Week 11 - 2004

The high ranking of the Ravens brings up an interesting question; as the Steelers continue to win does their sole loss to Baltimore look more impressive? At first this almost seems like a silly question and rather counter-intuitive to believe that a game could actually increase in importance as it moves furthar into the past. When the Ravens beat the Steelers in week 2, probably not many people thought much about it. Right now, however, they are the team that won 8 games in a row to become 9-1. Have they been improving drastically through the weeks or have they been essentially the same team all season that is gradually earning more and more respect?

The method that I use to estimate the rankings treats every game equally regardless of whether it happened in week 1 or last Sunday. Thus, more games the Steelers continue to win, the more credit the Ravens will get for their win in week 2. The performance of one team can have an effect on many due to the complicated network of wins and losses. Of course, the Ravens can't bank on their one great acheivement because they will be judged by all the other games as well. However, if they continue to win, they can hold their high position.

I must once again defend my extremely low ranking of Seattle. Despite being 6-4 and ranked fairly well by many of the experts, they appear 23rd by my calculation. I'll simply defend this by listing the teams that have contributed to the Seahawks' win column: Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Carolina, Miami, and San Francisco.

Score / W - L / Team

1. 3.54 / 9 - 1 / Pittsburgh Steelers
2. 3.28 / 9 - 1 / Philadelphia Eagles
3. 3.13 / 9 - 1 / New England Patriots
4. 1.64 / 7 - 3 / Baltimore Ravens
5. 1.10 / 7 - 3 / Indianapolis Colts
6. 1.06 / 7 - 3 / New York Jets
7. 0.96 / 8 - 2 / Atlanta Falcons
8. 0.80 / 7 - 3 / San Diego Chargers
9. 0.61 / 7 - 3 / Denver Broncos
10. 0.58 / 6 - 4 / Jacksonville Jaguars
11. 0.48 / 6 - 4 / Minnesota Vikings
12. 0.16 / 6 - 4 / Green Bay Packers
13. 0.00 / 5 - 5 / New York Giants
14. -0.06 / 3 - 7 / Cleveland Browns
15. -0.07 / 4 - 6 / Cincinnati Bengals
16. -0.17 / 4 - 6 / Detroit Lions
17. -0.27 / 4 - 6 / Buffalo Bills
18. -0.31 / 4 - 6 / Houston Texans
19. -0.41 / 4 - 6 / Tennessee Titans
20. -0.43 / 3 - 7 / Dallas Cowboys
21. -0.59 / 4 - 6 / Chicago Bears
22. -0.79 / 3 - 7 / Kansas City Chiefs
23. -0.82 / 6 - 4 / Seattle Seahawks
24. -0.89 / 5 - 5 / St Louis Rams
25. -0.90 / 3 - 7 / Washington Redskins
26. -1.03 / 3 - 7 / Oakland Raiders
27. -1.22 / 4 - 6 / Arizona Cardinals
28. -1.23 / 4 - 6 / Tampa Bay Buccaneers
29. -1.24 / 4 - 6 / New Orleans Saints
30. -1.37 / 3 - 7 / Carolina Panthers
31. -2.44 / 1 - 9 / Miami Dolphins
32. -3.09 / 1 - 9 / San Francisco 49ers

Home-advantage = 0.32