Z’s Island: The 4 Biggest Surprises Heading into Week 8
- We Dem Boyz Week 9 Edition: The Cowboys continue their early season dominance with a shocking 55-34 win over the New York Giants. Mason Garcia completed 10 of his 13 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns. TreVeyon Henderson was also huge for the Cowboys: amassing 121 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Dallas fan favorite De’Rickey Wright also tacked on a pick 6. There are several key matchups that will be pivotal in determining if the Cowboys are real. They host the 6-2 Chicago Bears this week, follow that up with a trip to Lambeau to play the Packers, then have a must-watch matchup against the Raiders in week 17. Jefe has stormed out the gates and is a few wins away from securing his playoff spot. Can anyone derail the Cowboys train?
- SKOL…..SKOL…..SKOL: Alright enough of that. Are the Vikings back? Don’t look now but the Vikings are 5-4. Although they haven’t had the prettiest season, they’re currently 3-1 in their last four games, one of which was a big win over the Cleveland Browns. While it may be too early to say CEO has truly returned to form, we’ll most certainly find out after his Week 11 bye week. He hosts the Cincinnati Bengals, travels to Chicago, and then follows up with the defending champion New York Giants, before ultimately taking on the Packers in Lambeau in week 16.
- Texans abysmal once again, get blown out by Seahawks at home: Is it safe to say the Kyler Murray experiment is a failure for the Houston Texans? Kyler has 16 touchdowns to 17 interceptions on the year. The Texans currently sit at 3-6, 4th in his division and 14th in the AFC. The Texans just gave up 295 yards passing and 4 touchdowns which could have been greater if not for some inaccurate passes. While Kyler Murray’s stats might look good on paper (he still threw 2 INTs, so good is subjective here), they were heavily bolstered by an unintentional run commit from the Seahawks Defense that went for a touchdown before the half. Alvin Kamara also had a rough day, only amassing 30 yards on 9 carries. The Texans have a tough matchup with the Jacksonville Jags looming in week 10. If they can’t win this game (they did defeat the Jags in week 8), their season is as good as over.
- Bengals Pull Off a Big Win in the Windy City: Earlier in the season, it looked as if the Bengals had peaked. Coming off losses to the Bills, Browns, and Ravens, the 1-3 record boasted by the Bengals had many Cincy fans sounding the alarm. Cammy answered the call over the next 5 weeks. Dismantling the Jets 41-14, beating the Steelers and Lions (games they should be expected to win), and culminating it with a 31-29 victory in week 9 over the 6-1 (now 6-2) Chicago Bears. The Bengals forced 3 Jordan Love interceptions while also scoring twice on defense. The Bengals need to hope this kickstarts their season as they have an insane schedule moving forward. Weeks 10-16 they have: the Raiders, Dolphins, Vikings (who despite their inconsistency, are a tough out), Browns, Rams, Packers, and Jaguars. Cammy will be tested.
- Bucs Send the Jets below .500 in the Big Apple: Jacurri Brown has been excellent for the Buccaneers at this point in the season. He’s had a 13 to 8 interception over the course of the season while also boasting a 103.0 passer rating. Traveling to New York to play Patrick Mahomes and the Jets, he would have to be excellent to keep up with the Jets offense. He responded by completing 13/22 passes while throwing for 258 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also added 32 yards rushing on the ground. J.K. Dobbins also carried 18 carries for 113 yards. The Bucs defense was outstanding, forcing 3 Mahomes interceptions and sending the Jets to 4-5 on the season. The Bucs have a tough matchup with the Giants in week 10 as they fight to keep their divisional lead over the Falcons.
Z’s Happy Hour Bonus
Thing I don’t like, heading into week 10:
Frontrunning: We all know that we have several frontrunners in our league. People that LOVE to talk when they’re winning. Telling you that they’re better than you, why you suck, why your offense is the epitome of mediocrity, and more. These teams have shown an increasingly cowardly tendency to disappear when they aren’t winning. It happens every single season and just goes to show that they might not be able to stand on the infrastructure that they’ve built when their triumphs are nowhere to be found. If you’re a trash talker, keep that same energy whether you’re 11-5 or 4-12
Thing I like, heading into week 10:
The increasing understanding that every season counts: This is a league unlike any other. We play madden into June/July; we build our team through team/league-based content. We have features that you won’t find anywhere else. There’s no reason that if you’re fortunate to gain a team for the cycle, that you check out before the cycle is over. I’m happy that there seems to be renewed interest in making sure a coach’s team stays competitive throughout the entirety of the cycle, rather than just the first three seasons. A season 5 super bowl means just as much as a season 2 super bowl. Lock in fellas, the home stretch is upon us.
“Cracking The Code!”- Codes’ Storylines of The Week
Greeny found rhythm: Greeny after struggling for 3 seasons and the start of season 4 has caught fire out of nowhere. Ridder is looking as efficient as ever and Greeny has a chance at the division. Losing to Que on a final drive INT was probably painful, but the season is far from over because if Bucs lose this week vs the Giants… Greeny will have a chance to take division lead in week 11. Will anyone find a solution to slot fades or will Greeny take over the South?
Jefe’s year: Jefe has had a pretty disappointing cycle I guess you could say. His first year in GreenBay he almost won the super bowl, but this cycle he has yet to even get close to a playoff win with the Boys. This season might be different though, he’s sitting at 8-1 (beating Giants x2, Commanders, and Bills) and might be close to clinching division. Can Jefe and the Cowboys make a run at a ring?
Codes’ Unknown Heroes of the Week
Alfonzo Allen (3 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 TD): I may be a casual, but I have never heard anyone mention this 4th round pick. He had 2 total INTs throughout the season so to be able to match his season total in just one game is good enough for me.
Robbie Anderson (4 catches, 125 yards, 2 TDs): People may know Robbie, but it’s 2025 and he’s like WR #4/5 on the depth chart. At age 32 and being so low in the WR room he should not be having performances like this.
What is this?
Nef’s Power Rankings is a Power Rankings that will be provided weekly for PML members to enjoy! It’s rankings that don’t necessarily go off popular opinion or past results. It’s a fresh new look into power rankings that completely takes the popularity contest and bias out of it!
What is our goal?
Our goal is to provide a better understanding on who is really performing the best within a specific season using nothing but stats!
Who is involved?
Nefarious- Data gathering and inputing weekly.
Z- Weekly summary on the biggest surprises week to week to provide some substance to the Power Rankings and graphic itself.
CB- Weekly graphic to add something pretty to look at!
What stats are involved? Also what matters most?
Our Power Rankings are based into multiple scores. First you have your Record Score which gives you a certain amount of points every week. Making wins and loses weigh heavily week to week.Then you have your Weekly Score which gathers multiple stats based on that week to give you an overall score and performance on a week to week basis. Next you have Streak which takes your recent winning or losing streak to also adjust your ranking week to week. Then you have Team Overall that plays a very small factor when deciding where teams fall weekly. Finally we have our Total Score which is a combination of average Weekly Score, Record Score, Streak and Team Overall.
All of these things matter and factor into the final result but some matter more than others. Based on formulas used in this spreadsheet i can tell you roughly what effects the rankings mostly week to week and what effects them the least.
(From most to least)
Record Score– This is simple and self explanatory. The more you win the higher your score is. Wins and loses both weigh evenly. Wins effect it in a positive manner and loses effect it in a negative manner. For ties both team get half of what a win would get them.
Weekly Score– Recent weekly scores matter the most after record score. Older weeks (combined in 2’s) will effect the Total Score a little less and less as the season goes on. Weekly Scores does have multiple factors in it itself so I’ll break it down in most important to least.
– Record Differential in a win
– Point Differential
– Record Differential in a loss
– Ranking Differential in a win/loss (based on previous weeks total rankings)
– Team Overall Differential in a win/loss (based on team overall going into that weeks game)
– Points For/Points Against (small amount positive points for high scoring teams, and small amount subtracted for bad defenses)
Streak- With every win streak or losing streak you’ll receive a small hit or bump to your Total Score. So even if you lose one after having a big win streak you won’t punished by it in your total score. But the longer the streak is the more effect it can have on your Total Score and ranking.
Team Overall– Team Overall should matter. Especially when building a team is half of the battle. Though it matters it will not have a significant effect on our Power Rankings.
Thats a quick summary of what goes into it week to week. Please DM me (Nefarious) if you have any other questions.
Can I join?
Yes, we appreciate any help we can get. The more authors the better!
