It's hard to believe that only one team has clinched its division with only two weeks remaining in the regular season. There are plenty of teams that are "mathematically" alive, but there are only a few that have a realistic chance still. Here are the updated rankings and playoff picture. The team's name is followed by its record, rating, and previous ranking.
1. New England (12-2) -13.16 (1)
2. Green Bay (8-6) -9.80 (3)
3. San Diego (8-6) -7.83 (4)
4. Pittsburgh (10-4) -7.77 (2)
5. Philadelphia (10-4) -7.26 (7)
6. Atlanta (12-2) -6.52 (5)
7. Baltimore (10-4) -5.87 (6)
8. NY Jets (10-4) -5.52 (9)
9. Chicago (10-4) -4.96 (15)
10. NY Giants (9-5) -3.79 (8)
11. Indianapolis (8-6) -3.76 (11)
12. Tennessee (6-8) -3.71 (13)
13. New Orleans (10-4) -2.24 (10)
14. Kansas City (9-5) -1.10 (21)
15. Detroit (4-10) -1.04 (14)
16. Miami (7-7) -0.97 (12)
17. Oakland (7-7) -0.03 (17)
18. Cleveland (5-9) 0.15 (16)
19. Houston (5-9) 1.47 (18)
20. Dallas (5-9) 1.59 (19)
21. Jacksonville (8-6) 1.99 (22)
22. Buffalo (4-10) 2.17 (24)
23. Tampa Bay (8-6) 2.87 (20)
24. Washington (5-9) 3.58 (26)
25. Cincinnati (3-11) 3.62 (25)
26. Minnesota (5-9) 4.08 (23)
27. Saint Louis (6-8) 6.14 (27)
28. San Francisco (5-9) 6.74 (28)
29. Seattle (6-8) 9.05 (30)
30. Denver (3-11) 9.29 (31)
31. Arizona (4-10) 12.12 (29)
32. Carolina (2-12) 13.13 (32)
If you want to know how strong the Patriots are, just look at this week's results from its most recent blowout victims. The Jets went into Pittsburgh and surprised the favored Steelers, while the Bears blew out the Vikings on the road in a game that looked to be close. New England also beat another playoff contender themselves, making that five out of six weeks that they have beaten a team that is currently in playoff position.
The Packers moved back into the #2 spot with their strong performance against the Patriots, who were expected to beat them easily with Aaron Rodgers sitting out. The Packers only lost because Matt Flynn didn't have the experience to run the two-minute offense, but that still doesn't take away what they did.
Philadelphia went from possible missing the playoffs to probable division champion in just two weeks after engineering a huge comeback to beat chief division rival New York on the road. With the division title comes a home playoff game, which could be the advantage the Eagles need to move past the first round.
Kansas City looked very strong in its victory over the Rams, but it still may not be enough to win the division. This week's game against Tennessee is the key, because San Diego will most likely win out and owns the tiebreaker at this point. They cannot let down their guard at all if they want to keep playing in January.
I was very excited to see Detroit play Tampa Bay this week, because they have been the most underrated and most overrated teams in the league for most of the season, and the result was just as I predicted. Tampa is most likely out of playoff contention now, which is a good thing, because it's bad enough that one bottom 10 team will be getting in (the NFC West champ).
The bottom three appear to be in reverse order of what logic would say, since Arizona beat Denver and Carolina beat Arizona in the past two weeks, but this ranking is the result of a full season's performance, and those two games aren't enough to make up for what they have done in the first 12 games.
Playoff Picture
Rankings and results based on predicted results for final two weeks.
AFC
1. New England (14-2)
2. Pittsburgh (12-4)
3. San Diego (10-6)
4. Indianapolis (10-6)
5. Baltimore (12-4)
6. NY Jets (11-5)
First Round
Chargers over Jets
Colts over Ravens
Second Round
Steelers over Chargers
Patriots over Colts
Championship
Patriots over Steelers
NFC
1. Atlanta (14-2)
2. Philadelphia (12-4)
3. Chicago (11-5)
4. Saint Louis (8-8)
5. New Orleans (11-5)
6. Green Bay (10-6)
First Round
Packers over Bears
Saints over Rams
Second Round
Packers over Falcons
Eagles over Saints
Championship
Packers over Eagles
Super Bowl
Patriots over Packers
Predictions - 21 Dec
NBA
Mavericks at Magic - Mavericks by 1
Thunder at Bobcats - Thunder by 5
76ers at Bulls - Bulls by 6
Nets at Grizzlies - Grizzlies by 7
Warriors at Kings - Warriors by 1
Bucks at Lakers - Lakers by 12
College Basketball
North Carolina-Asheville at (2) Ohio State - Ohio State by 22
San Francisco vs. (7) San Diego State - San Diego State by 21
UNLV at (11) Kansas State - Kansas State by 5
IPFW at (13) Purdue - Purdue by 24
USC at (18) Tennessee - Tennessee by 9
(23) BYU at Weber State - BYU by 13
Wagner at (24) Texas A&M - Texas A&M by 20
Vanderbilt at Middle Tennessee State - Vanderbilt by 12
Northwestern at Saint John's - Northwestern by 2
College Football
Southern Mississippi vs. Louisville - Louisville by 8
Prediction Results - 20 Dec
NFL: 1/1 (1.000) 49/80 overall (.613)
NBA: 7/9 (.778) 173/231 overall (.749)
College Basketball: 5/5 (1.000) 120/142 overall (.845)
I hope you noticed that my #1 overrated team, Memphis, struggled to beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi yesterday. Let me hear it! O-VER-RA-TED!
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