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 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:
- Bears (+8)
- The Bears have a 1-point win over the (now) 1-4 Vikings, and a 6-point win over the 0-6 Giants. Not exactly the stuff of legend. They're 1-3 against teams that ESPN has in the top half of their rankings. Maybe APR has them underrated at #18, but they seem a little weak for the top 10, too.
- On the bubble:
- Nobody closer than the Jets (+5) and Texans (+5)
Teams APR likes more than ESPN:
- On the bubble:
- APR has the Cardinals (-6) at #15 because they're 3-3. But Carson Palmer is really struggling. I think he would actually be okay in that system, if he could just stop throwing interceptions. But so far, he's thrown 11 interceptions (at least one in every game) and only 5 touchdowns. I have to wonder how close HC Bruce Arians is to benching him.
