NFL Power Rankings, Week 9: Panthers, Seahawks on the rise

Previous rank:
No. 1

The sign of a great team, a
Super Bowl team, is when it doesn’t play anywhere near its peak performance … and still wins. That was the
Rams
on Sunday. The defense got rolled early, putting Los Angeles behind the, er, 12-ball at 10-zip. As he always manages to do, Sean McVay deciphered the Rubik’s Cube, leaning on
Todd Gurley more on early downs to keep an uber-aggressive
Packers defense honest. On that front, Gurley somehow piled up nearly 200 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown after a rough start. The focus on Gurley allowed
Jared Goff to deliver perfect strikes on intermediate throws against single coverage, which is so difficult to stop (or even hope to stop).

Side note: Gurley could’ve padded his tally with another score late. He deliberately rammed into a tackler instead, ignoring the goal line in order to help prod the clock to 0:00. It was reminiscent of the first guy I ever saw do that: Brian Westbrook of the
Eagles during a late-season win at Texas Stadium back in 2007. Strategery.

Previous rank:
No. 2

No movement for the
Patriots, although
Saints fans think their team should have leapfrogged New England. Funny how
25-6 division wins — on the road, no less — are not enough anymore. The
Patriots‘ defense gave up 46 yards on the ground and forced two turnovers to take the pressure off
Tom Brady, a la
the Dolphins game a month ago. Offensively,
James White caught his usual 150 passes (10 for 79), while
his touchdown plunge capped off the key drive of the game, pushing a close six-point affair to 18-6 in the fourth quarter.

Side note:
Cordarrelle Patterson …
Cordarrelle Patterson … got 10 carries. He has more rushing attempts than receptions this season.

Previous rank:
No. 4

From
team off to a rough start to
quiet Super Bowl contender. That’s the arc of the
Saints‘ 2018 campaign thus far. Three days before Halloween, New Orleans re-entered
the house of its playoff horrors — and proceeded to
wallop the Vikings on defense and special teams.

Notable:
Drew Brees threw for 120 yards, his lowest total since Week 17, 2006, a meaningless game during his first year with the team (he only threw five passes).

Also notable:
Marcus Davenport has four sacks. #NotbadforthedudenoonewantedtheSaintstomoveupfor

Previous rank:
No. 6

The
Chargers — who, at 5-2 aren’t necessarily flying under the radar — have yet to be considered under the heading ”
Super Bowl contenders.” The wait for
Joey Bosa continues, but his return —
whenever it comes — should take the pressure off what has been a more-than-capable offense. Consider that the Bolts have racked up 18 sacks while recording five games with multiple turnovers in their seven contests without him thus far this season. Can you imagine how good they’ll be
with him?

Previous rank:
No. 7

So many positive tidbits to glean from the
Panthers‘
win over the Ravens. First, there was the confidence with which
Cam Newton operated Norv Turner’s offense, with a little treat for the field general himself on
the QB keeper late. Second, the draftniks’ misidentification of
Christian McCaffrey was further cemented, with the back proving to be a workhorse in this his sophomore campaign (18 touches Sunday, 136 on the season). Third, love Turner’s use of
DJ Moore on Sunday, with end-arounds, pitches and typical down-the-field stuff all stemming from Moore’s acceleration. No,
C.J. Mosley,
you did not have that angle.

Previous rank:
No. 9

Great win for the
Steelers, hopefully providing a small bit of solace for a shaken city. This might be a football column, but is there anyone in America who is not tired of mass shootings? Mike Tomlin clearly felt the impact, noting that the synagogue
at which 11 people were killed Saturday was
no more 800 yards from his house. Pittsburgh’s head coach got his team ready to play for the fans and their community, which was more than noticeable. The
Steelers‘ defense gave its best performance of the season, not allowing the
Browns to go over the 200-yard barrier as a team until complete garbage time.
James Conner (212 yards from scrimmage) nearly matched Cleveland singlehandedly. No Pittsburgh player competed for himself in that game at Heinz Field on Sunday.

Previous rank:
No. 5

CBS Radio analyst Jason Taylor was beside himself over the fact that, with Minnesota down 30-13 and eight minutes or so to go in the fourth quarter of
the game against the Saints, the
Vikings were walking back to the huddle. I’m with him on that. The sense of urgency wasn’t omnipresent for Minnesota, though the team had plenty of time to at least make the Sunday nighter interesting. The Vikes made things far easier for their NFC adversaries than they did
last January. Though they rang up a plethora of yards, they couldn’t do much of anything else to even be in the contest for most of the second half.
Next up: Lions.

Previous rank:
No. 10

Washington hums along, sitting comfortably atop the NFC at 5-2. The
Redskins‘ strength continues to be running the football and stopping the run, like they’re straight from the 1940s. Actually, in that era, the ‘Skins were known for throwing it all over the yard with Sammy Baugh.
Alex Smith hasn’t been asked to play likewise, and
that held true on Sunday, when his yards-per-attempt mark was a scant 5.6. That’s OK. Slingin’ Sammy — who could play himself some safety, too — would’ve admired
D.J. Swearinger‘s two interceptions of
Eli Manning (especially since they came against the rival Giants).

Side note: With 149 rushing yards, the 33-year-old
Adrian Peterson is on pace for 1,342 this season. Wow.

Previous rank:
No. 11

Who knows how strong this
Bears team really is? At 4-3, and with both the
Packers and
Vikings losing last week, Chicago is in the heart of the NFC North race.
A two-score win certainly helps boost the perception of this team, although the opponent in said victory is far from a playoff squad. Mitch Trubisky was effective against the
Jets in a sense, committing no turnovers while making plenty of hay with his legs. The air attack is still earthbound. The larger question is, when will the
Jordan Howard breakout game come? Still zero 100-yard outings on the season, although he was solid against New York’s front.
Tarik Cohen was a handful.

Previous rank:
No. 8

Make no mistake: The
Ravens
got drubbed in Carolina on Sunday. That’s how it felt, anyway, watching
Joe Flacco under pressure, tossing errant balls, while
Cam Newton coasted his way through four quarters and into the end zone on an easy-peasy bootleg. Flacco’s two interceptions were mind-boggling. The first should have been an obvious throwaway. Instead, the ill-advised throw
was picked off right before halftime, setting up a
Graham Gano field goal to push the
Panthers‘ lead to 17. The second was a bad decision augmented by a badly underthrown ball,
picked clean by Captain Munnerlyn. I enjoyed getting whipped by my brother at Boggle more than watching those throws.

Previous rank:
No. 14

Back to .500 … what an up-and-down year for the defending champs, who
evened their record Sunday in London on the strength of the defense.
Jordan Hicks was all over the place, posting 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks.
Chris Long added two sacks of his own. Free Atomic Fireballs for you if you guessed
Josh Adams would be the game’s leading rusher. The rookie rang up more yards than he produced all season, then celebrated his 22nd birthday Monday.

Side note:
Jordan Matthews, of all people, was the game’s leading receiver, while
Corey Clement has barely been getting his hands on the ball. Odd.

Previous rank:
No. 17

You hear the phrase “flying under the radar” in sports enough to make you miss those Jimmy Johnson Extenze commercials. (Note: Please don’t read the
Chargers blurb.) Yet, I have to say that no team is … flying … uh … is being ignored more than the
Seahawks. Seattle
has improved to 4-3 after starting the season with two straight losses. Front and center is Ken Norton’s defense, which is fifth in points allowed per game, despite being sans
Richard Sherman,
Kam Chancellor and
Michael Bennett. That’s the same Norton whom the
Raiders — the
Raiders — didn’t want. Cool.

Side note: Got a random call from John Schneider about my Eric Metcalf TBT feature from this past week. Schneider brought in Metcalf in 2001 for the then-struggling
Redskins (1-5), without earning much praise from the sportswriter peanut gallery. The 12th-year pro promptly took a first-quarter punt 89 yards to the house. Washington went on a roll, winning four in a row after Metcalf joined and finishing 8-8. Moral of the story: Schneider and Pete Carroll know what they are doing.
You can watch the amazing Metcalf here.

Previous rank:
No. 16

It appeared as though
Andy Dalton and the
Bengals were headed to overtime
against the Bucs when the Cincy quarterback missed
C.J. Uzomah on that shallow cross with under a minute to play. Then Dalton made a couple of clutch throws to
A.J. Green,
setting up Randy Bullock. For a guy who still doesn’t earn much praise around the league, that’s the fourth time in 2018 that Dalton engineered a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter. Just saying.

Previous rank:
No. 18

The
Amari Cooper trade generated enough water cooler talk for Joe Buck to bring it up in the World Series Game 3 broadcast. Now we will all find out how much blame the receiving corps deserves for the passing-game woes in Dallas. While
Dak Prescott has not been the most accurate passer (something that’s been mentioned a few times in this space), it’s not as if the windows he sees are of the larger variety. Cole Beasley: still one of the top Ys around.

Previous rank:
No. 12

Gonna take a wild guess that
Lions fans expected a better effort from their favorite team, with Detroit fresh off
a road victory and having won three of the last four. That run included home Ws
over the Patriots
and Packers, for crying out loud. So,
of course Detroit gets
thumped by the Seahawks in front of the home folk at Ford Field. Even worse, one week after Matt Patricia’s guys piled up 248 yards on the ground, they darn near ignored the run game altogether versus what was the league’s 24th-ranked run defense. #Lions

Previous rank:
No. 19

The Broncos got beat in Kansas City, dropping their record to 3-5 on the season with
an imposing four-game stretch ahead: vs.
Texans, at
Chargers, vs.
Steelers, at
Bengals. Still, none of those teams will be any stronger than the foe Denver just went toe to toe with — namely, quarterback
Patrick Mahomes, who has made every defense he’s faced look silly. Similar to their first meeting
on Oct. 1, the
Broncos stayed with the AFC West leaders throughout. The key sequence this time came with just under six minutes remaining. On third-and-2, from his own 20 and trailing by 10 points,
Case Keenum … checked to
Devontae Booker
behind the line of scrimmage. Huh?!

Previous rank:
No. 20

How about a week off for the most banged-up team in pro football? Many of the
Falcons‘ key parts are currently on IR, yet there are those (
Mohamed Sanu,
Matt Bryant and
Grady Jarrett, to name a few) who just needed a bye to get healthier for
Atlanta’s meeting in Washington with the upstart
Redskins.

Side note: Who would want to face this
Falcons attack come playoff time?
Not it!

Historical note: This Sunday’s bout is a rematch from the 1991 Divisional Round. Too soon?

Previous rank:
No. 27

Make that two in a row for the pesky
Colts, who refuse to go quietly into 2018’s night. In fact, at 3-5, they are still right in the thick of the AFC South race. Indy is getting better — more consistent — quarterback play than the division-leading
Texans. The
Titans‘ offense has been stuck in Tennessee mud all year. The
Jaguars are right there with Indianapolis at 3-5, save for the fact Jacksonville is headed in the opposition direction. Then again, that was the
Raiders whom
Indy toppled Sunday. OK, I’ll calm my enthusiasm.

Previous rank:
No. 21

Another shoddy outing for the
Dolphins, who fell apart in the fourth quarter
last Thursday in Houston. Adam Gase’s defense has disintegrated over the last five weeks, with Miami giving up 167 points during that stretch. That’s an absolute ton. The 1973
Super Bowl team didn’t allow that many all year. Granted, those days were different in pro football, but take a look for yourself at the coverage the other night. Next up:
Jets, at home. Miami rebounds.

Previous rank:
No. 23

Well, you can’t put that loss on the quarterback. Sure,
Blake Bortles checked it down a bunch. He also used his considerable mobility to extend drives. The much-maligned passer didn’t carry the offense, but he
did carry his end of the bargain. Perhaps he should’ve walked up to
D.J. Chark and handed him that ball in the end zone. Neither Bortles nor the defense received
any support on the ground from the RBs: eight carries for 18 yards. Jacksonville is not anywhere close to being the same outfit that earned its way to the AFC Championship Game last season. Not without
Leonard Fournette, who was painfully absent once again.

Previous rank:
No. 24

Start
Ryan Fitzpatrick the rest of the season. Then decide if you want to keep
Jameis Winston this spring. That’s one way to handle this situation decisively. (Well, unless Fitzmagic pulls a bunch of interceptions out of a hat.) The Bucs picked up Winston’s fifth-year option for 2019, but it’s guaranteed for injury only. If Tampa does retain the enigmatic quarterback, the team should draft another and make Winston compete. That scenario should include Fitzpatrick as well, in the way New York re-upped
Josh McCown as a fallback for
Sam Darnold‘s growing pains.

Previous rank:
No. 25

At the end of the day, Hue Jackson’s 3-36-1 mark was just too big an eyesore. Rankling OC Todd Haley, then laying blame at his feet, probably didn’t help Jackson, either. The
Browns‘ offense needed solutions (or, at bare minimum, not making it so easy for defenses to solve), not snipping back and forth. Whatever was going on between the coaches,
neither survived Monday’s housecleaning. Now, Gregg Williams is in charge (at least for the time being), which brings on new problems to be solved. How will he handle rookie QB
Baker Mayfield? Er, how will Mayfield handle
him? Will Williams’ attention be taken away from the defense, which has immense upside? Fans in Cleveland probably aren’t too upset to see Jackson go, but the national perception of Williams is not flattering, given what went down in New Orleans. If the
Browns‘ bleak past is to be water under the bridge, it better flow past the new head coach, too.

Previous rank:
No. 26

Another long day at the office for Todd Bowles, who is beginning to not like these NFC North folks. After whipping the
Lions on opening day, Gang Green has been ganged up on by the
Vikings and
Bears in consecutive weeks.
Sam Darnold struggled against a top-tier Chicago defense, completing less than half of his passes. The dude didn’t exactly receive Tempur-Pedic-esque support from his running backs: 19 carries, 35 yards. Get excited.

Previous rank:
No. 30

Larry Fitzgerald played
Hall of Fame football Sunday. If I knew how to type the tiny superscript “2” that denotes “squared” after ”
Hall of Fame football,” I would, because Fitzgerald was already on his way to breakdancing into Canton on the first ballot. Yet, when rookie quarterback
Josh Rosen needed chunk yardage late, he went to Larry Legend (the
other Larry Legend). Fitzgerald caught a handful of key Rosen heaves late — from Arizona’s second-to-last touchdown to one that required him to go up and take a hit — to push Arizona deep into
49ers territory. After the kid
Christian Kirk hauled in a Rosen fastball in the back of the end zone, there was Fitz, trucking a Niners defender for the two-point conversion. #oldmanstrength

Previous rank:
No. 28

The
Giants move down in a season that continues to sink faster by the week. Pat Shurmur’s team is 1-7 if you’re scoring at home, although you’d be able to tell that just by looking at the guy.
Eli Manning has made enough
Eli faces in the last 20 quarters to last a lifetime, although the blame game should
not focus only on New York’s quarterback. Manning was under continual pressure Sunday, as the
Giants‘ offensive line saw fit to allow seven sacks and numerous pressures. Yuck.

Previous rank:
No. 29

Another loss for the Bills, who stayed with their division bully for three quarters, but frankly don’t have the firepower of late to stay with
any team for four. The offense has produced a grand total of nine points the last two weeks, and 35 over the last five games. That’s seven points per outing.
Todd Gurley has outscored Buffalo by himself this season. The defense does its part, until running on fumes proves too much for a gassed unit. That group stifled
Tom Brady and the
Patriots‘ offense for as long as possible could Monday night.

Previous rank:
No. 31

Disappointing loss for the
49ers, who took what seemed to be a commanding 15-3 lead in the fourth quarter, only to let it sail away on them. That’s precisely what happened on the last play of the game, when an errant snap fluttered past
C.J. Beathard‘s right shoulder pad, accurately in line with the Niners’ ignominious recent history. San Francisco was thrown a bone late in the fourth quarter when a
Jermaine Gresham fumble resulted (after official review) in the
49ers finding themselves with solid field position and holding a five-point lead with less than five minutes to play. The ensuing five-play, 4-yard drive was as costly as the knuckleball snap.

Previous rank:
No. 32

The
Raiders stay parked in the back lot. Up 28-21 in the fourth quarter, good vibes pervaded the Oakland Coliseum. It was akin to olden times, like when Ken Stabler was throwing floaters to Freddy Stick Hands in the corner of the end zone, or Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco were bashing forearms, or Rich Gannon was peeling off Jerry Rice and Tim Brown to find Jerry Porter downtown. Then the Oakland defense reminded everyone that it was 2018. Hey, at least these guys are still playing for their head coach … and quarterback.