Every Monday I read Peter King's column for Sports Illustrated, Monday Morning Quarterback. It's usually 6 pages long and jam-packed with just about every relevant item from Sunday's NFL goings on.
One of the regular pieces of King's column is "The Fine Fifteen." King basically ranks the top 15 teams in the NFL each week. Today he's taking flak for putting the Patriots at number 3 after they lost yesterday to the Bills, who King places at number 7. Reading these rankings made me want to say a couple of things about "power rankings" in general.
1. They don't matter. People that get bent out of shape because they feel their team is ranked too low are ridiculous. As I've pointed out before on this blog, power rankings have absolutely NO force and effect on the season. When January rolls around nobody looks at the power rankings and says, "Oh, well since the Saints are ranked higher than the Lions, we'll put them in the playoffs, even though Detroit has a better record." That doesn't happen. So don't get so worked up.
2. The better team does not always win. King's rankings, by his own description, are based on who he thinks would win on a neutral field. I think that's an excellent measuring stick, and I think he's right about the Patriots. I might put them a notch or two lower than three, but I would put them ahead of Buffalo. Why? Because if they played again tomorrow on a neutral field, I think New England wins the game. In fact, New England would probably win 6 or 7 out of 10 games against the Bills. But this was one of the other 3 or 4. I don't want to take anything away from the Bills. They're a good team who's playing really well right now, and I LOVE that they beat the Pats yesterday. But that doesn't make them, fundamentally, a better team.
Does anyone really think the 2007 Giants were a better team than the 2007 Patriots? I sure don't. But they had a great game plan heading into the Super Bowl. David Tyree made a (seriously) miraculous catch. The Giants won. I loved seeing New England lose that Super Bowl. It was fantastic. But I think they were the better team.
But again, this is why rankings don't matter. Because I can argue all day that the Pats were better than those Giants, but at the end of the day, the Giants won the Super Bowl, and the Patriots didn't! Winning is what matters. Not being arbitrarily "ranked" ahead of someone else.
3. It's an inexact science. If we were able to make without-a-doubt rankings of all the teams, there would be no such thing as an upset. The Packers (ranked #1 right now, according to King) would win every game, because they're ranked ahead of everyone. Baltimore (#2) would only ever lose to Green Bay. That's obviously not going to happen. Rankings are "best guesses," and they're NEVER 100% correct.
I think power rankings are fun to look at, but I'll never make a heated argument or get upset if my Cowboys are ranked lower than I think they should be. I'll let things be decided on the field.
No comments:
Post a Comment