Week 16 - The Rankings - Big Jumps, Small Brains

So the rankings are in for Week 16 (overall, beta, alpha, Sharpe). The story? Small minds are making big jumps. Here are the overall rankings:

The Gamblers'
Power Rankings
1	NE
2	IND
3	DAL
4	GB
5	PIT
6	SD	▲4
7	SEA	▼1
8	JAC	▲1
9	MIN	▼2
10	CLE	▲1
11	TB	▲4
12	HOU	▲2
13	NYG	▼5
14	PHI	▲2
15	NO	▲2
16	CIN	▼3
17	DET	▼5
18	WAS	▲2
19	ARI	▼1
20	OAK	▼1
21	TEN	▲2
22	CAR	▼1
23	DEN	▼1
24	NYJ
25	BUF	▲1
26	CHI	▼1
27	STL
28	SF	▲2
29	BAL	▼1
30	KC	▼1
31	MIA	▲1
32	ATL	▼1

The movement outside of the top 5 is ridiculous. The San Diego Chargers have finally made a leap up the ranks, since they've started playing some consistent ball over the last few weeks. Has Norv "What's a Football?" Turner finally figured out how to win?

Hardly.

The Chargers have a 4 game win streak going against some of the toughest competition in the NFL: Baltimore, Kansas City, Tennessee, and Detroit. Powerhouses all. Detroit, the highest ranking of those 4, ranks in the bottom half of the league this week. Tennessee, who early in the season was a nice spreadbuster, seems to have lost steam as teams figure out how to fool Vince Young and Albert Haynesworth was on and off with injuries. KC and Baltimore? Herm Edwards and Brian Billick. 'Nuff said.

The other biggest jumpers were losers: the aforementioned Detroit team, let by a schizophrenic ego maniacal Mike Martz on offense, and a truly terrible New York Giants. Tom Coughlin is just terrible. Last week against Washington, Coughlin's coaching staff called 28 runs and 53 PASSES. 53 PASSES!!! What, are you nuts? Granted, playing from behind often means you are forced to pass more than usual. But the Giants were getting 5.0 ypp on the ground, and 3.1 ypp through the air. Do the math, Tom. I hope the Giants don't make the playoffs, they will be easy pickings for whoever they would face first.

Here are this week's performance rankings:

	Sharpe	Alpha	Beta
Team	Rank	Rank	Rank
ARI	17	13	6
ATL	31	32	27
BAL	30	18	10
BUF	22	30	16
CAR	25	12	21
CHI	23	28	30
CIN	19	4	18
CLE	14	7	25
DAL	4	1	32
DEN	24	25	12
DET	20	5	24
GB	3	11	13
HOU	12	10	2
IND	2	3	23
JAC	5	27	29
KC	29	31	26
MIA	32	16	9
MIN	9	14	3
NE	1	2	1
NO	13	23	31
NYG	15	6	20
NYJ	26	17	15
OAK	21	9	5
PHI	11	22	19
PIT	6	8	22
SD	7	19	28
SEA	8	15	4
SF	28	24	14
STL	27	29	8
TB	10	26	17
TEN	18	21	11
WAS	16	20	7

There have been some major adjustments in the Box this week. In large part because of a massive flaw in one of the major programming aspects. Needless to say, I have been deeply ensconced in the fixing of the issue, hence the slowdown in posts. I will be posting an updated Win % of the Box's Pure Picks, picks that based solely on the base statistics, before any financial mods. Look for it in a few, along with an updated this week's best bets after the early line moves.