NFL Power Rankings: Week 15

Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas! Is Santa bringing your team a playoff spot? I know that as a Bears fan, all I got was Jay Cutler and a lump of coal in my stocking. Let’s see where everyone landed after a busy Week 15. (And as always, submit your own power rankings and compare them to mine with our Power Rankings Builder!)

NFL Power Rankings

1 Last Week: 2	Indianapolis Colts (14-0) And we have a new #1! The Colts surprised everyone by keeping their starters in for the entire meaningless game in Week 15. Peyton pulled off another miraculous comeback and now we’re only two weeks away from a second undefeated regular season in the last three years.
2 Last Week: 3	San Diego Chargers (11-3) This has been a powerful season for the NFL’s elite. How powerful? The Chargers have reeled off nine straight wins and still own only the third longest winning streak of the season.
3 Last Week: 1	New Orleans Saints (13-1) And the mighty finally fall. Not only did the Saints lose their first game, Drew Brees had his first bad game. Now the pressure is on in New Orleans to respond to a tough loss and bounce back and still secure homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
4 Last Week: 6	Philadelphia Eagles (10-4) DeSean Jackson is quickly moving his name up the list of most explosive receivers in the NFL. He leads the league in yards per catch and is second in catches of 25 yards or more.
5 Last Week: 4	Minnesota Vikings (11-3) Brett Favre is bickering with his coach over playing time in the middle of the stretch run. Uh-oh...here comes the drama.
6 Last Week: 14	Dallas Cowboys (9-5) Dallas’ up-and-down season continues and this week, they are most certainly way up after handing the Saints their first loss of the season. The big win doesn’t stand for very much, however, if the ‘Boys can’t maintain their momentum with a Week 16 win over the stumbling Redskins.
7 Last Week: 8	New England Patriots (9-5) It wasn’t pretty, but division wins are never easy to come by. Next up, the real test: back-to-back games against teams fighting for their playoff lives.
8 Last Week: 7	Cincinnati Bengals (9-5) That was one tough week for the Bengals, who had to deal with the loss of Chris Hnery leading up to a road game against the Chargers. Cincy put up a good fight on the road, though, which makes me think they’ll be able to bounce back at home against the Chiefs in Week 16.
9 Last Week: 5	Green Bay Packers (9-5) The Packers secondary hadn’t given up a 300 yard passing game all season until Week 15, when they let Big Ben throw for over 500 yards. Packers fans better hope that’s just a fluke if they want to continue the team’s payoff push.
10 Last Week: 11	Baltimore Ravens (8-6) Ray Rice and the Ravens running game continues to fuel Baltimore. The Ravens have only lost once in nine games this season while accumulating more than 100 yards on the ground.
11 Last Week: 10	Arizona Cardinals (9-5) Barely scraping out a win against the Detroit Lions’ second string roster is not something to be proud of. When the Cards are good, they can run with anyone in the NFL, but when they’re bad, it gets ugly.
12 Last Week: 9	Denver Broncos (8-6) The slide continues as the Broncos have lost six of their last eight. With a trip to Philly looming in Week 16, it’s not guaranteed that Denver will be playing in the post-season anymore.
13 Last Week: 13	Tennessee Titans (7-7) The Titans have made the long climb from 0-6 to 7-7. Now their eyes will be fixed on scoreboards the next two weeks, as they need a lot of help to sneak into the playoffs.
14 Last Week: 17	New York Giants (8-6) The G-Men’s defense rose to the occasion in a must-win game, delivering five sacks and three interceptions.
15 Last Week: 12	Miami Dolphins (7-7) Ricky Williams just pulled off his first 1,000 yard rushing season in six years. The six-year gap between milestones is the longest in NFL history.
16 Last Week: 20	Houston Texans (7-7) Forget Reggie Wayne, Randy Moss and all those guys in New Orleans, Andre Johnson continues to put up monster numbers. Johnson has over 200 more receiving yards than the second best wideout in the game this season.
17 Last Week: 21	Pittsburgh Steelers (7-7) Big Ben re-enacted his Super Bowl winning pitch and catch to save Pittsburgh’s season. With new life, I’ll be curious to see how the Steelers close out 2009.
18 Last Week: 16	Jacksonville Jaguars (7-7) Three losses in their last four games have pretty much knocked the Jags out of the playoff chase.
19 Last Week: 22	Carolina Panthers (6-8) In a lost season, knocking off the Vikings on national TV might just be the highlight for the Panthers.
20 Last Week: 19	Atlanta Falcons (7-7) Kudos to the Falcons for gutting out a win in Week 15 even though they’re eliminated from the playoff picture.
21 Last Week: 15	New York Jets (7-7) Gang Green went 33 defensive possessions without allowing a touchdown. Too bad the streak ended with Atlanta’s game-winning TD strike in Week 15. Now the Jets are on life support in the AFC wild card race.
22 Last Week: 18	San Francisco 49ers (6-8) Alex Smith’s turnover issues continue to plague this team, as he’s thrown five picks in his last two games.
23 Last Week: 26	Oakland Raiders (5-9) When you play Charlie Frye, J.P. Losman AND JaMarcus Russell, all in the same game, and win? Well, that is one impressive feat.
24 Last Week: 24	Buffalo Bills (5-9) 104 penalty yards is a lot…especially for the first half. The Bills set the dubious high mark for the season in their Week 15 loss to the Pats.
25 Last Week: 23	Washington Redskins (4-10) When you have no points on the board, going for a fake field goal to close out the half is a questionable decision. But when you make the same call coming out of a timeout after the other team has already seen your formation? That’s absolutely insane.
26 Last Week: 29	Cleveland Browns (3-11) Don’t look now, but the Browns are on a two-game winning streak. Special congrats go out to Jerome Harrison, whose 286 yard rushing day was the third best in NFL history.
27 Last Week: 27	Chicago Bears (5-9) It’s a lost season for the Bears, who started out a promising 3-1 before dropping eight of their next ten games. Chicago can try to salvage some pride with an upset over the Vikings this coming Monday night, but that’s about it for 2009.
28 Last Week: 30	Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-12) Josh Freeman finally tossed some touchdown passes – his two TDs in Week 15 were the first he’s thrown in three weeks – to help the Bucs get win number two.
29 Last Week: 25	Seattle Seahawks (5-9) The one thing the Hawks have done well this year is protect their homefield. Well, you can throw that out the window now, too, as Seattle handed the Bucs just their second win of the season in Week 15.
30 Last Week: 32	Detroit Lions (2-12) With Drew Stanton and Daunte Culpepper swapping in and out of the Lions line-up, it’s clear the QB position is in disarray without Matthew Stafford. The Lions need a full healthy season from Stafford in 2010 to see whether he can be their long-term solution under center.
31 Last Week: 28	Kansas City Chiefs (3-11) It’s been a long season for the Chiefs defense, and Week 15 just made it longer. KC’s 31st ranked defense gave up the third best single-game rushing performance in NFL history.
32 Last Week: 31	St. Louis Rams (1-13) The toothless Rams defense has failed to notch a sack or an interception in two full games. Sorry St. Louis, back to the bottom for you…