Yeah, this is for last week. Better late than never? I was getting this week's post ready, and noticed I never posted the week 15 version. But I still have the writeup on my hard drive, so here it is.
What this is
A comparison of APR's Week 15 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:
- Packers (+11)
- Matt Flynn has now played 14 quarters of football for the Packers this season. In 6 of those quarters, he was really awful. In 8 of those quarters, he was okay. And in two of those quarters, he was really good. The end result is that in spite of a 2-4-1 record since Rodgers got hurt, the Packers still have a chance for the playoffs. But until Rodgers comes back, they don't really deserve a spot in the middle of thepower rankings.
- On the bubble:
- APR drops the Chiefs (+6) 2 spots for taking the trouble to demolish a really bad Raiders team. That drop may also be their earlier wins getting less weight, which means their 3 game losing streak counts for more.
- The Colts (+6) haven't beaten a team outside the AFC South since October.
Teams APR likes more than ESPN:
- Rams (-9)
- Four of the Rams wins this seasons have come against teams that are either in the playoffs, or in contention. But #11 is still too high for an 8-loss team.
- On the bubble:
- APR drops the Buccaneers (-6) a couple spots after they got pounded by the 49ers. They clearly still have some problems to solve, but Coach Schiano has (probably) saved his job, at least for this year.
