2018 NFL Power Rankings: Week 15
It was a pretty wild week in the NFL, featuring no shortage of wild finishes...and yet our power ratings were not drastically affected.
The Rams maintained the top spot, despite laying an egg in Chicago, mostly because the number-2 Saints performed worse than expected in their win over the Buccaneers. The Los Angeles defense did gain five spots in terms of opponent-adjust Net Expected Points (NEP), making the Rams the only team in the league to rank in the top 10 on both offense and defense (the Chargers held this distinction last week, but are now fifth on offense and 11th on defense).
The Bears themselves did move up two spots and had the biggest improvement in nERD rating (which measures how many points above or below average a team is), and they are now third in the league.
That two-spot movement was actually the second-biggest boost in position of the week, as 31 of the 32 teams in the league are within three spots of where they were last week. This should make sense, given that we now have a large sample of data for these teams, meaning it would take something drastic for them to move in a significant way.
