How’s this for a little NFL parity; The entire AFC only has two teams with winning records, the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens. The previously unbeaten Texans were destroyed in the nationally televised Sunday Nighter by the Green Bay Packers, and the Ravens just lost the heart and soul of their team, middle linebacker Ray Lewis, to a season ending injury.
Around the NFL there were upsets aplenty, which makes picking the top three, or the bottom three for that matter, even tougher. But Dave Gilbert, my cohort in strategic NFL Power Rankings, and myself will do it every week exclusively on We Got This Covered.
This week it’s my turn to try and figure out the Bottom Of The Barrel, but first a look at who Dave had down here last week.
30. Kansas City Chiefs
31. Jacksonville Jaguars
32. Tennessee Titans
I’ll say this for Dave, he nailed it by moving the Cleveland Browns up and out of the Barrel. They picked up win number 1 in beating the Cincinnati Bengals, but he kind of stepped in it by dropping the Titans all the way to 32. They came to play on Thursday Night Football and took out the Pittsburgh Steelers 26-23.
Here’s who I have in the Bottom Of The Barrel this week…
30. Tennessee Titans
I guess I can’t give Dave too much grief since I have the Titans down here as well, mainly because that win on Thursday Night Football was a mirage. It happened, but the quality of football on Thursday night isn’t the best. So far only one road team has won on TNF, and that was the New York Giants (a very good team) over the Carolina Panthers (on the edge of the Barrel).
Even with 2 wins, the Titans have the worst point differential in the NFL at -90. This week they travel to Buffalo looking for their first road win, but I doubt they pull off another upset. I’d expect Dave to keep Tennessee down here in week 8 too.
31. Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs have one lone win, and of their 4 losses, only 1 was by a close margin. The struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers just slapped the Chiefs all around the field on Sunday with a 38-10 victory. K.C. was out-gained 463 to 260, and the average yards per offensive play was 9.1 to 3.8. Very bad…
If their talented tailback Jamaal Charles isn’t running wild, the Chiefs have little chance to win. The Bucs held him to 40 yards on 12 carries, and new QB Brady Quinn couldn’t pick up the slack.
32. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jags have two things going for them. One, they are coming off a bye, so they had a chance to recharge and regroup with a week off, and two, they host the mediocre 1-4 Oakland Raiders this week. A victory might be enough to move them up and out of the Barrel, but Oakland is a capable team as they just took the #1 Atlanta Falcons to the brink.
Jacksonville is similar to the Chiefs, as they really only have one offensive weapon. If running back Maurice Jones-Drew can’t get it going this Sunday, look for another Jags loss.
Be sure to check out who Dave Gilbert has ranked #1-3 this week in our Cream Of The Crop.
