NFL Power Poll, Week 14

Rank (Last)	Team	Record	Notes
1 (2)	New England	10-3	To be the man, you have to beat the man. New England tore out the man's heart, stomped on it, and fed it back to him on national television. I'd say that merits the top spot this week.
2 (3)	San Francisco	9-3-1	As long as the Rams don't sneak into the playoffs, there's no one in the NFC San Francisco should fear. The only other team you can say that about is the Giants. Of course, the next two games will determine what San Francisco's playoff road will look like. Win both games, and the road looks very much like a red carpet. Lose both, and the road all of a sudden is filled with mines.
3 (4)	Denver	10-3	Much like the Patriots, this team just keeps improving as the season goes on. The difference between these two AFC teams? New England's offense looks more dyanmic.
4 (6)	Green Bay	9-4	Green Bay has weathered the injury storm. Now they start getting valuable pieces back. Do they have another gear that they've only hinted at so far this season?
5 (7)	New York Giants	8-5	If this were a playoff predictor, the Giants would be ahead of both San Francisco and Green Bay, as they handled both of those teams this season. But this isn't a playoff predictor, it's a power poll for where we stand right now. And in the regular season, you just don't know for sure if the Giants will show up invested in the game's outcome.
6 (1)	Houston	11-2	Going into New England and losing? No shame in that, almost everybody does (except the Cardinals of course). Going in and being blown out of the stadium? That's concerning. More concerning is the fact that Houston has played 3 top-5 teams (NE, DEN, GB), and been smoked by two of them.
7 (5)	Atlanta	11-2	The conspiracy theorist NFL follower sees Atlanta's loss to the Panthers, and believes the Falcons are simply setting expectations lower for the playoffs, as they haven't won a single postseason game in the Matt Ryan/Mike Smith era. The regular NFL follower sees the loss, and simply believes it confirms the belief that Atlanta is overrated, despite currently sitting in the NFC's pole position. Sure the latter is probably correct, but the former is much more fun.
8 (8)	Seattle	8-5	In a sense, this team is the baby Giants. They get up for (and win) big games (DAL, GB, NE, MIN, CHI) and don't for minnows (1st ARI, DET, MIA). But they don't have the pedigree (in fact, they have no pedigree whatsoever) so where you trust the Giants to put it together to get into the postseason, there's no such trust with the Seahawks. The Seahawks are making noises about coming together and putting their disappointment behind them (road win at Chicago and 58-0 shellacking of the Cardinals), but if they're serious, they'll throttle the Bills in Canada this weekend.
9 (10)	Indianapolis	9-4	While it's true that Indy has ridden Luck to so many of their close, come-from-behind wins, it would be foolish to think they weren't also riding some luck to their current record as well.
10 (12)	Washington	7-6	While Kirk Cousins seems like a pretty decent rookie QB in his own right, this team goes as RG3 goes. If he isn't close to healthy (not able to play healthy but able to approximate RG3 healthy), their playoff chances are sunk. It's not because Griffin isn't a gifted passer, he is. It's that he's putting on the RG3 show mostly out of necessity, his OLine can't block well enough for him to stay in the pocket.
11 (9)	Chicago	8-5	The schedule got tougher on the Bears after their 7-1 start, and their defense is no longer scoring enough points per game to make Blaine Gabbert, Mark Sanchez, and the entire state of Arizona jealous. And yes, those 2 points are very related.
12 (14)	Baltimore	9-4	Can't argue with firing Cam Cameron, who criminally underused Ray Rice and apparently didn't get along with Joe Flacco either. But the other option is Jim Caldwell? Who hasn't called plays since 2000, and is most famous for not blinking during games as former head coach of the Colts?
13 (16)	Minnesota	7-6	Tom Brady or Peyton Manning is likely going to win the MVP award, and both are very deserving. But if Minnesota gets into the playoffs…wait, scratch that. If Adrian Peterson drags this Vikings team into the playoffs with no Percy Harvin and Christian Ponder is its quarterback, how can you not give the award to him?
14 (11)	Pittsburgh	7-6	A huge opportunity wasted, and there's no Big Ben-related excuse. Roethlisberger played, and the Steelers still had their lunch eaten by the San Diego Chargers.
15 (15)	Cincinnati	7-6	An even bigger opportunity wasted, as at least Pittsburgh is still in playoff position. I know, it's hard to fault Cincinnati for thinking all their mistakes wouldn't come back to haunt them since it was Dallas, but a good team would put away another .500-level club.
16 (19)	St. Louis	6-6-1	The Rams keep doing just enough to stay on the fringes of the playoff race (scaring the 49ers), but not enough to actually believe they can get over the hump. Still, for this team, that's a huge success for year 1 of the Fisher era.
17 (20)	Dallas	7-6	An emotional win for the Cowboys, but the biggest thing to take away from this game? Please, please, please! Don't drink and drive. Just don't chance it.
18 (13)	Tampa Bay	6-7	A giant misstep for the hopeful Buccanneers. While disappointing, not entirely unexpected. A young team one year removed from substantial underachievement can't be expected to turn it all the way around in one season (unless they're the 2011 49ers).
19 (17)	New Orleans	5-8	They made their run back into the playoff picture, but their atrocious start meant they had no margin for error, even after going 4-1 to get back to 5-5. And with that zero margin for error, they have now lost 3 straight. At least their players "won" their bounty fight.
20 (18)	Miami	5-8	You look at Miami's stats, and they look terrible. But you look at the results, and near results, and somehow this team is staying relevant. I can’t figure out how, but they're doing it.
21 (22)	Cleveland	5-8	While they have no chance this season, this could be a frisky darkhorse pick next season. There's talent here, and if they make the right hire this offseason and shore up a couple of weak spots (offensive skill positions!) they could be a part of the 2013 playoff race.
22 (23)	Detroit	4-9	At some point, they switched from a talented team catching no breaks to a team finding ways to lose. I think it might have come on that Matt Stafford "pass" that slipped out of his hand and was returned for a touchdown by Green Bay last Sunday night.
23 (27)	San Diego	5-8	I spend a lot of my time castigated Norv Turner and his ability to get the most out of his team. Well congratulations on going into Pittsburgh and beating the tar out of the Steelers.
24 (26)	Philadelphia	4-9	And similarly, I've been on the Eagles' case for quitting on the season. But they showed no quit in that win over the Bucs. Just like for the Chargers, it doesn't change what's happened the rest of this season, but it's nice to see pride isn't totally dead in either San Diego or Philadelphia.
25 (25)	New York Jets	6-7	Now that the Jets aren't playing Arizona or Jacksonville, they should be shunted out of the playoff picture quickly…right? Well, maybe not, as they play Tennessee, San Diego, and Buffalo. Yikes.
26 (21)	Buffalo	5-8	I'm sure the Bills will be able to rally themselves to finish the season strong with their home game this weekend…being played in Toronto.
27 (29)	Carolina	4-9	Once again, now that the pressure's off, Cam Newton and the Panthers are soaring. Next year it stops coutning if it doesn't come until the playoffs hopes are dead and buried.
28 (24)	Tennessee	4-9	They had their chance for a big divisional win, and they, quite literally, threw it away. The growing pains aren't getting less painful for Jake Locker as the season goes on, and at this point that's concerning.
29 (30)	Jacksonville	2-11	Blaine Gabbert had one game where he looked like a competent QB. Chad Henne had 1.5 games. Now Jacksonville is back to the reality of being a team without a quarterback.
30 (31)	Oakland	3-10	Lacking talent, and Carson Palmer isn't at the stage where he can carry a team.
31 (32)	Kansas City	2-11	This team is in desperate need of a competent quarterback. Not necessarily more so than say, Jacksonville, but they're wasting more talent than most of the other QB-needy teams.
32 (28)	Arizona	4-9	They probably don't deserve the bottom spot, but when you lose 58-0, you don't have a leg to stand on in any argument.

Biggest risers:

San Diego (4 spots)
Minnesota, St. Louis, Dallas (3 spots)

Biggest fallers:
Houston, Tampa Bay, Buffalo (5 spots)