2011 Football Power Rankings

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-Digger's Daily-

College's top 9 remain unchanged from our last rankings segment. The creme of the crop has a strong grip on the top spots - for now. All World All Sports rankings have no weight on official collegiate rankings. NCAA ranking system continues to be a hot topic of water cooler conversation. Our rankings try to cut through the dust of official ranking systems by incorporation our own added little rankings ingredient.


NCAA Top 20 (6 weeks completed)
1 - Oklahoma
2 - LSU
3 - Alabama
4 - Boise State
5 - Wisconsin
6 - Oklahoma State
7 - Stanford
8 - Clemson
9 - Oregon
10- Arkansas
11- Kansas State
12- Nebraska
13- Michigan State
14- South Carolina
15- Virginia Tech
16- West Virginia
17- Houston
18- Michigan
19- Georgia Tech
20- Washington

NFL rankings keep getting more and more interesting. This past weekend: Detroit finally lost. Tampa stunned New Orleans. Jets won ugly over Miami. Quarterback changes coming in Minnesota, Oakland, Denver and Washington. Jets coach Ryan disses Bolts coach Turner claiming he (Ryan) already would have won a few rings in San Diego. Funny -- hasn't Ryan promised/predicted his Jets would be NFL champs the past 2 years? Go figure. The wacky world known as the NFL continues.


NFL Rankings (5 weeks completed)
1 - Green Bay Packers
2 - New England Patriots
3 - Baltimore Ravens
4 - San Diego Chargers
5 - Detroit Lions
6 - San Francisco 49ers
7 - New Orleans Saints
8 - Pittsburgh Steelers
9 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
10- New York Giants
11- Buffalo Bills
12- Cincinnati Bengals
13- Oakland Raiders
14- Houston Texans
15- New York Jets

Power Rankings: 5 x 10

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-Digger's Daily-

Congratulations New York Yankees. 27 World Series Championship is a record never to be matched by another organization. Here's a quick look at sports teams fighting for championship status.

My top ten power rankings for America's four major sporting leagues and college football.

MLB (2009 final top 10)
1- New York Yankees - No professional organization is more dedicated to winning than New York.
2- Philadelphia Phillies - Great young nucleus of talent. Poised to challenge for years to come.
3- Los Angeles Angels - Excellent organization. Great manager. Talented players.
4- Los Angeles Dodgers - LA will be very active this off-season piecing together a team to challenge #1.
5- Boston Red Sox - Didn't quite have all the winning formula this year. Big question marks surrounding aging pitching staff and veterans.
6- St Louis Cardinals - Will they keep this team or bring in new faces? They need more middle infield production.
7- Colorado Rockies - Very good young team. Solid pitchers, good hitters.
8- Minnesota Twins - All they need is pitching. Twins always find a way to win. Gardenhire one of baseball's best.
9- Chicago Cubs- 2009 was an off year. Very talented team.
10- SF Giants- Very strong young pitching staff is a great way to build on future success. SF reminds me of 1973 Mets. All pitching, no hitting. GM can create a super club with a few solid batters.


NFL
1- Indianapolis Colts - Undefeated. Looking Super.
2- New Orleans Saints - High powered offense in mold of 1984 Dolphins. Can they keep it up?
3- Minnesota Vikings - Favre silencing critics. Very good, strong young team on both sides of the line.
4- Pittsburgh Steelers - It was a rough beginning. Champs are back on track.
5- New England Patriots - Not winning pretty but coming on strong.
6- Philadelphia Eagles - A loss to Dallas will drop them from top 10. A win solidifies #6.
7- Denver Broncos - It's still early and jury is out after last week's loss.
8- Dallas Cowboys - Suddenly looking strong. Many questions surround this team. A win vs Philly will keep them on my list.
9- Cincinnati Bengals - Playing solid D for the first time in years.
10- ??? - Giants, Jets, Texans, Chargers, Cardinals? Who wants in? Too much inconsistency after top 9.


NBA
1- Boston Celtics
2- Los Angeles Lakers
3- Denver Nuggets
4- Orlando Magic
5- Cleveland Cavs
6- Dallas Mavs
7- Atlanta Hawks
8- Miami Heat
9- Phoenix Suns
10- San Antonio Spurs

2009-10 still to young.


NHL
1- Pittsburgh Penguins - Too tough. Cup in sight.
2- San Jose Sharks - Good regular season team. Can they finally win playoff games?
3- Buffalo Sabres - Getting stronger.
4- Colorado Avalanche - Look who's back!
5- Washington Capitals - Getting better every week.
6- NY Rangers - Great beginning.
7- LA Kings - Can they keep it up?
8- NJ Devils - Coming on strong. Will soon qualify in my top 4.
9- Philadelphia Flyers - Hungry for a Cup.
10- ??? pick'em - Take your pick.


NCAA Football
1- Florida - Remains #1... for now.
2- Texas - Might be best team in nation. Hungry for BCS title.
3- Alabama - Tough, tough team.
4- Iowa - Hanging tough.
5- Cincinnati - Undefeated. Gets no respect.
6- TCU - Can they keep winning?
7- Boise State - They want a higher ranking.
8- Penn State - Needs others to lose.
9- LSU - Great football program.
10- Georgia Tech - Needs help to climb rankings.

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NFL: Opening Weekend Heroes & Goats

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-Digger's Daily-

It was a great opening NFL weekend. It began Thursday night with Pittsburgh's dramatic OT win over Tennessee. What followed were games filled with last minute heroics, goats, solid performances by rookies and old vets. A few of my favorite moments from week 1:
My fantasy teams combined to go 4-1. Figures, the lone loss was in a league with friends! Random ESPN league teams won most covincingly.

Denver at Cincinnati - Denver and Chicago swapped QB's during the off season. Denver gave up Cutler to get Orton. Orton was less than impressive during a boring game until his final pass. Trailing 7-6 with just over one minute remaining in regulation.. Orton weak armed a pass down field which was tipped by a Bengals defender into the waiting arms of Brandon Stokley who raced towards the end zone for the game winning 87 yard touchdown. 13-7 Broncos. It was Stokley's only catch of the game. He was also smart enough to take time off of the clock until Bengal defenders finally caught up to him.

Drew Brees (Saints) threw for 6 TD's in a 45-27 Detroit. How many weeks will it take Detroit to win a game this year after 0-16 in 2008? Single season record holder, Dan Marino, predicted Brees would throw for more than 5000 yards this year. Brees picked apart a terrible Lions D for 6 TD's! He'll have a tough test this weekend vs Philadelphia.

Jets fans are loving their new head coach. Ryan had the Jets defense flying all over the field and completely disrupted a potentially explosive Texans attack. Rookie QB Mark Sanchez remained calm in his NFL debut. Nobody should become over hyped after one game. It was a good beginning to New York's newest era of Jets football.

Chicago at Green Bay - Cutler was supposed to resurrect Chicago's underperforming offense. He played miserably. I can't remember the last time I saw such an anemic performance... (until I flipped channels to see Delhomme implode with 5 int's). Chicago had managed to survive four Cutler interceptions until Aaron Rodgers threw a 50 yard TD strike with 1:11 remaining. Devastating news for Bears players and fans.. All Pro LB Brian Urlacher is done for the year. Chicago just slipped a notch.

Goat of the Weekend Award: Leodis McKelvin (Buffalo).... Buffalo had just played a terrific game. They were leading heavily favored New England 24-13 on Monday Night Football. Pats closed the game to 24-19 and kicked off with 2:06 remainiing. They opted to kick deep where a waiting McKelvin stupidly decided to return a kick out of his own end zone. All he had to do was HOLD ONTO THE FOOTBALL. Not only did my goat pick try returning the kick. Noooooooooooooo! This guy felt the necessity to attempt breaking tackles instead of falling harmlessly to the ground. Buffalo would have been able to run out the clock. So what happened? McKelvin fumbled while trying to break a tackle. New England recovered at Buffalo's 21 yard line. QB Brady had been ineffective most of the game until the final minutes. He threw his 2nd TD pass within 66 seconds to snatch victory from defeat, 25-24. Bills must still be stinging from handing away a hard fought win.

Other notables: Pederson (Min) 180 yds, 3 TD; Brett Favre (Min) 1-0 for new Vikes team; Tony Romo (Dal) career high 353 yards; 49ers beat NFC Champion Cardinals 20-16; Hasselback (Sea) is back 25-36, 279, 3 TD.

Week one prediction results 11-5 thanks to last minute losses by Cincinnati & Chicago.

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NFL Week 1 Predictions

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-Digger's Daily-

Here we go. NFL regular season football is set to snap. It's opening weekend. Plenty of new faces, new coaches and rookies to watch. Time to try my hand at predicting game scores (home team in bold).

Pittsburgh 16 Tennessee 6 (Thurs)

Dallas 23 Tampa Bay 17
Carolina 34 Philadelphia 24
New Orleans 44 Detroit 10
Baltimore 23 Kansas City 9
Houston 24 New York Jets 20
Atlanta 33 Miami 16
Cincinnati 26 Denver 23
Minnesota 34 Cleveland 3
Indianapolis 31 Jacksonville 13
New York Giants 27 Washington 23
Seattle 28 St Louis 24
Arizona 26 San Francisco 10
Chicago 29 Green Bay 27

New England 48 Buffalo 3 (Mon)
San Diego 31 Oakland 3

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Fantasy Football Draft Results - Team #2

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-Digger's Daily-

I was at it again Thursday night drafting another fantasy football squad in a random ESPN 10 team free league. On Monday night, my New York Muggers drafted from the second slot (results posted on blog dated 09/01/09). I went with the same league format again and finally drafted from the middle of the pack which is right where I wanted to be (#5). Drafting fifth (of ten) allows fantasy owners opportunities to gain valuable players even though some of the games projected elite players get gobbled up 1-4. Unfortunately, 3 drafters never showed up. Luckily, one of them had pre-ranked players.

Here's my round by round results for the "Gridiron Bruisers" (round #/overall pick #):

1/5 - RB DeAngelo Williams (CAR) - Almost went with Brees here but had to nail a top RB in 1st round. Williams had huge fantasy games in '08. Hoping for bigger and better in '09. Peterson, Turner went 1-2.

2/16 - WR Andre Johnson (HOU) - Went off script early. Rule of thumb is pick up the best RB's early. However, most were taken so I gambled a quality back would still be available by my next pick especially since Moss/Fitzgerald were taken right before my turn. Johnson is a playmaker. He just needs a healthy QB to get him the ball. Had big yardage games in '08. I'll need him to record more td's to make this pick look better.

3/25 - RB Ronnie Brown (MIA) - I like this pick here while most others might scoff it. Brown completely healthy and in a contract year. You know what that means. He's going to be on top of his game. Miami is a run first team. Hoping he's the go to guy in goal line situations.

4/36 - RB Thomas Jones (NYJ) - Don't really like this pick. TJ hasn't played well in preseason but I credit this to Jets giving rookie QB Sanchez every opportunity to find his rythm. Leon Washington is also hungry for carries and could cut into Jones playing time. TB's Ward & Indy's Addai would have been better here. This could be a strong pick or major early round bust.

5/45 - TE Tony Gonzalez (ATL) - Future Hall of Famer should get plenty of looks from 2nd year QB Ryan as Atlanta opens up their new passing game. Gonzo is one of my all time favorites.

6/56 - WR Eddie Royal (DEN) - Denver's #1 speedster wideout will see plenty of deep passes. He's been going late in most drafts. I'm expecting major production here. 91 catches as a rookie and NFL 2nd best 72.2% catches of balls thrown in his direction.

7/65 - RB Cedric Benson (CIN) - Most analysts do not like his fantasy value. I'll differ for one reason and one reason only. He's never played with a game breaking QB. Was last of full time starting RB's available. Plenty of QB's remained so this was a no harm no foul depth pick.

8/76 - K Stephen Gostkowski (NE) - Why take a kicker here you ask? Because he's #1 on my charts worth no less than 140 points playing for one of NFL's best offenses. That's why.

9/85 - QB Carson Palmer (CIN) - Once a gambler, always a gambler. Palmer's elbow is a concern after missing 3/4 of '08. He has great WR's (Ocho Cinco & Coles). Threw for 32, 28, 26 TD's and averaged 4000 yard seasons before getting banged up. Calculated gamble should pay dividends especially when Cincy plays most of their games from behind meaning more passes to catch up.

10/96 - WR Devin Hester (CHI) - One of NFL's best deep threats. Pure speed. Outstanding special teams kick returner. Finally has a QB who can deliver a deep pass. One question... can he catch?

11/105 - WR Laverneaus Coles (CIN) - Deep threat left Jets for bigger bucks in Cincy. Another depth pick gamble. My opinion he was best available starting WR. He'll probably only start when my others have bye weeks unless he becomes a favorite target for Palmer.

12/116 - D/ST New England Patriots - Uncharacteristically waited a long time before selecting a defense. One of two things can happen with Pats D. Either they'll pick off a ton of passes when playing way ahead (NE has top offense) or they'll give up a lot of meaningless late game points. Maybe both. Not expecting much here and will start them in favorable matchups. Buffalo is opening game. Pats D will play big vs terrible Bills.

13/125 - QB Jake Delhomme - Everyone except me seems down on Jake in '09. He's healthy, a winner and plays for a great offense. Running game will take away passing attempts but open up play action for potential red zone td's. Solid backup and starter in favorable matchups.

14/136 - D/ST Miami Dolphins - Nice compliment to NE's D. If offense can play ball control games then Dolphins D could record good fantasy numbers.

15/145 - K Nate Kaeding - 607 points in 5 Charger seasons. Good backup for Gastowski.

16/156 - TE Visanthe Shiancoe (MIN) - Favre loves his TE's and looks for them often. Final two picks in this draft mirrored Monday night. Surprised no one has been taking Shiancoe. I'm betting he's a big go to guy inside redzone in '09.

Gridiron Bruisers aren't great on paper. However, favorable scheduling matchups could provide big dividends from this bunch. Selecting Thomas Jones was this drafts snafu. My crystal ball claims this team will put up points. Having multiple teams affords plenty of drafting variations. Two drafts in the books. First draft far better on paper. Bruisers have me curious.

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Random NFL Thoughts

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-Digger's Daily-

NFL kicks off regular season play Thursday, September 10, when Tennessee visits defending Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh. There's been a ton of football news lately. Here's a glimpse of my random thoughts regarding what's taken place in recent days.

Dallas Cowboys can't seem to sidestep controversy. The latest chatter has to do with a mega sized super video screen which hangs over the field. When Tennessee played Dallas in the pre-season opening of Cowboys Stadium their punters aimed for the huge screen during warmups and successfully nailed it. During the game, a punted ball hit the screen and play was halted so refs could figure out what to do. According to league rules, nothing can hang less than 85 feet above playing surfaces. Jerry Jones knew of the rule and instructed crews installing the massive video screen to hang it 90 feet. NFL just decided if a ball hit it during games then refs will order a do over. A do over? That's right, a do over. It's probably the best way to handle it for now, but a do over just sounds lame on its' surface. Hearing fans and others talk of this incredible screen has been two fold. Most admire it. Perhaps the biggest complaint is it's too big and will take fans attention away from the live action 90 feet below. With a little luck, I'll venture back down to Texas this year to check it out for myself.

Brett Favre is back again! He's taken a media sacking not to be believed. Ok, 2008 was a trying season for him in Jets green. I've written extensively of how poorly New York handled play calling, how players seemed to quit, yada yada. Minnesota has a great young team needing a strong veteran leader to help these guys mature on the field. Speedy WR's, one of NFL's top running backs, tough defense and a great head coach. Immediately after Favre un-retired, he was bombarded with negative press from New York to Green Bay. Locker room "schisms" seems to be Minnesota's theme this week. Come on fellas. Be professional football players. Favre could be the answer. He's certainly better than any QB the Vikes have sent under center recently. If his arm is sound, this team has a legit shot at qualifying for NFC Championship Game. Settle down, play football and leave the rest up to the coaching staff.

Tom Brady got his shoulder slammed Friday after missing 99.9% of 2008 season. No news yet on severity of his golden arm. If it's serious, then New England is in deep trouble before the regular season begins. It'll be good news for Miami Dolphins fans and no love will be lost coming out of New York. Fantasy coaches who already drafted TB must be shaking right now (especially those of you in money leagues). Brady quickly became a Montana-esque type of NFL star QB due to his Super Bowl successes. Patriots fans are keeping an ear out for good news.

Denver Broncos suspended disgruntled All Pro WR Brandon Marshall for the remainder of preseason. Marshall wants out of Denver. He's become a distraction to his team. First, he wanted a new contract. Now, he wants out and has been publicly trashing the Broncos. Bad move Brandon. Denver has capable backups ready to earn their stripes. Going public never helps salary negotiations and his poor on field practice behaviour is probably sending negative warning signs to potentially interested teams. He's swatted at passed balls, kicked balls, publicly verbally abused Denver and ignored all calls for rational conduct leading to his suspension. Outspoken WR's often get nicknames, sometimes self imposed. Terrell Owens is called "T.O." - Chad Johnson changed his name to Ocho Cinco - If Marshall keeps this up fans and teammates might start calling him "BM" based on his crap(py) attitude.

So, who's your pick for NFL MVP this year? I really haven't given this subject too much thought until recently. On the AFC side this race appears wide open. Perhaps someone like San Diego's LT? Pittsburgh's Willie Parker comes to mind. Pats Tom Brady or Randy Moss? Indy's Peyton Manning? NFC it could be nearly anyone. Many great teams gearing up. The list is too long. I'll get busy doing some of my own analysis this weekend before posting predictions. Many names to review and team situations to scrutinize. Stay tuned.....

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2009 All World All Sports NFL Predictions

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-Digger's Daily-

2009 NFL pre-season is approaching quickly. Team GM's are getting down and dirty trying get player contracts finalized. Coaches are busy fine tuning game plans and drilling players hard during mini-camps. Many personnel changes will be made between now and opening day ranging from trades to cuts. I thought I'd hit prediction road early this year. Pre-season picking vs detailed end of camp predictions. Here's how I see NFL teams finishing in '09 based on current rosters:

AFC
East
New England Patriots
Miami Dolphins
Buffalo Bills
New York Jets

North
Pittsburgh Steelers
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns

South
Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars

West
San Diego Chargers
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs
Oakland Raiders

NFC
East
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Dallas Cowboys
Washington Redskins

North
Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Detroit Lions

South
Carolina Panthers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Atlanta Falcons
New Orleans Saints

West
San Francisco 49ers
Arizona Cardinals
Seattle Seahawks
St Louis Rams

Super Bowl: Steelers vs Panthers

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