NFL Power Rankings, Week 17: Raiders, 'Hawks fall; Packers rise Published: Dec 27, 2016 at 12:17 AM Elliot Harrison Merry Christmas, everybody. Well, it wasn't a football Christmas for everyone. Hearing get carted off the field on the radio, then watching writhe in pain on the field knowing his season was over, cast a pall over an otherwise merry Week 16. Now both are donning casts, with Mariota's team done for '16 and Carr's in the hands of a McGloin, for a limited time only. Humbug. Who wasn't curious to see if the could give the all they could handle in the postseason tournament? And even though the are planting Savage Garden under center, was shaping up to be one of Week 17's top matchups. Of course, Tenne see would've had to beat the Jags, whom they were trailing even before Mariota went down on Saturday. A win would've at least been po sible had Mariota not ridden off into the 2017 season. On to your football thoughts ... Can't wait to see the Dolphins go down and the Bills go up in power rankings. Incredible how oblivious these dumb analysts are. Berni Poulat (@BerniPoulat) Does O.J. McDuffie still play for the ? Optimism is fun. For the full rundown, see below. You'll notice major movement in the top 10, some of it courtesy of a adjustment due to losing their MVP candidate. Will take your thoughts on that grouping (it was tough this week): is the place. Let the di sension commence! The lineup below reflects changes from . These ain't the same ol' . Sure, they are the favorites coming Tremaine Edmunds Jersey out of the AFC, a certifiable threat to tar and feather the playoff field en route to their fifth title. Yes, is still droppin' dimes, like his to put New England up 27-0. Yep, all that is neato ... But do you know the last time a Bill Belichick team led the NFL in ? How about 2003, when the won the Lombardi Trophy. The time before that was 1994, the last team to win a playoff game. And the time before that? The 1990 , when Belichick was a stud defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells. That group won the , too. #Defensegate Despite the fact that I'd watched nearly every play from the ' first 14 games, the 28 unanswered points qualified as shocking. Not just because the offense was moving at ease, either. Talk about an about face from the defense. After allowing the three touchdowns on the first three drives, Rod Marinelli's unit adjusted, then held, that altered the course of the game. Jon Gruden did a heckuva job breaking down Rod Marinelli doing a heckuva job going to a 32 defense, too. On to other matters ... How many of you fans got ? Watching run is like hearing live albums of Bob Seger, Springsteen or even Guns N' Roses. The set list is often different, the rhythm slightly off from the studio album, and maybe Sebastian Bach shows up for a carry -- er, to carry a tune for Axl. Yet, at the end of the day, you know "Welcome to the Jungle" is coming, brother. Bell's stutter-step, explode-then-slow-down-then-accelerate-again is as frustrating for defenders to stop as it is exhilarating for us to watch. While other made the occasional play, Bell steadily put up 137 yards from scrimmage, inching him ever closer to 2,000 ... He needs just 116 yards to hit that mark. With apologies to a couple of NFC guys, Bell might be the best running back in football. The best in football was getting wrapped up with seconds to go at Heinz Field on Sunday, his . ... the 346-pound Tim Tebow of the NFL. , literally. Poe was one of many who helped the team Sunday night. The 2016 would make former head coach Hank Stram very proud. Stram's played the NFL's longest game on Christmas Day 1971, a true NFL cla sic, 45 years before Andy Reid's group moved closer to hosting a playoff game at Arrowhead. In order to do that, the must lose against the , while the have to take out their nemesis -- the always tough -- in San Diego. Insert the line here. Dude, is not playing around. How does 27 of 33 for 277 yards and two touchdowns suit you? Look, he's not gonna win the MVP. Don't think enough people around the league are taking notice of Ryan's exploits. , and perhaps are probably ahead of Ryan in the voters' minds. That said, the numbers for the face of the franchise are staggering: He's completing just about 70 percent of his pa ses, owns nearly a 5:1 TD-to-INT ratio and ranks third in the league in pa sing yards (4,613). Oh, and he's led Atlanta to its first NFC South title since 2012. With that high-octane offense, the could be a scary opponent in the playoffs. Too high for the ? Can't be. Green Bay has won five in a row on the strength of ' right arm and a defense that has completely turned it around since that . Well, not totally, as the Cheesehead secondary had enough holes in it to let the Sam Bradford- combo resemble the Randall Cunningham-Randy Mo s connection circa 1998. The whole key now is whether the can run the football when it counts. No words. No words for how much the news sucks. Carr's couldn't have come at a worse time, and it's crushing for a franchise that had created excitement acro s pro football. Put another way: The NFL is better when the are better. Carr was (and is) the ) of this football team, often putting everyone on his back -- even with a finger that that looked like a tree branch in a Tim Burton movie. It might have been Christmas, but Oakland's fan base received a stocking full of bricks. Some concern growing around this team. No, shouldn't shock anyone. Arizona , too, as well as -- the same season . Of larger concern is the play of the offensive line and the absence of . The former is indicative of a problem every team has -- i.e., sacrificing an area of the football team to pay for areas of Tommy Sweeney Jersey strength. Look no further than Bruce Arians' Cards, who have had much i sue with their long snapper and kicking game this season. But Thomas? His absence was in this lo s, a game in which averaged almost 11 yards per attempt. Ditto a few weeks ago in Lambeau. Plainly stated, Seattle is a different football team when its safeties, either one of them, aren't right. What other team can you say that about? Well, that blew. No, not Big Blue. The . Tell you what: If the are going to do anything -- -- in the postseason, they are going to have to establish some semblance of a ground game. dropped back so many times his Fitbit overheated -- . Interestingly enough, the 2011 title team couldn't run a lick, either. But, but, but the air attack was precisely that -- an attack, ranked fifth in the league with Manning as hot as they come. Now, he is anything but. Huge win in the scope of the for the Fins . Besides knocking out their AFC East adversary, Miami locked up a postseason berth for the first time since 2008. In fact, the have only made it to the tournament two other times this millennium: 2000 and '01. The first two came courtesy of Jay Fiedler. So if you're thinking is not quality enough to close the deal in Week 17 ... umm ... Up 21-14, moving the ball at will, playing like the lovechild of Billy Sims and Earl Campbell ... then wot happened?? A few miscues against the on the road, and the whole deal falls apart. So what can we anticipate ? (Please no more falling apart. That would be so .) I think Matt Stafford will be on his game. Question is, can the ' pa s rushers force to be his? They had better, because the Detroit secondary is not very NFC North winningesque. At least not without manning the corner. Ford Field better be louder than a Nugent show in an efficiency apartment on Sunday night. Two things we know for certain: 1) The still have an excellent chance of making the playoffs for the second season in a row; and 2) will be hiring the Mayflower to transport his cash in March. Anybody who knows anything about football knew Cousins would rebound from that . Anybody who knows anything about "Star Trek" knew it, too. Cousins' grit should be obvious to everyone by now. It was impo sible to measure accurately coming out of the 2012 draft as the team's Tim Harris Jersey quarterback selected. How remarkable it is that the team's first-round pick that year, , was thought to be the savior. More remarkable, is that -- for one season, at least. The best that Cousins was ever expected to be in D.C. back then was a nice fellow who, if he played well enough in spot opportunities, might morph himself into expensive trade bait. Now, how much is it going to cost the ' bra s to keep him? The consternation of letting the division, and a playoff berth, slip away in Pittsburgh will sit with this group for months. Up 20-10 in the second half, and 27-24 with a shade over a minute to go, the dark cloud of we-left-too-much-time-on-the-clock set in as methodically moved Pittsburgh down the field. You knew the weren't playing no Martyball, either; they weren't settling for a field goal with seconds to burn. Baltimore's top-ranked defense simply couldn't stop what we all thought would happen after . What a game, though -- by both teams. For the second year in a row, the AFC South title goes to the . For the third straight season, Houston will don a winning record. So what does this mean? Can Bill O'Brien's group win come the second weekend of January? The could host either the , or the aqua hot , although the latter are the least likely to venture to Houston in the first round. The key for the in the postseason might be getting a former Dolphin, tailback , healthy (i.e., not playing him much ). Also of import: keeping his head above water as he did . No playoffs for Tampa Bay in 2016 ( ), but it sure doesn't mean this season was a failure. The Bucs would have been one of the more interesting teams in the postseason, featuring a rookie head coach in Dirk Koetter and sophomore quarterback in . Think about it. All we've received from the NFC South of late has been the . The Bucs are new blood, the Scrappy-Doo of the NFL. Case in point: The contest they gave the in Dallas in . Unfortunately, was 32-of-36 pa sing in that game. The Bucs had another close one , and again, fell short. Drew Brees: 23 of 34 for 299 yards and no picks. Tampa Bay's back seven couldn't create turnovers, or get stops, when the outcome was in doubt. That, and a few untimely giveaways, is why they will be home fishing. Actually, we should say that Scrappy-Doo was a crappy-doo cartoon. The Bucs are much better than that 30-minute abomination. All that relevant stuff aside, there is much reason to hop on the pirate ship next year. This team will be back in contention. Not often that both teams mi s the playoffs altogether the following season. In fact, it hasn't happened since 2003, when the fell apart and Jon Gruden couldn't will his champion Bucs back into the postseason. That Tampa outfit was quite similar to the 2016 , dependent on an oft-dominant defense to lift the offense to wins, despite the presence of two quality wideouts (Keyshawn Johnson and Keenan McCardell). On that note, and will be catching footballs from __ next season. Your gue s is as good as mine -- and 's. Down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, down. The are the Playstation cheat code of the NFL. What the hell? One week after walking into Minnesota a beaten-up underdog, then walking out , Indy looked like a pack of lost puppies down three scores to the . 's injury took the wind out of the sails of the home team, allowing and Co. to at least make it interesting. is not involved, however, as the ' last playoff game is still the one that breathed life into the air-in-footballs narrative. What a terrible development for the this past weekend. By now, you've heard that is out for Week 17 with . The ' poor outing (even before Mariota broke his leg) was disturbing, considering all Mike Mularkey's team had on the line. that could've been for the AFC South crown, will now likely be three hours of mediocrity. If fans want that, they can download "The Force Awakens" instead of watching the Savage-Ca sel, non-title bout this Sunday. Ah, go make yourself feel better. Go get $20 movie nachos and see "Rogue One" after the game. Unbelievable. Unbelieva . Actually, check that: was totally foreseeable, at least if you have been following this franchise's late-season fortunes since Y2K. You know, a small window like that. Buffalo did manage to come back from two scores down, twice. But not managing any points after rumbled into field-goal territory in overtime? Dude. For whatever reason, the kept trying plays to see if DE would stay home. (He did. Every time.) That includes to that lost eight yards! Why risk that play with swirling winds and a kicker who is about as money as a buffalo nickel this season? Don't ask where the ' safety was on that to set up Miami's game-winning field goal, either. Probably Mordor, with this group's luck. Feel bad for fans in Buffalo, who love their team 'til it hurts. Welp. If this team had about 11 s, it'd be in good shape. Going from 5-0 to 7-8 is never fun, unle s you have your eyes set on drafting a guy in the middle of Round 1. On to brighter notes: How about this ?! Dude was competing like Adam West out there ... No, I didn't expect you to get a reference from a cheesy show from the mid-'60s ... but we should all get how impre sive this guy's season has been, going from an undrafted third-year player who in pro football was talking about, to putting up two hundy at Lambeau and closing in on a 1,000-yard season. New Orleans , one year after sending Tampa into . Unfortunately for the , they will be part of the mediocre pack again this season. The best Sean Payton's group can do is 8-8 ... one year after going 7-9 ... one year after going 7-9. Perhaps this is a middling group, yet you have to like what you see in terms of young talent. was out there making plays Saturday. He gained 98 yards. equaled that total. Cam Jordan sacked late, when the Bucs could ill afford it. Rookie got to Winston, too. Fellow freshman has 81 tackles to his name. So while not sure how long will look out from under center for this franchise, we do know that his view is getting much better. Well, at least at practice anyway. That's the old boxing proverb, probably borrowed from a Jack Dempsey tug-of-war from Stefon Diggs Jersey 100 years ago. In the case of the NFC West, it's true. The can , but not the , who of course never take down Seattle. The , then in the toughest place to win in pro football. Arizona has pulled off the feat three times in the last four years now, which is stellar ... or stupidly maddening for fans who watched them blow one-score games , and those . None of which are awful clubs. But it remains an incredible feat that of the ' six home lo ses since 2013, half have come from Bruce Arians' group. Plain confounding that the ' defense performs so well at home. was the latest installment in the Jim Schwartz defensive turnaround. Save for the fact that it can't turn around Philadelphia's record. Schwartz's unit only allows 21.2 points per game (nearly six points le s than last year), including a scant 15.9 per game at home. All this improvement came sans a giant influx of talent. Didn't hurt against the , now did it? At halftime Saturday, defensive backs had run for more yards off of interceptions than had pa sing yards. Another clunky outing for the 2015 MVP, a guy who inexplicably played well . Why inexplicable? Because games like his stinker versus the have been as much the norm for Newton as the mistake-free product he put out there versus the . Don't see status quo heading into 2017 for the , whether that means or not. Another for the , who could manage just 10 measly points fielding a lineup devoid of a few major pieces. Without and , and the immortal carrying the ground game (impre sive, given the length of T-Rex arms), the ' offense versus Houston was punchle s most of the night. The defense played well enough to win, but -- as has all too often been the case in 2016 -- the different sides of the ball couldn't produce on the same night. The lo s did ensure Cincinnati a top-10 pick, however. Back to Burkhead: Has anyone ever seen )? A horror cult cla sic, kind of like the Cincinnati QBs of the '90s. Somebody had to do it. There had to be a team that was capable of playing crappy enough to let the certifiably team in the league . Enter the rudderle s , who could be playing two hours up the road in 2017 ... who might have a new head coach in 2017 ... and whose long-time franchise quarterback has looked like a shell of himself over the last month. You realize the po sible Hall of Famer hasn't hit the 60 percent completion mark in a game since November? For all their shortcomings -- and shortfalls in the health department -- the Bolts could deal a devastating blow to the . A . And I sure hope the stay in SD. SMH. Much was made of Doug Marrone's odd departure from Buffalo, when he opted out of his contract ... escaped ... got out of Dodge ... as the organization went through an ownership change. By (a team playing for the division) on Saturday, the now-interim coach of the might have taken a step closer to getting back into the saddle on a more permanent basis. Make no mistake: The Jags were in control of the affair long before quarterback broke his leg. Make no mistake: Jacksonville quarterback decided to proffer his best day of the season the week after his head coach got fired. The legend of didn't continue. Shocking to look at the and see five interceptions. Tried rewatching the game to see them, you know, to maybe do the ol' shining of the turd. Nope. They were all ugly. Or, put in a language everyone can easily understand, Ryan Fitzpatrickish. Still, Barkley competes and tries to provide his team with a chance to win -- he's no Checkdown Charley. Or . Or Charley Pride Christmas album, which my Dad made us listen to every year. Barkley still threw for more than 300 yards and a couple of touchdowns. caught the first one. Think he's a find for the . Wish I could find that Christmas album ... Most analysts -- TV and radio -- say Todd Bowles is a solid football coach. Don't disagree, yet there can be no getting around the ' disappointing December, during which it appears that, in at least two games, the players quit competing (SEE: , ). Coaches should get an opportunity to work with players, implement their system and adjust their strategy based off the mistakes made during their stewardship. I feel that is at least a three-year proce s. Not sure Bowles will last that long, but if Gus Bradley lasted nearly four years ... After weeks upon weeks with San Francisco mired in the 31-hole, we are finally able to put a cute little green arrow atop this paragraph you are reading. Merry Christmas, everybody. Kudos, as well, to , who carried out a sales job worthy of "Glengarry Glen Ro s" on that . Always Ed Oliver Jersey be closing. Which, the hope to do . Let's not get carried away. Of course we realize that the own a record equal to or superior than four of the teams above them in the Power Rankings. Los Angeles places this low because, frankly, no football team has looked worse over the last month. The were outscored 141-48 over the previous four games prior to Saturday's contest . Blown out this time? No. Blown lead? Unfortunately. A beleaguered defense that had caught plates in an earthquake all afternoon ran out of hands in the waning minutes. Could've used a hand from the offense. is a rookie, understood. But 11 of 24 for 90 yards, a TD and two picks against the in the league? Hand fans a cold beer, please. Yes! Yes! Yes! #%$# . can stick it, too. These 2016 finally won a game, and damn it feels nice to type it. While we're at it, those Cleveland fans who wanted the to prevail so that the would obtain the first overall pick didn't need to commit such a sports sin. means the Moneyballers are in the driver's seat for the No. 1 selection. As an aside, the year I went to the most games as a kid was 1989. Dallas was terrible that season, finishing 1-15. I never rooted against them. Just saying. Congratulations, Brownies. This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
Click here Click here Click here