Week 14 NFL Power Rankings: Focus on the Oakland Raiders

Jeff Gross/Getty ImagesAt my site—www.GuysNation.com—I do a weekly power ranking of all 32 NFL teams. It's a hugely subjective process in which I account for a team's strength of schedule, margin of victory, good wins and bad losses.Where do the Chicago Bears jersey
Oakland Raiders currently rank?I'll admit it, I was starting to buy into the Oakland Raiders. Leading into their bye week, they went on three-game streak of victories, with two lopsided wins—against the Broncos in Denver and then while hosting the Seahawks. Their Week 9 victory over the Chiefs wasn't by a large margin, but the Chiefs are a good team and again, it's a division game.Following the bye week, I wondered what to expect as the Raiders traveled to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers. Although the margin of victory was fairly large and Oakland didn't score a touchdown, every team is allowed to slip up here and there.Then I figured the Raiders would have a good follow-up as they hosted Miami in Week 12, but again they fell far short of victory, though not by a huge margin.In a very encouraging win, Oakland took down divisional opponent San Diego for the second time this season, bringing them to 4-0 against the AFC West this season which is very impressive as teams often lose three games on their schedule in the away games in their division. Two of those road games are already accounted for, making it even more of a resume shining star.Does it seem like the Raiders will be a playoff team? They could certainly cause havoc if they reach the postseason, and they've definitely got a leg up on San Diego after beating them twice. But the Chiefs have a two game overall record advantage over Oakland, so even if the Raiders beat Kansas City again this season it's going to be tough to overtake them for the division, so it's going to be all about the wild card.Twelve teams make the playoffs...do I have the Raiders in that group?For the complete rankings and analysis, check out the article on my website, Unlike Power Rankings you see elsewhere, nfl throwback jerseys
your comments could help persuade me to rank your team better after Week 13!You also will probably enjoy voicing your opinion through voting in nearly a dozen polls set up to help get people's feedback on the Power Rankings!You also might like the dueling NFL Week 14 picks article on GuysNation.com, a new(ish) feature where the games on a given week's NFL schedule are debated amongst myself and another author on my site (who just happens to be a LIFE LONG PHILADELPHIA EAGLES FAN, so you KNOW he's got a high opinion of his opinion!)