My bottom feeders through 2 games: 28: StLouis - Offense is terrible. Defense is below average. 29: Houston - Do they have a running game? Can't stop the rush. 30: Detroit - Bottom 5 offense, bottom 5 defense that can't keep a kindergartner out of the endzone. 31: Carolina - I could punt that well. Bottom 5 offense. 32: Cleveland - They can pass the ball, all other aspects of their game are bush league. Worst offense in the league. Honorable mention: Tampa Bay: They can pass the ball, but not convert on third or score. Their defense is atrocious. Kansas City: Get them to third down and they're off the field. Defense is sub-par. Special Mention: Dallas: Worst defense in the league. Tenn: Worst passing defense so far. I'm sure some of these are affected by who these teams have played and what the game circumstances were.
Really? They're 1-1 and that offense proved that it is still legit. The Jets' defense is just THAT good. The Chiefs, the Fins, the Titans, the Bucs, the Rams, and the Jags are all winless, so they have to be ranked worse than Houston. Here's my bottom five: 28: Tampa Bay Buccaneers - god awful defense and an offense with a washed out, bust of a quarterback, surrounded by a bunch of lackluster (besides Winslow) skill position players. 29: Detroit Lions - the offense has loads of potential with Stafford, CJ, and Kevin Smith, but this coaching staff may be asking Stafford to do a little too much this season...he'll struggle the whole year. Remember, all he has to do is win ONE game and it will be an improvement. 30: St. Louis Rams - I still don't understand how an offense with one of the best backs in the game can't move the ball. Marc Bulger is awful and the lack of talent at receiver makes him so much worse. 31: Jacksonville Jaguars - David Garrard obviously isn't the answer at QB. The Jags owner is already talking about selecting Tim Tebow with their first rounder in 2010. I'm a huge MJD fan, but their offensive line is just plain bad, even with rookie Eugene Monroe. That defense is one injury away from being the worst in the league - absolutely no depth at any position, especially corner and defensive line. Del Rio's sitting on a very hot seat right now. 32: Cleveland Browns - Their run defense needs to improve quickly or they will become buried at the bottom of the AFC North. Brady Quinn isn't good enough to win games by himself...the get down early, teams are going to run them into the ground. I don't see how they can improve.
I'm not trying to do power rankings based upon projections I'm doing rankings based upon how teams actually performed. Early in the season this will be affected by the teams played. Houston has rushed for 50.5 yards per game. This is last in the league. Granted it was against the Jets and Titans, two of the best rushing defenses in the league. I'm sure that had something to do with the poor performance but my system doesn't remove that influence, so, for now, Houston is at the bottom of the league until they perform better against a lesser defense. Fortunately for Houston they get to play Jacksonville and Oakland next. They need to show what they can do against those defenses. As for Jacksonville, I'd place Tampa below them as far as actual performance. Tampa's defense is horrible in every aspect of the game. Jacksonville has had some success against the run and actually is decent with takeaways. Another difference is that Jacksonville's special teams are better than average while Tampa's ST unit is again underperforming. Carolina has to be seen as one of the worst performing teams in the league right now. Their offense is a liability, their punting for about 20 yards per punt is high school level, their defense is having great difficulty with the rush and not getting pressure on the opposing QB. All of those INTs will weigh down Carolina's stats for a number of weeks to come.
The Redskins should be on this list. They should've lost Sunday's game in a stinker if Spags doesn't go for it on 4th down with 2 minutes left in the game, instead of kicking the chip shot FG to win it. Major bonehead move but he's a rookie HC so he'll learn. Washington is a lot worse than a team like the Titans.
OAK aren't that far behind the teams mentioned here...the numbers they put up are laughable even if they were playing a contender, let alone KC. Kudos, they managed to pull off a win...but someone had to win, right?
Oakland's defense has been average so far. That, their punter and pulling out that win are keeping them out of my basement.
Houston?!?! I don't see how you can include them... My bottom 5 28. Raiders ... Seriously...is Jamarcus Russell that bad? 29. Chiefs ... How do you lose to the Raiders when their QB goes 7/24 and you out gain them 409 to 166? 30. Lions ... Still haven't won a game in a long time, but they look much better than last years team. 31. Browns ... They need some leadership in the worst way 32. Rams ... This team is a mess
Honestly, I can see the Raiders making the playoffs. That division is so bad. Their defense has a ton of good players. A good, not great defense could be just enough to get them to 8 or 9 wins - all you need in the AFC West. McFadden and Bush give them a duo of good running backs. Losing Robert Gallery will hurt their running game...if Jamarcus Russell keeps sucking balls, we'll see Bruce Gradkowski eventually.
OK, here is the deal with Houston. 50.5 yards rushing per game. 31% 3rd down conversions. their offense has put the ball on the turf 5 times and have 1 Int. 21 yards per k/p return. They have allowed 27.5 ppg, 215 rushing yards per game, 240.5 passing yards per game. They have only caused three turnovers and have 1 sack. I'm not arguing that they will look this way 4 weeks from now, but for now they rank very poorly.
I agree except I'd replace the Jags with the Redskins. The Jags have played two good opponents, although they still looked bad. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Broncos drift down to this area later in the year. They've played two crappy teams, and beat the Bungles by a miracle. After Oakland this week, they have some REAL teams to play- Dallas, NE, Chargers, Ravens, Steelers. I don't see a single win there, MAYBE Dallas. Not only do I see them losing, I see them losing BIG.
Lets compare Washington to Houston Allowed per game Pts: Hou 27.5 - Was 15 Rushing yards: Hou 215, Was 114.5 Passing yards: Hou 240, Was 183.5 PpG: Hou 20.5, Was 13 Rush Off: Hou 50.5, Was 105 Pass Off: Hou 251, Was 212 3rd Down: Hou 31%, Was 44% To claim that Houston has performed better than Washington so far is just not lining up for me.
The Redskins play solid defense and can run the ball. They have no passing game, which certainly puts them in the bottom 10 but I don't see them being in the bottom 5.
Washington would have gotten blown out by the Giants if NY could convert inside the god damned red zone. And all their offense has to show for itself is a fake field goal TD, a garbage time TD, and a handful of field goals. They did nothing on offense against a miserable Rams team. Houston would crush them head-to-head.
Aren't these threads fun when your team is 2-0? Anyways, I think the Raiders will win 7-8 games. Their division is awful, and they have a couple of real good backs. I like Louis Murphy a lot and if Fatso can get his stuff together, they might actually contend for that division. As for Russell ever getting bench, I highly doubt it. They've invested too much, and ran Garcia out of town. I don't think they're too worried about winning as much as they are getting Fatso some game experience. And by the way, I hate the Raiders. I don't want to see them win anything.
And how bad are Marc Bulger and David Garrard? What happened to these guys. They've completely lost it. Don't get me start on Delhomme. 5 picks and 1 TD? Steve Smith is going to kill himself. I still believe he's one of the best wideouts in the league, it's a shame.
And Rex Ryan could have got stuck coaching Marc Bulger....thank goodness Spags got stuck with that HC job instead. :jets::jets::jets:
