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Immovable objects

For the fifth week in a row, the top three remain the same

Posted: Wednesday December 8, 2004 12:18PM; Updated: Wednesday December 8, 2004 12:18PM
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CLICK HERE FOR DR. Z'S POWER RANKINGS -- TEAMS 1-16

NFL Power Rankings
Rank LW Team
17 19 Carolina Panthers (5-7)
The 283-pound Peppers lined up at wideout, and they threw a fade to him in a goal-line situation. I see this as the start of a wonderful trend in the NFL, possibly a new rule. Each participant has to take part in a play from an entirely different position Thus we will have punters at nose tackle, QBs at linebacker, coaches filing their stories from the press box. The possibilities are endless.
18 20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-7)
They scored 17 points off turnovers in the Atlanta game -- that's what I read. I always wondered about that. If you get, say, an interception on your five-yard line, and then drive 95 yards for a score, does that count as points off a turnover. Or is there a cutoff point someplace on the field? A thorny problem.
19 18 Houston Texans (5-7)
Sunday against the Jets, I saw a clear case of an officiating crew screwing up a team's momentum, messing with its head, generally turning it into a nervous wreck. Tom White's crew. First a Texans snap from center hits White as the Texans are punting out of their end zone. No play. Referee wasn't ready. Then an official drops a flag for push in the back on Santana Moss' 46-yard punt return, down to Houston's four, causing a bit of relaxation on the part of the coverage team. Uh, no flag. It was a side push. Play on. Then on the Texans' next possession David Carr is called for grounding when he and Andre Johnson clearly have gotten their reads fouled up, but Johnson really was the intended receiver. Then on the same series there is a 10-minute delay, first because the wrong yardage was marked off on a penalty, then because White got the downs screwed up and called fourth instead of third. The worst job of officiating of the year. Killed the Texans, it did.
20 15 New York Giants (5-7)
At least two offensive players have publicly said that the offense is too predictable. The enemy is getting too good a read. Tom Coughlin himself indicated that the Redskins defense was thinking a bit ahead of his guys. Same thing happened against Arizona, and Eli Manning can't be blamed for that one because Kurt Warner was quarterbacking. And look at the defensive monsters on the horizon -- Baltimore, then Pittsburgh. Not good times here in the Apple.
21 26 Dallas Cowboys (5-7)
I said this early in the season and I think it still holds. Vinny Testaverde's arm gets tired during a game and the picks come late. Add the fact that the Cowboys can't stop anybody and you've got a team that showed tremendous heart Monday night but will not be in the playoffs.
22 28 Chicago Bears (5-7)
I read with interest that Chad Hutchinson was out in California surfing last September when the Bears called him. I've never seen a guy on a surfboard with a cell phone, but why not? They're everywhere else.
23 30 Detroit Lions (5-7)
They asked Kevin Jones about gaining more yards (196) than Barry Sanders ever did in one game as a rookie, and all he could say was how bad the team needed the win to stay alive for the playoffs. Just once I want to hear a player say, when asked what the game means, "Well, it means I'm 150 yards short of a thousand." Check that, I have heard it. Ricky Watters. But he's gone now.
24 21 Tennessee Titans (4-8)
Tennessee vs. Indy. The eternal struggle. Tricks (three onside kicks in the first quarter, fake punt in the third) vs. yards and points (567 and 51). David Copperfield against Lennox Lewis. Guess who won?
25 25 Kansas City Chiefs (4-8)
Amazing stat: Larry Johnson ran for 118 yards against the Raiders. The first time I saw this guy run, I'd have guessed it would take him about a month and a half to gain 118. Something got him enthused. Either that or the blocking was simply out of this world.
26 22 Arizona Cardinals (4-8)
John Navarre. Just as I was getting used to him, he's down for a few weeks with a broken finger. Gutted it out for a whole game with that thing. Has a ring to it, doesn't it? John of Navarre. El Cid. Don Quixote de la Mancha. Maybe Dennis Green has some poetry in his soul after all, and we have not seen the last of El Navarrone Grande.
27 23 Oakland Raiders (4-8)
It just dawned on me. I've seen the Raiders five or six times now and I've yet to see their top draft, Robert Gallery, the second guy chosen overall, do much of anything. Maybe I'm being too hard on a rookie. But maybe ... ah, let's move on before I say something I shouldn't.
28 29 Washington Redskins (4-8)
I feel bad about this. They should be higher, I know. I owe them. Why do I owe them? For polishing off the Giants in 2:45, shortest game of the day, and you have no idea how much this helps the whole charting experience.
29 24 New Orleans Saints (4-8)
This is a team I have a terrible time matching with coherent thoughts, and that's been going on all season. Usually when that happens my fallback position is to look at the schedule. Hmm, no help there. Next step is to look at the mirror. Even worse. Tottering slightly, we move on to ...
30 27 Cleveland Browns (3-9)
For his first team meeting as interim coach, Terry Robiskie walked to the front of the room with a bucket and a shovel of ice ... make that a shovel and a bucket of ice ... and asked any players who considered themselves leaders to step forward. Then he grabbed his shovel and said, "If I were digging a hole to hell and was going to fight the devil and had nothing but this bucket of ice to fight him with, would you go with me?" The report ends there, but I can guess what happened. The room broke up into individual caucuses. Some players asked, "Would I what? With what?" Some were moved to tears. A few clenched their fists and said, "I gotta get out of this place." Stay tuned. I'll have more to report later.
31 31 Miami Dolphins (2-10)
Announced home attendance at the Bills game was 73,084. I quote from the late Warren Pack of the N.Y. Journal-American, covering an old N.Y. Titans game -- "If that's true, then half the people came disguised as empty seats." Actual attendance at Bills-Dolphs was closer to 35,000, but the league in its wisdom only announces the paid figure, despite the Attorney General's call for full disclosure.
32 32 San Francisco 49ers (1-11)
I saw this in the agate type on the bottom of this week's league standings box: Eliminated from the Playoffs -- San Francisco. My God, I thought. It's really true.

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