2007 NFL Week 15 Barometer

The New England Patriots kept hold of their perfect record and the top spot in the rankings by dispatching of possibly the last team that could beat them. Baltimore, one week removed from nearly beating the Patriots, got destroyed by the Colts. Was this a letdown game, or a sign that the Colts are in top form? I, for one, can’t wait for a Patriots vs Colts rematch. The good teams are playing well. The bad teams are playing poorly. This week, eight of last week’s top ten teams took home a victory. Without too many surprises in week 14, did the rankings show much change?

After each week of the NFL season, several active Cafe members get together and rank the 32 NFL teams from first to worst. The Barometer is an average of the rankings submitted by these members. To maintain consistency, the high and low scores have been removed.

Rank	Change	TEAM	Avg Rank	W a C o u g M B S	M a d a s	t a r p o n 1 7	A m u k	s L i m	h o o f h e a r t e d	D e e r a y	t r e a t
1 (1)		New England	1.0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
“They had a convincing win against the Steelers, but it’s ‘No Guarantee’ that the Pats are the best team.” – madaslives911
“It’s a bad sign for your defense when the Steelers’ offensive line is pushing you around. That’s like losing an arm wrestling competition to a kid with a pocket protector. Still, it doesn’t matter that much when Tom Brady is your quarterback.” – steelerfan513
2 (3)		Indianapolis	2.2	2	2	2	2	3	3	2	2
“Tony Dungy (in my overactive imagination): ‘I love the smell of touchdowns in the evening. Smells like… Victory.’” – scottaa1
3 (2)		Dallas	2.8	3	3	3	3	2	2	3	3
“Terrance Newman said he had 20 to 25 thousand for fines; maybe he was talking about being fined for betting on Detroit to cover the spread and not on his defense.” – deerayfan072
“Hello, My name is Tony Romo. I’m here to kill your playoff hopes.” – patriot197
“Good teams find a way to win and bad teams find a way to lose. Such was the case against Detroit. If only Brady wasn’t going bananas on opposing defenses, Romo would have the MVP all but locked up.” – Jimboozie
4 (4)		Green Bay	4.0	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
“If you cut off Brett Favre’s arms he’d just give stiff arms with his chin and throw TD passes with his junk.” – Metroid
5 (6)		Jacksonville	5.5	5	6	5	6	6	6	5	5
“David Garrard is the Scott Baio of fantasy football quarterbacks. This guy doesn’t get much recognition but is quietly having a superb season.” – Jimboozie
6 (5)		Pittsburgh	6.2	6	8	7	7	5	5	6	6
“Anthony Smith, it’s not wise to make promises with your mouth that your performance on the field cannot keep.” – patriot197
“Insert redundant comment about Anthony Smith’s guarantee here.” – steelerfan513
7 (7)		Seattle	6.5	7	5	6	5	7	7	7	7
“With the NFC West wrapped up, this crew can make some noise in the playoffs. Even though their schedule has been extremely soft, they’re not a team to sleep on.” – Jimboozie
8 (9)		San Diego	8.2	8	7	8	9	8	8	9	8
“Apparently, superstar running back Ladainian Tomlinson heard about fantasy player’s ramblings about how he is a chump and decided to throw it back in his face. LAWL!” – Jimboozie
9 (8)		Tampa Bay	10.0	10	10	9	8	10	11	11	10
“You know your defense played bad when a Quarterback that was released by the Dolphins is able to carve you up.” – deerayfan072
10 (11)		NY Giants	10.2	9	9	12	12	9	9	10	12
“Even though they won again, and are in cruise control to the playoffs, this team just screams ‘One and done.’” – Jimboozie
11 (10)		Cleveland	10.5	11	11	10	10	11	10	8	11
“Romeo Crennel for coach of the year? During the preseason, those are words I thought I’d never hear myself say when he was flipping coins to figure out his starting quarterback.” – Jimboozie
12 (13)		Minnesota	11.7	12	12	11	11	12	12	13	9
“I have a plate of crow ready for Christmas Dinner, Don’t mess that up Chilly; I’m really hungry. ” – RiffRaff
13 (12)		Tennessee	13.2	13	13	13	13	16	13	14	13
“Yeah, the Madden Curse got to Vince Young. You really don’t think it has anything at all to do with the fact that his number one receiver is Justin Gage and Lendale White averages as many yards per carry as he does healthy food items eaten per day?” – steelerfan513
14 (15)		New Orleans	15.3	15	18	14	16	15	21	12	14
“Was it just me or did the Saints look really good without Reggie Bush? I know, I know, the Falcons had a lot to do with that.” – Jimboozie
15 (14)		Arizona	16.0	17	19	15	14	18	16	15	15
“Kurt Warner is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One week he looks great leading the Cardinals to a win, the next week you’re left wondering where the heck he went. Five Interceptions? Ouch.” – SniperShot
16 (19)		Buffalo	16.0	14	14	19	15	17	15	18	17
“Nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills. They’re only one game behind Cleveland for the final wild card spot and get to face them this week. Who would have thought Buffalo vs. Cleveland would have major playoff implications?” – Jimboozie
17 (18)		Denver	16.7	16	17	17	17	14	14	20	19
“So Travis Henry is starting. No wait, Selvin Young is starting and is going to run for 150 yards while Henry gets nothing but a touchdown and 24 yards. What’s next? Shanahan calls up Trung Candidate to be their workhorse?” – steelerfan513
18 (20)		Houston	17.7	18	15	21	19	19	17	17	16
“Sage isn’t just a dried herb on the shelf no one uses. As it turns out, it can be an important part of the recipe for victory!” – patriot197
19 (17)		Detroit	19.0	20	20	18	20	13	19	19	18
“Howie Long on Detroit: ‘Mike Martz suffers from a rare form of Al Gore syndrome; Al Gore still thinks he is the president and Mike Martz still thinks he’s the head coach.’” – deerayfan072
20 (16)		Philadelphia	19.3	22	21	16	18	21	20	16	20
“David Akers sure gave that 57 yard FG a shot at the end of regulation. It would have been good too had the darned upright not gotten in the way.” – SniperShot
“The Eagles have all but been eliminated from the playoffs. Most teams would probably begin playing for a good draft pick, but with the Eagles it doesn’t matter where they pick, its still gonna be a lineman.” – m16a
21 (21)		Washington	19.8	19	16	20	21	20	18	21	21
“Before Thursday, name the year Todd Collins last threw two touchdown passes in a game. Answer? 1997 – The same year Austin Powers was released. Oh, behave Todd! Yeah baby!” – Jimboozie
“To think that after all of this, the Skins actually control their playoff destiny. The NFC really, really sucks.” – steelerfan513
“Control their own destiny? With Gibbs at the helm, that destiny looks very bleak. He needs to go.” – tarpon17
22 (23)		Cincinnati	22.0	21	22	22	22	22	22	22	22
“They won last week but does a win vs. the Brock Berlin led Rams really count?” – Snipershot
23 (22)		Chicago	23.2	23	25	24	23	23	23	23	23
“The bad news: Only three teams in the Super Bowl era have made the playoffs despite starting 5-7. The good news: A large number of regular viewers weren’t able to watch the Bears play on NFL Network Thursday night.” – Jimboozie
“Opposing teams, please kick it to Hester. We have nothing else to watch for.” – beanoX3
“Start the neckbeard! (Not that I think Orton will be any better than Grossman or Griese, but that neckbeard is mesmerizing…)” – beanoX3
24 (24)		Baltimore	24.0	24	23	23	24	24	25	27	24
“How bad do you have to be if you have Peyton Manning’s backup staring your defensive line in the face?” – seritoNiN
“The Colts were giving the Ravens a chance to catch up when they pulled their first stringers (offense and defense) from the game, but still the Ravens efforts to come up with big plays still proved futile.” – madaslives911
25 (25)		Carolina	24.7	25	24	25	27	25	24	24	25
“Does Vinny get an Ensure shower instead of a Gatoraid shower in wins?” – deerayfan072
“The Panthers would probably do a lot better if they let Steve Smith play QB and have him air it to himself.” – m16a
26 (26)		Kansas City	26.5	26	27	26	30	27	27	25	26
“Tony Gonzalez is good. As for the rest of the team; well, someone’s mother once told me, ‘If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’” – Jimboozie
27 (28)		Oakland	26.8	27	26	28	25	26	28	26	29
“You know things aren’t going your way when your opponent’s defense (Green Bay) outscores your offense. ” – Jimboozie
28 (27)		St. Louis	27.5	29	28	27	26	28	26	28	28
“Who is this Berlin guy? What happened to Bulger? Or the Gus Bus? At least Gus threw interceptions. This guy doesn’t even get the ball in the air when he turns it over.” – masarume
“The Berlin Wall was much better at keeping democracy from spreading into Russia than protecting Brock from a pass rush.” – deerayfan072
29 (31)		NY Jets	29.3	30	30	31	28	29	29	29	29
“Something tells me that none of the Jets players will be making any guarantees this week versus New England.” – Jimboozie
30 (30)		Atlanta	30.0	28	29	30	29	31	30	31	31
“There were more people at Michael Vick’s sentencing than there were at that game on Monday night. Things have gotten so bad even their head coach has given up.” – Snipershot
31 (29)		San Francisco	30.5	31	31	29	31	30	31	30	30
“How bad is the 49er offense? In one drive, Shaun Hill passed for as many yards as Trent Dilfer did in the entire first half. Trent, you should have played safety like most NFL teams wanted you to.” – deerayfan072
“This season, they’ve put their chips in the middle of the table but none of the cards have fallen their way. Once a popular preseason playoff pick, the 49ers now only have a high draft pick to look forward to. Oh wait, they traded that away to the unstoppable Patriots. D’oh!” – Jimboozie
32 (32)		Miami	32.0	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32
“Miami’s motto is similar to the Post Office, ‘Through rain, sleet, or snow, we deliver losses’” – deerayfan072
“Will they finish out the season with a perfect record? No team has ever gone 0-16. Their final three opponents are Baltimore, New England, and Cincinnati. I’m thinking yes. And I’m thinking Arbys.” – Jimboozie

Thanks to everyone that helped make these rankings happen!

(7 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)  Loading ... Questions or comments for Scott? Post them in the Cafe Forums! Want to see your own fantasy wisdom published? Check out the Cafe's Pencil & Paper section!