Apart from an unexpected drubbing in NYC, Week 12 went basically as planned.
Most of our top 15 only changed a spot or two, but last year's Super Bowl teams — New York and New England — began to make steep climbs as we head toward the playoffs.
Click here to see the rankings >
Once again, here's how we came up with them.
We took our rankings from last week and moved teams up and down based on the following criteria:
- A win: up 2 spots
- A loss: down 1 spot
- A loss by 10+ points: down 2 spots
- A win against a top-5 team from the week before: up 2 spots
- A win against a top-12 team from the week before (aka, a playoff team): up 1 spot
- Covering the point spread: up 1 spot
- A winning record: up 1 spot
- A losing record: down 1 spot
- No team with a winning record can be outside the top 16
1. Houston Texans (#1 last week): Beat the Lions
Record: 10-1
Biggest thing we learned this week: The defense is officially in a funk. They've given up 68 points in their last two games.
2. Baltimore Ravens (#2 last week): Beat the Chargers
Record: 9-2
Biggest thing we learned this week: This might be the shakiest 9-2 team ever after an OT win over the hapless Chargers. But news that Ray Lewis could come back from injury sooner than expected should give them a boost.
3. Atlanta Falcons (#3 last week): Beat the Bucs
Record: 10-1
Biggest thing we learned this week: The run defense has the potential to be great. Tampa only managed 2.4 yards per carry on 21 rushes.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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