Coyote Blog

Find this week's rankings here.  Incredibly, Buffalo ended the year at number 5, and just a hair from #4, and are on the outside looking in at the playoffs.  I think the Colts are breathing a huge sigh of relief to be facing Denver rather than the Bills in the first round - a fate which they interestingly controlled by tanking the last game of the season, despite their coaches assurances to the contrary.

For the Super Bowl, I am sticking with the Patriots in the AFC.  Its tough not to pick Pittsburgh, who were impressive with even their scrubs beating a surging Buffalo team in the last week.  However, I will go with experience. The NFC is a total mess.  No one has ever lost much money betting against the Eagles to reach the Super Bowl, but everyone else really, really sucks.  Everyone else is an 8-8 team, even the Falcons who should be 8-8 but got away with a few.  I'll go with NE and Philly in the Superbowl, with the AFC winner, whoever they are, taking the title.

By the way, the Cards finished 27th in the rankings, which is actually (pathetically enough) one of their best finishes.  However, don't get cocky.  You can see from this post that the Cardinals are still the standard for mediocrity against which all teams are compared.

Football Outsiders has their week 16 football rankings up here.  Previously, I explained why I like Football Outsiders here.

The amazing thing to me is just how bad Atlanta looks in these rankings, at number 19.  In fact, much of the NFC playoff mix looks bad, with ATL, SEA, and GB sitting at 19,20,and 21.  On the flip side, Buffalo and 5 and Baltimore at 7 could be the best teams to miss the playoffs.  Buffalo in particular has really been playing lights out, but they still need some help this week to make the playoffs given their really bad start and the strength of the AFC.

Interestingly, Buffalo gets in if they win and the Colts beat the Broncos.  The Colts are likely to play one of these teams in the first round.  If I were the Colts, I would much much much rather face the Broncos in the first round than the surging Bills.  Bledsoe may be a playoff question mark, but Plummer is even more so.  Therefore, the Colts, despite what Dungee is saying lately, have zero incentive to win this weekend and every reason to take a dive.