What this is
A comparison of APR's Week 6 power rankings with ESPN's rankings for the same week of games. This acts as a sanity check (both ways) to see what teams are over- or underrated.
Only teams that are at least 9 positions apart are listed. The number in parentheses is the difference between APR's rank and ESPN's rank.
Teams ESPN likes more than APR:
- Giants (+10)
- A little closer than last week. Maybe APR has them underrated at #21, but given the way the Giants struggled against the Cardinals and Seahawks, I'm not sure how much higher they should really go right now.
- Chargers (+9)
- The good news for the Chargers is that they've actually managed a decent start at 4-1. The bad news is, the 4 teams they beat are a combined 4-17, and none of those wins were a blow-out you'd expect when a good team plays a very bad one. I've learned my lesson (at least for the moment) about making absolute pronouncements, but I will say that the Chargers are not showing the signs of a top-10 team.
- On the bubble:
- Nobody closer than +6 (Steelers, Bucs, Browns)
Teams APR likes more than ESPN:
- Cowboys (-14)
- APR likes close losses more than it should, and the Cowboys have a bunch: their 3 losses are by a combined 11 points, all to highly-ranked teams. I'm willing to stipulate that they're not a top-10 team right now, but ESPN's ranking of #21 is too low as well.
- On the bubble:
- Bengals (-8)
