NFL Power Rankings – Week 10
by Robert Ferringo - 11/5/2013

The public continues to take it on the chin this year in the NFL after another windfall week for the sportsbooks. Houston’s collapse against Indianapolis saved a lot of gamblers on Sunday. But overall it was another big winning week for the books. Ten of the 13 games on the board last week had lopsided action, with 70 percent or more of all betting coming down on one side. Only four of those square plays came through.

NFL Power Rankings – Week 9
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2013

I pointed out last week that the end of October and early November is “separation time” for most of the teams in the NFL. This is the time of the year when the top-tier teams start to pull away from the muddled middle in the parity-driven league while the bottom feeders bumble their way to the basement in their respective divisions.

NFL Power Rankings – Week 8
by Robert Ferringo - 10/22/2013

In a league devised for parity to reign supreme, there is becoming a very clear delineation between the Haves and the Have-Not’s in the NFL. We are seeing more double-digit spreads, and some teams are starting to gear up and work toward securing playoff positioning while others are already starting to cast a gaze to next year.

NFL Power Rankings – Week 7
by Robert Ferringo - 10/15/2013

It has become a disturbing trend across the league over the last several weeks; coaches are consistently eschewing chip-shot field goals on fourth down to make ill-conceived attempts at touchdowns. Off the top of my head, I can think of five times in the last two weeks where a coach went for it on fourth-and-short inside his opponent’s 10-yard-line instead of simply taking the three points. Not only did it almost never work out for the offense, but those three lost points went on to be a major factor in the outcome of the game both straight up and against the spread.

NFL Power Rankings Week 6
by Robert Ferringo - 10/8/2013

Depth is becoming more and more of a factor around the NFL as several teams have lost critical parts over the past two weeks. Julio Jones, Clay Matthews, Vince Wilfork and Jake Locker are just some of the big names that have gone down, and their losses have changed the complexion of their respective teams.

NFL Power Rankings – Week 5
by Robert Ferringo - 10/1/2013

Last week I touched on the fact that the AFC had been dominating the NFC so far this year and how that had been one of the underlying trends in this first month of the season. The AFC promptly went out and went 5-4 against the spread versus its rival conference, running its mark to 15-8 ATS this year.

NFL Power Rankings – Week 4
by Robert Ferringo - 9/24/2013

I felt that one of the overarching themes of this 2013 NFL season was the fact that the NFC was clearly the superior conference in the league. Conference superiority has swung back and forth for the past 25 years, and after the beginning of this century was it was controlled by the AFC (seven of 10 Super Bowl titles). I felt their counterparts had regained the upper hand after taking three of the last four championships.

NFL Power Rankings – Week 3
by Robert Ferringo - 9/17/2013

Week 3 in the NFL is Desperation Week. NFL teams that start the season 0-2 have about a 10 percent chance of making the playoffs. The tension and angst that builds up on such a slow start is already palpable for teams like Washington, Tampa Bay and New York. And all of them know that teams that start the year 0-3 have virtually no shot at the postseason. That puts these teams in full-on Desperation Mode early in the season.

NFL Power Rankings – Week 2
by Robert Ferringo - 9/11/2013

Generally, the week following NFL Week 1 is one of the most obnoxious of the season. The teams that won their first game are all destined for big years and have everything clicking. The teams that lost their first game are in full-blown panic mode, and all of those weaknesses that were so obvious to every fan all offseason are insurmountable. Or something like that.

NFL Power Rankings – Week 1
by Robert Ferringo - 9/3/2013

I have been staring at these spreads for a month. Time has seemingly been standing still over the past six weeks as we have endured the time between the start of training camp and the actual start of the 2013 NFL season. Professional football is one of the most massive industries in this country, and it has become a 365-day-a-year obsession. But after seven months of pointless speculation and gossip, we are finally at the moment where it has come time to prove one’s self.

2013 NFL Power Rankings – Preseason Edition
by Robert Ferringo - 7/31/2013

I wish I had something provocative or surprising to offer you in the way of The Best Team in Football. But it is the 49ers. San Francisco is the best team in the best conference in the game. The offseason didn’t sabotage them. Each loss to free agency or injury was replaced by a comparable part. The 49ers have the best defense and one of the best running games in the NFL.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 17
by Robert Ferringo - 12/26/2012

Let’s keep this short and sweet, shall we? This is the end. All 32 teams started this season with so much hope and promise, but for 20 of those teams the season is going to end in a fiery wreck of defeat and disdain. The other 12 will move onto The Second Season, where glory and riches await the winners and shame and regret cloak the losers.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 16
by Robert Ferringo - 12/18/2012

Positioning. The last two weeks of the NFL season are all about positioning. The teams still in the playoff race are motivated by postseason positioning right now, jostling for bye weeks and home games. For several teams, next week will be a glorified scrimmage, so that means that Week 16 will be the last hurrah for a lot of clubs that want to get their positioning sewn up before Christmas.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 15
by Robert Ferringo - 12/11/2012

This week has the chance to be one of the most entertaining and unpredictable weekends of the season. With six games featuring teams with winning records and host of teams still alive to make the playoffs (10 of the 16 teams in the NFC are still very much alive), we should see a very high level of football played on Sunday as the fighting and clawing for postseason positioning continues throughout the league.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 14
by Robert Ferringo - 12/4/2012

Maxing out and mailing it in. That is the theme for December football. Each team in the NFL has its own motivation heading into the final month of the league’s grueling 17-week regular season campaign. For teams in the top-tier it is all about playoff positioning and trying to secure bye weeks and home games. For teams in the second-tier it is all about just making it to the postseason and securing a spot in do-or-die January.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 13
by Robert Ferringo - 11/27/2012

An underrated story of the last two football seasons is that we have had, nationally, back-to-back years with mild, extended falls. The weather has had little to no impact on late-season football over the last two seasons and that has helped pass-wacky favorites continue to cover big spreads deep into December.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 12
by Robert Ferringo - 11/21/2012

OK, so it’s a huge week for gamblers the world over, and from Maine to Maui there is wall-to-wall betting action this week. So I’m going to keep this one short and sweet. Here are Doc’s Sports Week 12 NFL power rankings:

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 11
by Robert Ferringo - 11/14/2012

It was another strong week for the betting public last week, as the most heavily bet favorites on the board – Indianapolis, Denver, Tampa Bay and Dallas – came through again. That now makes back-to-back profitable weeks for the bettors…but anyone that has been around NFL betting for any length of time knows that it is a matter of “when” and not “if” the books are going to turn the tables and get it back.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 10
by Robert Ferringo - 11/6/2012

We’re going to do things a little different with the NFL power rankings this week. In honor of Election Day and this amazing country of ours, we’re going to pair each NFL team with a former president. Just so I’m clear: I am not trying to rank the presidents. Not at all. I am just trying to pair each current incantation of each NFL team with its presidential doppelganger.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Week 9
by Robert Ferringo - 10/30/2012

There are a lot of seemingly juicy lines on this week’s NFL board. And Week 9 appears likely to be, in terms of betting action, one of the most lopsided of the season. As of Wednesday, Denver (88 percent), Baltimore (91 percent), Detroit (83), Chicago (83), and Tampa Bay (82) were all taking the overwhelming majority of public bets. Houston (78 percent) and Green Bay (75) were not far behind.