What this is
A comparison of APR's Week 4 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 with the widest differential are listed. The number in parentheses is the difference between APR's rank and ESPN's rank.
Teams ESPN likes more than APR:
- 49ers (+16)
- APR is very much a what-have-you-done-lately system. And lately, the 49ers have a couple blow-out losses, and a couple wins over (so far) not very impressive teams. They're gonna have to do better than a win over the Rams to get to the top half of APR's rankings.
- Bengals (+12)
- Maybe APR has the Bengals underrated at #23, but their two wins (home, over the very bad Steelers and the struggling Packers) aren't that impressive.
- Packers (+8)
- So far, the Packers have one win, a blow-out of the struggling 1-3 Redskins. Next Sunday's game against the Lions should help resolve this APR/ESPN conflict, one way or the other.
Teams APR likes more than ESPN:
- Bills (-12)
- Thanks to their defense, the Bills have clawed their way to a 2-2 record (and could be 3-1 or even 4-0 if they had played a bit better in their two losses). I'm not sold on how good they are yet, but they're not a bottom 10 team.
- Jets (-10)
- The Jets are 2-2 as well, but it feels a lot more flukey for them. Take away a late penalty in week 1, and an offensive meltdown by the Bills, and they could easily be 0-4. We'll see how the season plays out, but based on what I've seen so far, I'll be surprised if the Jets finish in front of the Bills in the AFC East.
- Buccaneers (-9)
- Well, the good news for the Bucs is that in 3 of their 4 games, they've been in them right to the end. The bad news is they've lost because of sloppy, undisciplined play. The worse news is their offense is a mess, and they've switched to a rookie quarterback that, based on Sunday's performance, really isn't ready to be a starter. APR has them ranked at #22, but even at that low level, there's a good case that they're overrated.
