Michael Sudds

The Week 16 losses by the 49ers and Giants have thrown a monkey wrench into the NFC playoff picture, where the 13-2 Falcons have locked up home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Packers (11-4) were given a Christmas gift by the Seahawks and will play a home game at Lambeau Field in January. The scramble is on for the wild card spots keeping the Bears, Giants and Cowboys playing for their playoff lives. Over in the AFC, the teams have been determined. The AFC North will have two teams in the playoffs, but a disappointing loss by the Steelers slammed the door shut on an eerie season. This week, CBS Sports came closest to matching the consensus, getting the top-4 teams correct. Here’s your IBTimes ultimate consensus power rankings for Week 17 (The aggregate ranking points are in parentheses). 1. Denver Broncos (15) With every passing week, Peyton Manning looks more like the leading candidate for the MVP, and comeback player of the year awards. The 12-3 Broncos can earn the first seed with a win and a loss by the Texans, also at 12-3.

Since my Google spreadsheet doesn’t like talking to tablets, I’ll list a summary in plain text and leave the link for you MAC and PC users. The aggregate ranking points are in parentheses, followed by their change in this week’s consensus

The New England Patriots (9-3) are the unanimous choice as the NFL's top team. The Pats 42-14 beatdown of the 11-2 Titans was very convincing. Fans of the bottom 10-20 teams will begin offseason discussions, so keep an eye on how it shakes out for your team.

The biggest winners this week were the Jets (+4) and the Redskins (+3) behind two rookie QB phenoms. Kudos to ESPN.com, who ranked the top seven teams correctly, according to the consensus. Here's the full results:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao6HfBXFL76ydGVJbnpfMHlqTERncGd4OHltU3dYUFE#gid=0

The NFL Week 14 IBTimes Ultimate Power Rankings held a few surprises. The Cleveland Browns made a four spot leap in the consensus rankings; the best showing by any team. At the other end of the spectrum, the Tampa Bay Bucs dropped four spots as two straight losses caught the attention of rankers. San Francisco's three spot drop after a loss to the Rams might have been the most damaging though.

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