The Washington Redskins have cracked the top half of the league in the latest edition of ESPN's NFL Power Rankings. A 2-0 start to the season has vaulted the Redskins up four spots to No. 15 in the Week 3 edition of the rankings. Here's what the ESPN staff has to say about the Redskins.
The Redskins haven't been two games over .500 since the middle of 2008. No wonder fans are ecstatic.
The Redskins are the fifth of the 2-0 teams to be in the rankings. Only the Buffalo Bills, at No. 16, are lower. There are nine 1-1 teams listed ahead of the Redskins on the list. Here are the teams ranked above Washington.
Yup, that's the Cowboys ranked two spots above the Redskins. Well then. The only NFC East team left after Washington is the New York Giants, who are ranked No. 18.
OK, Redskins. That's two in a row. If Tony Romo misses Week 3, they catch a huge break for Dallas week.
The nine-spot jump was the second-highest jump by any team in this week's power rankings. Only the Buffalo Bills, who leaped up from No. 21 to No. 11 after a thrilling win over the Oakland Raiders, made a bigger jump. Here are the 12 teams currently in front of the Redskins on the list:
As the Redskins continue to enjoy their week after a win against the Giants, and the National media is still pouring in Power Rankings that should give us a better idea of how people around the Country feel about them. Today's rankings come from Football Outsiders, who have the Redskins ninth in Week 1 performance, but 20th overall. You can find the rankings here.
I'm not sure how I feel about these rankings because they seem to be fairly reliant on statistics and numbers. I don't really think that's the best way to do it. For example, the Redskins only were ranked slightly ahead of the Titans after Week 1, and they only scored 14 points on their way to a loss to a pretty crummy Jaguard team. I don't think the tenth best team in the league loses that game. But hey, if they want to rank the Redskins in the top ten of Week 1 performances, I am not going to argue with them.
Thing is, ranking the Redskins at No. 28 was too low to start the season anyway, which explains the nine-spot jump. Would this still happen if the Redskins were ranked higher to begin the year, as they should have been?
As for the other NFC East teams, the Philadelphia Eagles moved up one spot to No. 3, the Dallas Cowboys (for some reason) moved up one spot to No. 13 and the Giants fell two spots to No. 17. Does ESPN realize that the Cowboys lost in Week 1?
