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Legendary
comic Rodney Dangerfield died on October 5, 2004.
Well known for getting “no respect” from anybody, Dangerfield
lit up comedy clubs and the silver screen in films like
Caddyshack and the ever-popular Back to
School. Even in death, Rodney gets no respect,
because that’s not what this article is about.
One
of my favorite features of ESPN.com’s NFL page is their
“Power Rankings.” The sports geniuses at ESPN
rank all 32 teams, disregarding distinctions between
AFC/NFC and the various divisions. They revise
it each week, and it’s a good tool to see where my team
sits in the “grand scheme of things.”
Enter,
the San Diego Chargers. As I browsed the Power
Rankings, I found my beloved Chargers, as usual, near
the bottom of the chart. I wanted to see where
they ranked in relation to the Jaguars, their next opponent.
The Jags are ranked #9, with the Chargers down at #23.
Looks like it’s going to be a tough game. But
hey, maybe it’s an opportunity for them to win a big
game and get some well-deserved respect. Beating
the #9 team would merit a big jump in the rankings,
right? I mean, what if the #28 team beat the #15
team? In my mind, that would tell me that the
#28 team would deserve to rocket past that #15 team,
if only for a week.
Well,
last week, the #28 Chargers beat the #15 Titans.
Did they pass the Titans in the Holy Power Rankings?
Not a chance. #23 Chargers are still below the
#20 Titans. OK, so the Chargers beat the Titans
(and quite handily at that), but maybe there’s more
to consider than recent performance. Maybe your
entire season record should play some factor.
Let’s see how the 2-2 Chargers compare to the other
teams with similar (and worse) records.
The
average rank of the 8 teams with two losses this season
(including the 1-2 Panthers, who are ranked #14) is
18, a spot that happens to be occupied by the “best”
1-3 team, the Kansas City Chiefs. Further, the
average rank of teams with three losses is 24, but if
you include the Panthers and average the ranks of all
teams with only one win, it’s #23! I guess the
Chargers didn’t win last week, because they’re ranked
as an AVERAGE one-win team!
No
respect, I say. The Chargers rank below all of
the teams they’ve played this year, including the aforementioned
#23 Titans and #17 Texans, who the Chargers beat during
Week 1. But, it’s just too much of a slap in the
face to see the worst team in the AFC West (the Chiefs)
ranked all the way up at #18.
And
to slap the other cheek, the 1-3 Titans are playing
the 1-3 Packers (again, both of whom are ranked higher
than the Chargers) on Monday Night Football this week!
What a disgrace. All the while, the Chargers have
nary a MNF game this entire season. They aren’t
even scheduled for the Sunday Night game, not even once!
Alright.
Just for the haters out there, I’ll entertain the notion
that the Chargers didn’t deserve to pass the Titans
in the rankings since they beat Tennessee during a week
when their star quarterback, Steve McNair, was injured
and did not play. To dispel this myth, one only
need consider that this was an OFFENSIVE victory for
the Chargers, not a defensive one. The Titan offense
didn’t turn over the ball once, even with the backup
QB at the helm. The Chargers just played a great
offensive game. QB Drew Brees had the best start
of his career and RB LaDainian Tomlinson broke the Chargers
career rushing record. Unless McNair was planning
on playing both ways, I don’t see how he would have
affected the end result, a Charger win.
Plus,
what’s the point with playing the “would-have, could-have”
game anyway? At the end of the season, does the
NFL adjust the records to compensate for injuries?
No! If they did that, there would be no point
in playing a single game. They’d simply have a
computer run a simulation for all of the games in the
schedule and crown a Super Bowl champion.
Rodney,
I hope you’re looking down and watching the Chargers
game on Sunday, because they could use a little respect.
Why would he do that? Because he lived in LA,
and ever since the Rams and Raiders left town, the Chargers
have been LA’s football team. But that’s a whole
other issue of respect.
Oliver
Butterick can be reached at oliver@babblog.com.
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