Top And Bottom of the NFL: Week 7

Power rankings. You hate them. They’re so arbitrary and pointless, especially when they include all 32 NFL teams. All you want to know after a good week of NFL action is who's the bestest team in the NFL right now, and which one is the absolute paint-sniffing worst. The one so awful, it could easily throw a game-losing pick to the Packers and have that pick be whitewashed by Cris Collinsworth. That’s why we have TOP AND BOTTOM OF THE NFL, where we go to great lengths to tell you who’s the top dog in football right now, this very minute. LET’S GO!

THE TOP: Pittsburgh Steelers

While everyone is complaining about how crummy the NFC is, the AFC playoffs are shaping up to be the most competitive ever.

Take a look at the four wild card teams potentially competing for the wild card in the AFC: New England, Baltimore, Houston, and Tennessee. Two of those teams likely aren’t gonna make the playoffs, but probably could snag a one-seed in the NFC. The AFC is so loaded, it’s practically obscene.

And the injury to Steelers DE Aaron Smith only makes the logjam tighter. The Steelers needed a bizarre replay call to escape Miami with a win, but that struck me as the kind of thing that happens to a team experiencing a charmed season. It was the kind of win that Pittsburgh routinely pulled out in 2008, their last title season.

THE BOTTOM: San Diego Chargers

Again, there’ll be plenty of time for the poor Bills to wallow in the spot the rest of the year. But let’s cut them a break after they nearly beat Baltimore in Baltimore and discovered their Quarterback of the Canadian Future in Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Instead, let’s focus our attention on the Chargers.

Oh, the Chargers. Do they even have a coach? They do? Does he sit around playing backgammon all day? How else do you explain this team? How else do you explain not one, but TWO instances of a Chargers offensive player leaving a live ball sitting there on the turf for any Patriot to scoop up and run down the field with?

There was no whistle on either play. Is this team so poorly coached that they don’t even know to listen for a whistle (NOTE TO SAN DIEGO PLAYERS: A whistle sounds like this: WOOOOOOWOOOOOOOO!!!!)? I assume Norv Turner doesn’t employ a whistle at practice, lest it be too stern a way to get his point across.

The Chargers didn’t look like they even wanted to be there until the fourth quarter on Sunday. Like the Cowboys, there’s a constant feeling when you watch this team that they are squandering precious chances to win a title simply so that the man in charge (Jerry Jones, AJ Smith) can keep his fingerprints all over the team.

Well, reap what you sow, AJ. Your team sucks.

Drew Magary covers the NFL for NBC Local Media. His Top and Bottom feature appears every Monday.

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