Just an awful weekend for picks. The majority only hit on 46% of their picks. But looking more closely; Green Bay (56%), Denver (54%), and Jacksonville (56%) were so close they could all be called pushes. That should boost us to 58% which still kind of sucks and is still pretty much the worst week to date.

Some of the division leaders are starting to settle in. The Vikings (7-1) are through the toughest stretch of their schedule with a commanding lead in the NFC North. Ditto the Saints (7-0) in the NFC South with a huge division win over the Falcons on Monday night. The Colts (7-0) are rolling in the AFC South but have the Patriots, Ravens, and Broncos yet to go. And the surprising Broncos (6-1) have a good jump on the AFC West.

3 weeks ago, the Giants (5-3) appeared to be the class of the NFC. Now they are in a 3 way dog fight with Dallas (5-2) and Philly (5-2). The rest of the divisions are in a similar state of disarray.

Teams people swear by at

#1 Arizona (95%, 8.6pts): C’mon! Kurt Warner does his best Delhomme impersonation with 5 picks and a fumble. And the Carinals* let Williams gashed them for 158 yards on only 23 carries. Stewart added another 87 on 17 carries with 2TD.
#2 Detroit (85% ?!, 4.2): Yes, Detroit. I guess the thought was the Rams were so bad and the Lions would have some professional pride and want to help another team go winless for an entire season. They had even moved up 4 spots to #26. So much for that.
#3 & 4 New York: Yeah, both teams. Jets (78%, 6.4) and Giants (61%, 4.8) were both underwhelming. The Giants were pretty much done in the 1st quarter, but definitely by halftime on Donovan’s 3TD passes and some Weaver guy’s long TD run. The Jets felt bad for Ted Ginn and let him atone for the previous week with 2 TD returns on kickoffs. I believe he was close to breaking a 3rd as well.

Where my rankings spit in the face of traditional power rankings

#3 NY Giants (5-3): They are still living on hype and are probably in for a correction in the near future. They play San Diego this weekend, so I’m thinking not a lot of points for either team as neither can be trusted.
#7 Green Bay (4-3): The Vikings bled against Pittsburgh so we thought we could kill them. Turns out we’re not Pittsburgh. We should drop, but guess what? We play 0-7 Tampa this weekend.
#16 Denver (6-1): It will be interesting to see if the loss to Baltimore slows their ascent in the rankings. Although it’s difficult to move much more slowly, they’ve been in roughly the same position all season. Might have something to do with having Kyle Orton at QB.
#23 Tennessee (1-6): Once you get below #20 in the rankings, who really cares? They did get off the schnide though, so maybe it’s an OK position for the moment.

Big movers

#15 Arizona +6: Of course they paid everyone back, see above.
#19 San Francisco -4: Playing the Colts will do that to you, although the 49ers put up a good fight.
#21 Seattle -5: Played a much improved Dallas team and got throttled.
#26 Detroit +4: See above.

Demotion time?

The Rams earn a reprieve by beating the mighty Lions, but the Browns are now on the bubble.

Complete Week 8 Power Rankings

* There’s no D in Arizona, get it? I hope you didn’t need the explanation

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