NFL Power Rankings Week 11
by Robert Ferringo - 11/14/2017

Football is really not nearly as complicated as people make it. If you run the ball and play good defense you are generally going to win more games than you lose in the NFL. It's not rocket science. And even as the league has changed the rules to stimulate more passing (and, in theory, more scoring) the fundamentals of this sport have been unchanged for over 100 years.

NFL Power Rankings Week 10
by Robert Ferringo - 11/7/2017

We are now at the halfway mark of the NFL season. I know we're heading into Week 10, but the overwhelming majority of teams have played eight games this year so it is basically halftime of the NFL year. Here are three random league trends that have presented themselves in the first half of the season that we will continue to track the rest of the way:

NFL Power Rankings Week 9
by Robert Ferringo - 10/31/2017

Let me first say that I think, generally speaking, that NFL officials do a pretty solid job relative to other sports. NBA refs probably have the easiest jobs. MLB umpires are generally outstanding and do the best of all professional sports. And I literally can't watch college football sometimes because the officiating is so grossly incompetent. So relatively speaking, NFL officiating is pretty solid.

NFL Power Rankings Week 8
by Robert Ferringo - 10/24/2017

I have been doing Doc's Sports Power Rankings for 13 years. And during that time one of my goals each year is stability. I like to take the early-season chaos of wins and loses and, eventually, settle towards a period of stasis with my rankings.

NFL Power Rankings Week 7
by Robert Ferringo - 10/17/2017

Last week I said that Week 6 would be full of surprises and that the massive spreads would create some opportunities. That was exactly the case, as all four teams that were favored by 9.5 or more points - the Patriots, Falcons, Redskins and Broncos - all failed to cover the spread. Two of those teams lost outright as double-digit favorites and the end result was the first windfall weekend for the sportsbooks on this NFL season.

NFL Power Rankings Week 6
by Robert Ferringo - 10/10/2017

Last week was another example of the volatile nature of the NFL. After a month of the players pounding the sportsbooks, Las Vegas got its revenge thanks to a host of high-profile losses in games with one-sided action. The Steelers losing by 21 points at home to the lowly Jaguars was by far the most befuddling result of the weekend. But the Bills, the Giants, the Texans and the Cowboys all cost the players big by losing in gut-wrenching style.

NFL Power Rankings Week 5
by Robert Ferringo - 10/3/2017

The Gambling Gods giveth, and the Gambling Gods taketh away. I have seen all manner of insanity occur in the final seconds of sporting events. If you bet on sports as much as I have for as long as I have, you eventually get to the point where you think you've seen it all. However, even I was left dumbfounded and speechless at the last five seconds of the Redskins-Chiefs game on Monday Night Football.

NFL Power Rankings Week 4
by Robert Ferringo - 9/26/2017

All I read about last week (and even touched on myself in this very space) was how awful the NFL had been through two weeks of the season. Scoring was way, way down and the games had lost a lot of their luster as a result. However, it is one thing to make an aesthetic argument against pro football, as I did, and it is another thing to really dig into the nuts and bolts of the statistics behind the NFL's early season scoring drought. And the more I read about the scoring dearth the clearer it became: the NFL was primed for a rebound.

NFL Power Rankings Week 3
by Robert Ferringo - 9/19/2017

NFL fans and bettors were forced to suffer through another round of uninspirting and unwatchable action in Week 2, with the Houston-Cincinnati, Buffalo-Carolina, Cleveland-Baltimore, San Francisco-Seattle, Arizona-Indianapolis and Detroit-New York games combining to average just 25.3 total points per game. And I'm not just cherry-picking some poor results. Those six games represent nearly half the league. And several other marquee games - Patriots-Saints, Cowboys-Broncos and Packers-Falcons - were blowouts that were essentially over before halftime.

NFL Power Rankings Week 2
by Robert Ferringo - 9/12/2017

Overreaction Monday is a very real and normal thing in the NFL. An impressive level of freak-out always accompanies the end of the first game of any NFL season, with massive leaps in logic and changes in expectations replacing rational thought. "The Patriots have issues!" "The Jaguars are for real!" "Jared Goff is a star in the making!" Those are all headlines and takeaways that otherwise sane people would glean from Week 1's results.

NFL Power Rankings Week 1
by Robert Ferringo - 9/6/2017

Football will not save us. We plunge headlong into The Fall. The known horrors of winter are deep on the horizon but approaching with certainty. Although they are almost a trifle compared to the open corruption, paranoia, demagoguery and hypocrisy that continue to flood our systems. But football is not a balm. Football is not a distraction. It is not some pet to be played with. It is not a game. Professional football is a monolith.

NFL Power Rankings Week 17
by Robert Ferringo - 12/28/2016

Well, this is it. A season that started with so much promise for 32 NFL teams just five months ago is in its waning moments. Some teams are gearing up for the playoffs. Others are soul-searching after things went awry. And the rest of the league is simply playing out the string, serving as stage props for the sick, unpredictable farce that is Week 17 in the NFL.

NFL Power Rankings Week 16
by Robert Ferringo - 12/21/2016

The talent differential between NFL teams and players is razor thin. So when we get into Money Time in late December motivation levels and momentum can make all the difference between routs and upsets. Teams that have been steamrolling through the past six weeks - teams like the Steelers, Giants, Patriots and Packers - tend to continue to roll now that the stakes have been raised.

NFL Power Rankings Week 15
by Robert Ferringo - 12/14/2016

Mob rule is rarely a good thing. It is especially damaging when NFL franchises - multibillion dollar entities - become too sensitive to the will of its fan base. When ownership and front offices start making decisions based more on kowtowing to the public rather than maintaining a long-term plan then things can go awry quickly.

NFL Power Rankings Week 14
by Robert Ferringo - 12/7/2016

Last week's opening included a blind list of the best quarterbacks of the most recent generation. My baseline was guys with at least 130 starts. (I made an exception for Matt Stafford and his 105 starts just because his numbers were so intriguing. And because I like even-numbered lists.)

NFL Power Rankings Week 13
by Robert Ferringo - 11/30/2016

In lieu of a snappy opening to this week's power rankings, I wanted to have you help me by taking part in a little experiment. Below are stats for 12 of the top quarterbacks in the NFL over the last 10 (or so) years. What I would like you to do - on a piece of paper, in a Word document, in your head - is to rank these quarterbacks based on the stats you see before you.

NFL Power Rankings Week 12
by Robert Ferringo - 11/23/2016

Anyone that suggests that the NFL's extra point rule, changed prior to the 2015 season, is "great" or "smart" or "exciting" is a total and complete asshole. General media consensus the past two seasons is that moving the extra point back to the 15-yard-line rather than the 2-yard-line was a stroke of genius by NFL decision makers. But after watching a Sunday with 12 extra points either blocked or missed, can anyone actually say that this type of ineptitude is good for the game?

NFL Power Rankings Week 11
by Robert Ferringo - 11/16/2016

Before we get into this week's NFL Power Rankings I want to point out that next week these will be posted early on Wednesday. Also, all of Doc's handicappers will have their football selections for next week posted at 6 p.m. on Wednesday to accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday.

NFL Power Rankings Week 10
by Robert Ferringo - 11/9/2016

I've worked in sports, first as a reporter and then as a handicapper, long enough to be jaded by its seedier behind-the-scene elements. I'm not big on people hyping the importance of sporting events, and I think that a lot of people take them way, way too seriously relative to real-life issues. But there is no denying that sports are a fantastic escape and distraction from those issues and that they play a very important role in our national consciousness and identity.

NFL Power Rankings Week 9
by Robert Ferringo - 11/2/2016

With four overtime games, one tie, and a second game that was nearly a tie it is safe to say that things are tightening up throughout the NFL. Early-season optimism has given way to mid-season crisis and desperation, and every team in the league is fighting to stay relevant and in the hunt heading into the second half of the season.