Week 8 NFL Power Rankings: Steelers beat Titans and stand tall
By Will Lomas
8. Tennessee Titans (-5)
This one hurts because the Tennessee Titans may have the best offense in the NFL and if their defense played like…well an NFL defense, then they would easily be a top-3 team in these power rankings.
Losing 27-24 against the only unbeaten team left in the NFL doesn’t look or sound bad, but the Titans have the worst 3rd down defense in the NFL and if not for some incredibly individual effort plays that led to turnovers, this would have been much worse.
Because of a defense that couldn’t get off the field, the Titans offense only got the ball 10 times. In the first half they only got the ball four times, twice they started inside their own 10 because of special teams mistakes and had to punt both times, once they scored a TD, and then a bad snap on a punt led to a turnover.
In the second half, they got the ball six times and scored two touchdowns, made a field goal, and then missed a field goal to tie the game at the end.
This team is so close to being great, but right now they rely on drops and bad plays by the opposing offense to get stops and if the other team doesn’t make huge mistakes then the Titans can’t help but to allow 30+ points.
7. New Orleans Saints (+0)
This is the 5th week in a row where I have the New Orleans Saints 7th in these power rankings and I just don’t know how they are going to get over this hump.
The Saints aren’t playing bad football, but they aren’t playing great football either and with the growing discontent between Michael Thomas and the coaching staff, this feels like a team that is dangerously close to missing out on their last season of Drew Brees.
I watch the Saints and never feel like they are great at any one thing, and to break into the top-5 you really need to be able to dominate in one area.