Power Rankings

[Shaw66]

It used to be that we used to pay attention to the power rankings every week to see if the Bills had moved up or down. Everyone would comment on the rankings - too high, too low, about right.  

 

We don't do that on this forum like we used to. 

 

Anyway, I just happened to look at ESPN's power rankings.  Bills are fourth.  That's okay, I guess, and I don't really care, but it strikes me as really odd that the Bills beat both the Chiefs and the Lions and both teams are still ranked above the Bills.  What are they supposed to do to be recognized for what they are?

 

I don't know - maybe the both of those teams ARE better than the Bills, but it seems to me some leaps of faith have to be taken to reach that conclusion. Like, Patrick Mahomes is the next Tom Brady, and his team is ALWAYS better because they have Patrick Mahomes. Or, the Lions are everyone's favorite story this season, so they must be better.  

 

Just keep winning. 

 

[Drew21PA]

Has to be something to do with our record against playoff teams 

 

which we lost to Houston and the ravens that hurts us

[Beast]

I never did. This isn’t college football.

[Warcodered]

Somebody said it was literally based on record which makes sense. We wouldn't be the 1 seed in either conference based on our record.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

I don’t think it’s based on much of anything other than a gut personal feeling on what would happen if those teams meet again.some places just rank based on record alone unless there’s some massive extenuating circumstances which kind of feels what espn has done here more or less 

 

espn consistently has the worst power rankings imo. NFL.com has us at 2 behind the eagles which seems legit 

 

having the lions ranked above us after we beat them and they sustained quite a few season ending injuries is a little ridiculous.  At least chiefs you can use the past playoff history argument 

Edited December 17 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[amprov56]

Just keep winning, dont matter how, just keep winning!

[Sweats]

The only ranking i need is JA as MVP and holding that Lombardi at the end of the season..........the rest of it is just meaningless.

[Mango]

I think anything below 3 I tend to start to disagree with. 4 is a grey area. 5 would be waaaay too low IMO. 

Power rankings are imperfect, is it a review? a look forward? record? all encompassing? trending?

Buffalo and Philly should be 1 and 2 at this point. Doesn't matter what order. Detroit can still live in the top 3 based on what they have done. But with injuries do you move them out? I don't put KC there. They just have not been good despite winning games. 

I think Minnesota, KC, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and GB are a hodgepodge. I could flip flop them around depending on what I am looking at. 

[todd]

Random criteria to establish a random ranking that means nothing - other than a way to get more clicks. Stopped paying attention years ago.

[May Day 10]

I used to like the running 538 one, as it used all sorts of measurable criteria and interesting.

 

Now, they normally resemble the standings.  Then stupid little biases like you cant drop KC below X because they won the Superbowl.  

[Steve O]

Only power rankings that matter come out on February 10th.

[chongli]

33 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

It used to be that we used to pay attention to the power rankings every week to see if the Bills had moved up or down. Everyone would comment on the rankings - too high, too low, about right.  

 

We don't do that on this forum like we used to. 

 

Anyway, I just happened to look at ESPN's power rankings.  Bills are fourth.  That's okay, I guess, and I don't really care, but it strikes me as really odd that the Bills beat both the Chiefs and the Lions and both teams are still ranked above the Bills.  What are they supposed to do to be recognized for what they are?

 

I don't know - maybe the both of those teams ARE better than the Bills, but it seems to me some leaps of faith have to be taken to reach that conclusion. Like, Patrick Mahomes is the next Tom Brady, and his team is ALWAYS better because they have Patrick Mahomes. Or, the Lions are everyone's favorite story this season, so they must be better.  

 

Just keep winning. 

 

 

The ESPN power rankings released today are being discussed here (after the author's thread was merged):

 

 

Edited December 17 by chongli

[Returntoglory]

Seems about right. 

[dorquemada]

31 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

 

 

espn consistently has the worst power rankings imo. NFL.com has us at 2 behind the eagles which seems legit 

 

 

 

ESPN is garbage.  For a lot of reasons of course, but i've been a ESPN+ subscriber for years, and when I recently tried to cancel (because it's garbage) there was absolutely no way to do it, none of the links worked, I tried everything and I'm a professional computer toucher.  Fortunately I have one of the fancy tier credit cards and told my concierge the situation and they simply stopped payment

[Casey D]

43 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

It used to be that we used to pay attention to the power rankings every week to see if the Bills had moved up or down. Everyone would comment on the rankings - too high, too low, about right.  

 

We don't do that on this forum like we used to. 

 

Anyway, I just happened to look at ESPN's power rankings.  Bills are fourth.  That's okay, I guess, and I don't really care, but it strikes me as really odd that the Bills beat both the Chiefs and the Lions and both teams are still ranked above the Bills.  What are they supposed to do to be recognized for what they are?

 

I don't know - maybe the both of those teams ARE better than the Bills, but it seems to me some leaps of faith have to be taken to reach that conclusion. Like, Patrick Mahomes is the next Tom Brady, and his team is ALWAYS better because they have Patrick Mahomes. Or, the Lions are everyone's favorite story this season, so they must be better.  

 

Just keep winning. 

 

Bills #1 in USA Today.

[eball]

Most "power rankings" are just folks looking at W-L records.

 

You want an in-depth ranking?  Go to The Athletic.  This week the Eagles are #1 and the Bills are #2, which makes sense to me.

 

Where is KC?  #6, behind Detroit, GB, and Minnesota.

 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

7 minutes ago, dorquemada said:

 

ESPN is garbage.  For a lot of reasons of course, but i've been a ESPN+ subscriber for years, and when I recently tried to cancel (because it's garbage) there was absolutely no way to do it, none of the links worked, I tried everything and I'm a professional computer toucher.  Fortunately I have one of the fancy tier credit cards and told my concierge the situation and they simply stopped payment

That's like canceling a gym membership haha I hate that sh*t .  They make it so difficult that they figure you’ll give up 

4 minutes ago, eball said:

Most "power rankings" are just folks looking at W-L records.

 

You want an in-depth ranking?  Go to The Athletic.  This week the Eagles are #1 and the Bills are #2, which makes sense to me.

 

Where is KC?  #6, behind Detroit, GB, and Minnesota.

 

GB jumped us in DVOA which I found pretty interesting. 

[dorquemada]

Just now, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

That's like canceling a gym membership haha I hate that sh*t .  They make it so difficult that they figure you’ll give up 

 

For real.  I had to do something similar with Planet Fitness because I had originally joined at a PF in another city.  They insisted I had to go to that location in person to cancel my membership.  Rather than that I filed a complaint with the BBB and stopped  credit payment

[chongli]

21 minutes ago, eball said:

You want an in-depth ranking?  Go to The Athletic.  This week the Eagles are #1 and the Bills are #2, which makes sense to me.

 

Where is KC?  #6, behind Detroit, GB, and Minnesota.

 

 

The exact same ranking as USA Today, except Bills at 1 and Philly at 2. 

Edited December 17 by chongli

[hondo in seattle]

57 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

It used to be that we used to pay attention to the power rankings every week to see if the Bills had moved up or down. Everyone would comment on the rankings - too high, too low, about right.  

 

We don't do that on this forum like we used to. 

 

Anyway, I just happened to look at ESPN's power rankings.  Bills are fourth.  That's okay, I guess, and I don't really care, but it strikes me as really odd that the Bills beat both the Chiefs and the Lions and both teams are still ranked above the Bills.  What are they supposed to do to be recognized for what they are?

 

I don't know - maybe the both of those teams ARE better than the Bills, but it seems to me some leaps of faith have to be taken to reach that conclusion. Like, Patrick Mahomes is the next Tom Brady, and his team is ALWAYS better because they have Patrick Mahomes. Or, the Lions are everyone's favorite story this season, so they must be better.  

 

Just keep winning. 

 

 

I guess it depends on how you weigh the evidence.  

 

Not in the Bills favor: three losses including a blowout to the Ravens and a defense that is now collapsing. 

 

Much in our favor: we beat - reputedly - the best team in the AFC and the best team in the NFC.  Both victories were unfluky and well-deserved.