Top 12 NFL regular season Power Rankings, 1988

[74_75_78_79_]

Yes, let's make it 12 instead of 10 considering the amount of above-500 non-playoff qualifiers. How do 10-6 Giants & Saints stack up against 10-6 Browns & Oilers? G-men beat Saints on the road but remember - they avoided the entire AFC Central due to a 5th-place schedule hence avoiding three playoff teams. Does 9-7 AFC West-winner Seahawks make this list? They did lose to Berry's 9-7 non-playoff Pats (Pats also beat Bengals & Bears). Buffalo ought to be boxed out of top-two thanks to weak finish as well as losing to both Bengals & Bears. Who's #1? Where do the exciting, upstart swagger-filled Eagles rank? They played 7 games against winning teams (winning 4 of them; sweep over G-men amongst them). Being that this is regular season (clock not striking '1989' yet), unspectacular SF ought to not rank too high. I'm sure Burnsie's 11-5 Vikes will finish above them; especially with last year's playoffs in mind.

[ChrisBabcock]

1. Bears
1.5 Bengals... I had a tough time with this one. Strongly considered putting them first. Boomer's best season. (league MVP)
3. Bills
4. Vikings... I'd be tempted to have them first overall in this season's list because of their sweep of Chicago, but they're down here because they got swept BY 4-12 Green Bay.
5. Rams... won last 3. (Bears, 49ers, oh and the Falcons)
6. 49ers
7. Oilers... Dominated the Bengals in a December game
8. Eagles... 6-1 finish
9. Giants
10. Browns
11. Saints... Their 7-1 start building off of their great year before, I remember thinking early on in this season that the real Super Bowl this year would be a Bears/Saints NFCCG. But they dropped 5 of their last 8.
12. Patriots... they make the cut here because of those Bears and Bengals victories.

[Rupert Patrick]

According to my Postseason prediction methodology (probability of winning conference, Super Bowl in parenthesis):

1 - Minnesota (31, 19)
2 - Cincinnati (55, 30)
3 - Chicago (37, 21)
4 - Los Angeles (7, 3)
5 - San Francisco (17, 8)
6 - Buffalo (36, 13)
7 - Philadelphia (8, 3)
8 - Houston (4, 1)
9 - Cleveland (3, 1)
10 - Seattle (2, 1)

The Bengals were most likely to win it all, but my system saw the Vikings (despite being a number four seed) as the strongest team, and should have beat any team. Every team on the list was expected to beat every team on the list beneath them, with home field advantage taken into consideration in non Super Bowl confrontations.

[74_75_78_79_]

1) Bengals
2) Bears
3) Bills
4) Vikings
5) Forty Niners
6) Browns
7) Eagles
8) Oilers
9) Rams
10) Patriots
11) Giants
12) Saints

Yes, Bengals faltered a bit after that 6-0 start, get bombed at Houston penultimate game, but a 4-1 finish nonetheless. '88 was the year of Boomer/Ickey...#1 regular-season team. Bears' fifth straight division title (4th straight at least top-2 seed) but SB-Shuffle already lost its swagger; especially with no more Sweetness. Yes, SF beat Vikes in Week #9 but the way Burnsie's Bunch finished things (6-1, three 40-burgers within that run, and last year's playoff-run being still so fresh - and they being 11-5 to SF's 10-6) just barely gives them the nod. However, SF not so "unspectacular" after all. Six wins over above-500 teams! Losing to Stallings' quite respectable Cards during Phoenix's 7-4 start nothing at all to be ashamed of. Browns beating up Eagles and Eagles beating Oilers I'll allow to decide #6-thru-#8. Rams? Their 0-4 November hurts them and, remember, their finale win over already-clinched-division SF (as with Vikes' 2nd win over already-clinched-division Bears) shouldn't count. Got to put Pats above G-men albeit 9-7 to their 10-6 and Parcells being just two years removed from SBXXI triumph. Six wins vs above-500 teams for Pats as well!

If this was '88 Power Rankings after WEEK #11...where do we place those Cards?

[BD Sullivan]

1) Bengals
2) Bears
3) Bills
4) Vikings
5) Forty Niners
6) Browns
7) Eagles
8) Oilers
9) Rams
10) Patriots
11) Giants
12) Saints

Browns beating up Eagles and Eagles beating Oilers

The Browns beat the Eagles starting their third string QB Don Strock, then came back against the Oilers in the regular season finale against the Oilers, with Strock getting a comeback win after having replaced the injured Bernie Kosar to start the game. The following week, the Oilers had to return to Cleveland for the WC game, with the Oilers getting revenge, with Stock getting injured. Schottenheimer should have been Coach of the Year after getting the team to any playoff game with this QB setup:

*Kosar injured in game 1, out for six weeks
*Danielson injured in Week 2, out for the season
*Pagel injured in Week 6, out until WC game
*Kosar injured again in Week 15, doesn't play again that season
*Strock injured in WC game, Browns lose by a point