leadership has a funny way of showing itself, but really, what was special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia doing carrying a clipboard anyway in this day and age of tablets and advanced sideline technology? He was almost asking to get it slapped out of his hands, and then shoved. Or is that too much enabling for even Dallas to stomach?

The Cowboys may not wish to see Hardy’s anger and antics as any sign of contention or division, but I know this: If they keep allowing that tone-deaf jughead to set the narrative of their season, they’re going to be quickly out of contention in their division. If they’re not already.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget Buffalo (3-4). I’ve got the Bills locked in at No. 5 as they enter their bye week. Buffalo is a just a thick, ill-tasting stew these days. General manager Doug Whaley is still trying to make his wasted EJ Manuel first-round pick of 2013 work, but that ship has sailed.

The Bills really could have used the steadier hand of veteran backup quarterback Matt Cassel in Sunday’s agonizing loss to Jacksonville in London, and we suspect head coach Rex Ryan would have preferred keeping Cassel as Tyrod Taylor’s No. 2, but Cassel is now caught up in Dallas’ dysfunction, with games to help lose for someone else’s team.

Whaley and Ryan clearly are not on the same page in terms of the roster, and that was a near-record honeymoon the couple had in terms of brevity. Seven games into this new era in Bills history, Whaley looks like he won’t overcome the failed Manuel pick and the ultra-costly Sammy Watkins trade, or the perception that he hasn’t been able to work cohesively with either Doug Marrone or Ryan, the two coaches new owner Terry Pegula has employed.

Not that Ryan is blameless in this saga. Far from it. The defensive guru has a defense that has seriously regressed from last year’s greatness, his big talk and bravado is already ringing hollow in Western New York, and his own guys, key players like Mario Williams and Marcel Dareus, have called him out and criticized how they were being used in his defense.

Rex can’t get his team to stop killing itself with penalties, can’t get anyone to stay healthy and can’t seem to get anyone interested in trading for Percy Harvin, which is supposed to happen every year around now.

The bottom line in the NFL this season is that there’s a bevy of strife and conflict at work, and a lot of it is with teams that were supposed to be among the league’s best this year. Indianapolis was considered a strong Super Bowl contender. Dallas, with a healthy Tony Romo, had designs on making it to Santa Clara as well. Buffalo underwent a massive overhaul and was a chic pick to finally end its playoff drought, and the Texans were seen as a young, ascending team coming off a 9-7 mark in O’Brien’s first season.

But instead, discord and dissension rule the day. The top of the league remains unbeaten. A good portion of the rest of the league is coming unglued.

 

[Mojo Ram]

8. Cardinals (5-2; No. 9): The Cards continue to pile up wins over bad teams.

Like these?
17.New Orleans (3-4). Have beaten Atlanta and Indy, two decent squads, by 16 in the last two weeks. That’s progress.
24. Bears (2-4) If yelling at the G.M. gets a guy a one-way ticket out of town, a Rudy-style jersey line could soon be forming.
28. 49ers (2-5) Can someone please explain how this team won two games?
32. Lions (1-6) The Lions handed out a different kind of trophy to their Lombardi.
30. Ravens (1-6) Joe Flacco and company are now the opposite of elite.

Combined 9-25

 

[Rainram]

Like these?
17.New Orleans (3-4). Have beaten Atlanta and Indy, two decent squads, by 16 in the last two weeks. That’s progress.
24. Bears (2-4) If yelling at the G.M. gets a guy a one-way ticket out of town, a Rudy-style jersey line could soon be forming.
28. 49ers (2-5) Can someone please explain how this team won two games?
32. Lions (1-6) The Lions handed out a different kind of trophy to their Lombardi.
30. Ravens (1-6) Joe Flacco and company are now the opposite of elite.

Combined 9-25

Just expand on this note, I would make two points.

Point #1: We have the Bears, 49ers, Lions and Ravens all coming up. We need to do to those teams exactly what the Cards did. Which is to not "just win," but beat them soundly.

Point #2: I'm interested in the back half of the Cards season. The final 8 games consist of the Bengals, Packers, Rams, Seahawks x 2, Vikings, Eagles and Niners. Could be a handful of losses in there. Lucky for them, the toughest matchups in there are HOME games for them. But they're still much tougher games than they've had so far. opcorn: