NFL Top 10 Power Rankings

Green Bay Packers (9-0)

The only undefeated team this season and they seem determined to be the first team to win back to back Superbowl’s. Aaron Rodgers is putting up silly numbers spreading the ball around (Favre who?) and the defence has improved with the return of players missing last season due to injury.

San Francisco 49ers (8-1)

With a 7 point victory over the Giants, the 49ers find themselves 2^nd in the first Double Coverage NFL rankings. With Jim Harbaugh working his magic in the Bay area and a stout defence the 49ers should lock up the NFC West in no time and possibly the number 2 seed in the NFC.

Houston Texans (7-3)

Wow just wow, that’s all we can say about the Texans victory over the Bucs. With the number 1 seed in the AFC and no competition in the AFC South it looks like the Texans will be heading to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. The news about Schaub being injured shouldn’t affect the Texans chances of winning with a solid run game and the number 1 ranked defence in the NFL.

New Orleans Saints (7-3)

The Saints just keep winning!  With Drew Brees and Sean Payton running the show (plus some help from the Falcons) the Saints earned an overtime victory over division rivals the Atlanta Falcons last weekend. They will be hoping they don’t suffer from the bye week blues that have affected so many teams this season.

Baltimore Ravens (6-3)

You want to beat the Ravens? Play them the week after they play the Steelers! Even though they lost this week to the Seahawks, we still have the Ravens at number 5 in our rankings. A victory this weekend over the Bengals should see them return to the top of the AFC North, surely they can manage that….right?

Pittsburgh Steelers (7-3)

The Steelers got a huge victory over division opponents the Cincinnati Bengals this weekend, a week after the loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The victory is the main reason the Steelers find themselves on our top 10 rankings, a bye this week followed with a trip to the Chiefs in week 12 should keep the Steelers seated in our top 10 for a while. 

New York Giants (6-3)

Even though they lost to the 49ers, the Giants still had a chance to win going into the final drive of the game. Unfortunately Eli Manning couldn’t pull off another game tying winning drive in a row. The Giants earn the number 7 seed as they are still top of the NFC East and lost to an 8-1 team. A victory next week over the Eagles could see them move up in the rankings purely for ending the “dream teams” playoff hopes and dreams!

New England Patriots (6-3)

“The Patriots can’t defend the pass, the Patriots are ranked 32^nd in defence” Clearly this isn’t holding the Patriots back as they lead the AFC East by a game after manhandling the New York Jets. Analysts and Experts seem to forget that the Patriots lost their last two games to the Steelers and Giants (7-3 and 6-3 respectively). After this week’s victory we expect the Pats to regain their 5-1 form and comfortably win their division.

Chicago Bears (6-3)

Even when Devin Hester is ill he still returns touchdowns for fun! The Bears got a huge victory over the Lions this weekend to extend their win streak to four games. If Chicago can keep up this form they should easily make the playoffs again. (They also need to pay Matt Forte sometime soon).

Detroit Lions (6-3)

The embarrassing loss to Chicago may result in a red faces for Lions players, but hopefully the Lions can re find their focus to avoid a second half collapse. Veteran players need to step up and get this team back to winning ways and someone other than Calvin Johnson needs to make plays on offence.

NFL Week 10 Review

If you bet against every home team this weekend you would have won good money with only 6 of the 16 home teams winning. Last week he got 9 out of 14 right, so let’s take a look at how Rich got on this time around. (predictions found here)

OAK Raiders bt SD Chargers by 7

Original Prediction: Chargers to win by 7.

An unfortunate start to the week in terms of predictions, but this game was massively unpredictable. Phillip Rivers continues to struggle and the Raiders will be happy with the chemistry new QB Carson Palmer has with his receivers.

NO Saints bt ATL Falcons 26-23

Original Prediction: Saints to win by 3.

Evaluation: First prediction out of the gate and Rich got it spot on, helped out greatly by a stupid 4^th down call by the Falcons.

TENN Titans bt CAR Panthers 30 - 3

Original Prediction: The Cam Newton Panthers to win by 6.

Evaluation: Couldn’t have been further from the truth! Tennessee walked all over the Panthers continuing the bye week curse that has ruined pretty much every team this year.

BUAFL Game of the week: BNU @ Portsmouth

BNU Buccaneers once again ground out the tough yards, but fell victim to a hard-nosed Portsmouth defence that created turnovers and stops time and again. 

BNU put up huge yards (239 in comparison to 177 against Pompey) for the second game in a row, but problems holding onto the football restricted their scoring. Both teams also struggled with penalties as they combined for 16 penalties overall for 142 yards.

As a deadlocked first quarter drew to a close Portsmouth gifted BNU the first points of the game when a bad snap on a punt led to a safety. BNU got the ball back for the beginning of the 2^nd quarter and promptly turned it over on downs after going for it on 4^th and 3 from their own 23.

Portsmouth took immediate advantage of the turnover, punching the ball in on second down with a Tomi Olusanya run. Olusanya also ran the ball in for the two point conversion to give Portsmouth a six point lead.

NFL Week 10 Predictions

Last week my predictions looked pretty good until the Patriots, Steelers and Rams all decided to lose their 4^th quarter lead and eventually their matchups. Last week’s record was 9-5, which isn't so bad for a first try. This week I'm already down thanks to Phillip Rivers and the Chargers, so let's hope for a better outing this weekend!

NO Saints @ ATL Falcons

This fixture last year saw the Saints end the Falcons eight game winning streak and dropped the Falcons to 12-3. This year the Falcons are on another winning streak as the Saints head into the Georgia Dome. 

Drew Brees is currently on course to break Dan Marino’s all time passing record and we wouldn’t be surprised to pass over the Falcons D.

If the Falcons offence can keep up in a shootout with Brees this game could end up being game of the week.

Dbl Coverage Prediction: Saints to win by 3.

TENN Titans @ CAR Panthers

The Titans will face another rookie QB this week after losing to Andy Dalton and the Bengals last week. This time they face a different type of quarterback. Cam Newton is by far one of, if not the most entertaining players in the NFL.

The Carolina D are currently allowing 4.6 yards per rush so if they want to win this game they need to hold Chris Johnson to minimal yardage, thus forcing Matt Hasselbeck to win the game for the Titans.

Dbl Coverage Prediction: The Cam Newton Panthers to win by 6.

GB Lions on the Hunt for Coaching Staff

http://www.britishamericanfootball.org/news.aspx?id=51

 
Following the recent announcement regarding the Head Coaches of the Great Britain Lions Junior Contact and Adult Contact Teams (Damian Anderson and Mike Callan, respectively), vacancies now exist for coaching positions within both teams.

The Head Coaches have worked closely with the BAFA National Programme Sub-Committee, comprising BAFA Directors Gary Marshall, Jon Wyse, Matthew Davies and Russ Hewitt, to produce an Application Pack (available on the “Downloads” section of the BAFA website) that prospective coaches should refer to.

Specifically the positions available, for both Junior and Adult teams, include:

· Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Co-ordinators
· Positional Coaches,
· General (coaching) Assistants.

The pack contains details of the roles, their requirements and the process for application and selection, as well as contact details for any questions. The deadline for receipt of applications is midnight on Sunday 27th November 2011. We look forward to receiving all applications from all sections of the British American Football community.