What this is
A comparison of APR's Week 13 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:
- Jets (+8)
- APR drops the Jets to #31 after their 20-point home loss to the Dolphins. None of those teams in the bottom 10 (of either ranking) are any good, I feel like it's splitting hairs to make a distinction between #31 and #23.
- Bears (+7)
- APR and ESPN both drop the Bears a spot on their loss to the Vikings. To update last week's post, the Bears have now gone 3-6 since their 3-0 start, and APR's ranking at #22 is seeming less harsh.
- On the bubble:
- Nobody closer than the Browns (+5)
Teams APR likes more than ESPN:
- Giants (-7)
- APR likes the Giants because they're 5-1 in their last 6 games. ESPN doesn't like them because their 0-6 start means they're all but eliminated from the playoffs.
- Rams (-7)
- APR raised the Rams a spot on their 10-point road loss to the 49ers. They did rise in power, thanks to a relatively close road win against a much more powerful opponent. But they also rise up because of the power vaccum left by the fall of the Chargers.
- On the bubble
- For some reason, ESPN dropped the Cardinals (-6) 4 spots on their 7-point road loss to the Eagles. Yeah, their defense looked bad for more than half of the game, but they did shut down the Eagles for most of the second half. For now, I'm going to stick with my claim that the Cardinals deserve a spot in the top 10.
