Welcome to the week 15 Official NFL Power Rankings! A circle of parity has finally been created in the unlikeliest of fashions, with late season pushes bringing some teams closer together than ever. Will any more bottom feeders continue to prove themselves with two weeks left? Can losing teams shake their bad juju to finish the season strong? Discuss! 29/32 Reporting

#		Team	Δ	Record	Comment
1.		Chiefs	--	13-1	The Chiefs offensive line was going to be a weak spot in this game, and the Saints defensive line took advantage. An already so-so group had to deal with injuries and despite being pressured on over 40% of drop backs, Mahomes still made magic. The Chiefs were definitely given all they could handle though, as they didn't score on 7 possessions and credit is due to the Saints for a good game on defense. An off night from Brees and a solid performance from the Chiefs defense gave the Chiefs offense enough opportunities so they could pull ahead just enough for a win. Will the Chiefs style of letting the offense be the closer at the end of the game continue to succeed? It's hard to say. However, with the 1 seed basically locked up and Mahomes at QB, it's hard not to be optimistic about the Chiefs' chances to get back to the Super Bowl.
2.		Bills	+1	11-3	The Buffalo Football Bills have secured the AFC East title for the first time in 25 years. Not only that, but a Pittsburgh loss has thrust the Bills into the second seed. Josh Allen might have the hottest hand in football right now, coming out in a nationally televised game and lighting a defense up for the third consecutive week. With John Brown due back, this Bills offense is fully primed and ready to make a playoff push. Now, it’s off to New England, where Buffalo opened as six point favorites. Shortsman good, hoodie man bad. No matter how far the Patriots have fallen this year, a big win in Gillette would still feel great.
3.		Packers	-1	11-3	After the start to that game, it was almost disappointing that the Packers didn't score more than 24 points, but the defense stepped up and got the win. Saints and Rams both lost, so now the Pack can clinch the 1 seed if things go their way next week. Next week is the Titans, so a win certainly isn't guaranteed. Not looking forward to Derrick Henry stiff-arming are godawful run D but hey at least the Packer have Trubisky in the back pocket for Week 17.
4.		Saints	--	10-4	A loss to this Chiefs team isn't unexpected; but the Saints will need to return to form to avoid a Steelers-esque collapse. If Anzalone recovers that fumble, who knows what the final result would have been.. The defensive unit got the Saints in a hole early but deserves praise for adjusting and holding Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce to their lowest yardage numbers since October, while also keeping Tyreek Hill contained as well.
5.		Colts	+2	10-4	Powerranking convention stipulates we keep our blurbs short and don't write in 1st person. Screw it. After a decade of doing this I have three left before I retire so I'm going to trade in my editorial chips for this one. This Colts team is one of my favorites ever. They're inspiring. I'm going to pull up this highlight as indicative of everything I'm talking about. The AFC is really good this year; the Colts needed this W against the Texans. Houston, driving, final seconds, 4th & 5 from about the 15. Does the pursuit slack when Coutee finds a hole, or even more when he makes a man miss at the 5? Hell no! Not only did Leonard recover perfectly to punch the ball out, I was all about Kenny Moore on this play. Falling on a fumble in the endzone is never as easy as it appears (see Saints ' attempt near the half of the Chiefs game). Moore, in an instant, dives over the ball to block Jordan Aikens from recovering. By doing so, he ensures blue jerseys are at the bottom of the pile and the Colts get out of there with a victory. What heart. What a team. I know it sounds trite but the journey has been worth it, even if the Colts don't win it all this year. Watching veterans like Papa Rios, Xavier Rhodes, and Justin Houston serve as auxiliary coaches to this young Colts team warms the soul. I can't say enough good things about this team. Merry Christmas to all.
6.		Titans	+2	10-4	The Titans were able to get to 10 wins for the first time since 2008 on the back of Ryan Tannehill's 5 TDs against the Lions on Sunday.
7.		Browns	+4	10-4	The door to the playoffs is no longer closed. With two games to go the Browns could very well win the division. The Browns will face the struggling Jets and then a final game against Pittsburgh. Will it all come down to week 17? The history of fans being a stressed out mess says yes.
8.		Seahawks	+1	10-4	The Seahawks scraped by with a win against the Football Team week 15, but oh lordy was it ugly. The decline in the offense continues in even more apparent fashion this week, as someone who simply cannot be the same MVP frontrunner from the beginning of the season completed 18 passes for 121 yards through the entire game. The offensive line, however, did not give up a single sack to the WFT D-Line, which is kinda cool. The defense has absolutely taken a major step forward as of late. DJ Reed played lights out on Sunday, nabbing 1 of 2 Haskins interceptions. He has certainly earned himself a role on this defense even once (if?) Quinton Dunbar returns from injury. Rookie Alton Robinson had a great game as well, getting to Haskins for a strip sack and making his presence felt throughout the game. The Seahawks offense will need to wake up this week as the Rams come to Seattle fresh off a shocking loss to the Jets. Aaron Donald is going to be hungry. Please I miss the DK bombs.
9.		Ravens	+1	9-5	Two straight games with 40+ points is looking great on this final playoff push, even if it's against awful defenses. The defense still needs to do more work, though. Congratulations to Matthew Judon for the Pro Bowl invite! Ringo Starr is smiling somewhere. It's also nice to know that Huntley's got wheels, cuz bruhhh.
10.		Steelers	-5	11-3	Hubris. Injuries. Predictable playcalling on offense. Bad throws, guys not catching the ball on the occasions they are on-target. The Bengals played well. The Steelers did not. This wasn't the Steelers playing down to their opponent. This is them simply playing down while the Bengals played with inspiration. It's especially embarrassing to lose after JuJu does a TikTok video on the Bengals logo, fumbles there, and Kevin Greene passes away. Such a bad look. It's time to get serious and RIP to Greene. Arrogance needs to give way to humility and hunger.
11.		Buccaneers	+1	9-5	After starting the game down 24-7, Tom Brady once again did his best William Tecumseh Sherman impersonation and destroyed Atlanta again. Devin White decided to play a (rare) good game, sacking Matt Ryan three times, while Mike Evans had another centennial game. For the first time in 13 years, playoffs appear close to certain for the Bucs. Perhaps, they'll find more success there than they did the Pro Bowl, where only one player from the Bucs was named (Jason Pierre-Paul).
12.		Rams	-6	9-5	There really wasn’t anything that went right for either team this game. For the Rams, a new low was reached in the Sean McVay era as they got outplayed and outcoached in all phases: the inconsistent offense again started too slow, the defense failed to make stops or create any sparks, and McVay made some questionable decisions down the stretch. All this cements the Rams as the most inconsistent team in the NFL, capable of making a Super Bowl run, or losing to an 0-13 team. For the Jets, well, you know.
13.		Dolphins	--	9-5	What a week for the Dolphins! They run the Pats right out of the playoffs and the Jets drop from the top pick in the draft, while the Dolphins top draft pick moved up a bit. That said, while the offense performed very well in the 2nd half, running the ball in a way that the team hasn't in years, they need to figure out how to play an entire game again, because they're in playoff situation football from here on out, and the competition will get better every week.
14.		Cardinals	--	8-6	Hurts and Murray both played well in an exciting game where the Cardinals came out on top to hold onto the final playoff spot, for now. However, the game wasn't without issues. The offense had two redzone turnovers and aside from getting an early safety the defense making Hurts looks like a superstar (which he could very well be) made the game a lot harder than it should have been. Another must win will be a Saturday matinee against the 49ers.
15.		Bears	+3	7-7	The Bears are coming back stronger than a 90s trend and have played themselves into a position to make the playoffs if they get a little help. Driving this resurgence is an offense that has scored at least 30 points in 3 straight games for the first time since 2013. The Bears recent W-L record hides a concerning trend by the defense, which has surrendered 27+ points in 3 of the last 4 games.
16.		Washington FT	--	6-8	Washington's 4 game winning streak comes to an end but once again they find a way to stay in the game and have a chance to win in late. This team is proving they aren't an easy out for anyone. This loss ultimately doesn't change their situation much thanks to week 15 results in the division. Their best case scenario at the moment, beat Carolina next week and hope NY falls to Baltimore and they're in.
17.		Raiders	-2	7-7	The season is basically over for the Raiders now. The only good thing to have come from their loss against the Chargers is knowing that the best backup QB in the league is on the Raiders. On to the next game, and thankfully, soon enough, the next season.
18.		Vikings	-1	6-8	The Vikings were effectively knocked out of playoff contention after their injury-riddled defense comprised almost entirely of backups only forced one punt from the Mitch-Trubisky led offense. The silver lining for this Vikings' squad is how good their rookie class looks: Justin Jefferson made the pro bowl after breaking Randy Moss' record for most catches by a Vikings' rookie receiver and is currently second only to Davante Adams in WR grade, Cameron Dantlzer is PFF's highest-graded cornerback over the nine weeks since the Vikings' bye week, Jeff Gladney and Ezra Cleveland are two of the higher-rated rookies at their respective positions, and DJ Wonnum is third among rookie DEs in pressures.
19.		Patriots	--	6-8	Well this is how it happens, worst record since drafting Brady - missing the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. Can't overstate how the shit Miami running game steamed us, while we failed to steam them at all! Congrats to punter Jake Bailey on being selected to the pro bowl. for sound analysis check here
20.		49ers	--	5-9	Once again, turnovers doomed the 49ers. Two fumbles in the first 6 minutes of the game put them down 14-0. Then after clawing themselves back into the game, turnovers doomed them down the stretch, with Mullens throwing a pair of interceptions to go along with his first half fumble. The Niners are out of the playoff hunt, but expect Kittle and possibly Jimmy G to make their returns before the end of the regular season.
21.		Chargers	+6	5-9	This was more interesting than it should have been. Herbert and Mariota turned this game into the Eugene Air Show, with both QBs trading scoring drives routinely throughout the game. Chargers special teams continued to struggle with two 4th quarter FGs missed, but the Chargers got it done in overtime. Justin Herbert now has the most 300+ passing games by a rookie in league history (7) and ties Baker Mayfield's rookie passing TD mark (27) with two games to go, the first of which will be the final home game this season against Denver.
22.		Falcons	+1	4-10	Some will claim a curse as the only answer as to why a three score lead in the second half means nothing anymore, but they might be underestimating coaching ineptitude. At least they gained as much ground in the draft as Fournette did on this first down. Remaining games in Arrowhead and Raymond James aren't instilling confidence anytime soon, not when a pandemic can't even protect Atlanta from bad man Brady.
23.		Eagles	+2	4-9-1	Even in a loss the jump from Carson to Hurts is looking more solid by the week. Hurts was 24-44 for 338 yards, 3 TD/ 0 INT, you'd have to go back to last year to find a game where Wentz had a better passer rating than Hurts on Sunday. Unfortunately with three of four secondary starters out, Murray had one of his most efficient games to date.
24.		Giants	-2	5-9	The Giants’ offense has reached levels of ineptitude that the defense cannot come close to overcoming. A hobbled DJ nor a healthy Colt are going to be enough to keep Big Blue competitive against Baltimore. Jason Garrett has been as advertised by Cowboys fans, and we’re paying the price for it.
25.		Broncos	-4	5-9	Losing a blowout on a Saturday in the middle of a day in front of an empty stadium during a pandemic in a game broadcast on NFL Network has to be to the most pathetic thing an NFL team can do, no?
26.		Panthers	-2	4-10	Another game, another chance to win or tie on a final drive, and another failure by Teddy Bridgewater. This season has started to become something like Groundhog Day, and it’s not getting better. Yesterday, our GM Marty Hurney was fired over “philosophical differences” on how to build a team. The next GM is most likely going to be in-house, either Pat Stewart (currently Director of Player Personnel) or Samir Suleiman (currently Director of Player Negotiations), and will have a huge decision to make regarding who to take with our first pick and what to make of Teddy “Deja Vu” Bridgewater.
27.		Cowboys	+2	5-9	Thirty points for the second week in a row, and a second win to go along with it. 24 points off of turnovers paint a more complete picture, as this team produced 150 fewer yards of offense than the 49ers, losing the TOP battle by ten minutes as well. Still, improvement exists, and somehow playoffs are not yet off the table.
28.		Lions	-2	5-9	Welp, The Detroit Lions have been eliminated after their loss to the Tennessee Titans Sunday. After two very competitive showings against the Bears and Packers, this week was lopsided. Matthew Stafford decided to play through his injury and played well. Unfortunately, his injury was the least of their problems. Defensively; missing many starters, Detroit was dominated everywhere giving up 46 points. The Lions offense did move the ball consistently, but they were unable to keep pace. A costly fumble by TJ Hockenson on a drive destined to cut the lead to 2 shifted the momentum big time. Detroit made some simple mistakes like missing extra points which didn't help either. Darrell Bevell has two opportunities left to continue to make a case for a job in Detroit or elsewhere. #Onepride (Credit DoseOfDion 2.0)
29.		Texans	-1	4-10	Losing on a red zone turnover to a division rival is bad enough. Doing it twice in three weeks to the same team doesn't numb the pain any further. Not with a blowout loss to the Bears sandwiched in between and the Dolphins reaping the reward of Houston's draft capital.
30.		Bengals	--	3-10-1	After Joe Burrow got hurt things did not go well for a while, and it was hard to see...It's just nice to win one.
31.		Jets	+1	1-13	Sunday's win over the Rams may go down as one of the worst losses in franchise history.
32.		Jaguars	-1	1-13	Finally, the Jaguars manage to slip into first... pick in the draft! There isn't much else to say. The Jaguars are the worst team in football. This trend will continue for the remainder of the season. If anything, fans have the post-season fireworks to look forward to.

Welcome to the week 14 Official NFL Power Rankings! With circus catches and beatdowns alongside great games, there was plenty to discuss even before a MNF Scorigami that might already be airing on ESPN classic. 32/32 Reporting

#		Team	Δ	Record	Comment
1.		Chiefs	--	12-1	The Dolphins gave the Chiefs all they could handle in the first quarter of Sunday's game, but the Chiefs once again proved that when they are focused, they are the most dangerous team in the NFL. Travis Kelce, the NFL's leading receiver currently, had another monster game showing why he's a future hall of famer. However, after having five 10+ point wins in the first eight weeks of the season, the Chiefs last five wins have all been won by one score. Will this trend ultimately matter come playoff time? It's hard to argue with results, as the Chiefs 12-1 record is the best record through 13 games in franchise history. The ultimate barometer for the Chiefs is this week as they travel to play the Saints, hopefully with Drew Brees. Many questions will be answered in this clash of two top five teams.
2.		Packers	+2	10-3	There always seems to be one Lions-Packer game a year that ends up being some kind of adventure. Rodgers and Adams were as good as ever but the Lions kept on lingering throughout the game. Mason "Silver Fox" Crosby nailed an insurance 58 yard field goal with 3:30 to play and made a touchdown-saving tackle on the immediate kickoff. Aside from Crosby, the special teams really leave a lot to be desired, especially after the hands team almost allowed a onside kick recovery (c'mon y'all I don't need Bostic flashbacks). Packers officially won the division game and are now the projected 1 seed, which is pretty neat ngl. Onto a Saturday game I guess?
3.		Bills	+2	10-3	For a team that was searching desperately in 2019 for a signature win, the 2020 Bills have found them everywhere they turn. This team has had one of the toughest schedules in the league, but except for a couple games they've shown up every time they've had to. This is the second-best team in the conference. The Bills bandwagons are circling now. Josh Allen's extending his baseball glove-sized hand. He says "get in nerds, we're goin' to the Super Bowl."
4.		Saints	-1	10-3	This loss = Hurts. Dennis Allen seemingly had no answers for the rookie QB and then Miles Sanders piled on as well. "All the things we didn't want to allow happen, happened in that game." This was Sean Payton's post-game assessment and it's fair. Taysom Hill had an acceptable statline but it hides how sloppy he looked on the field. The defense struggled with its assignment to contain Hurts and keep him from getting outside the pocket - a worrying sign considering the next QB on the schedule.
5.		Steelers	-3	11-2	The Steelers schedule has been insane. 6 days between NYG and DEN. 14 days between HOU and PHI. 10 days between JAX and BAL. But with that BAL game, the Steelers played them, WFT and BUF in 12 days. 3 games in 12 days. The team is out of LBs and OL. This has been a challenging season for everyone, but this is unprecedented. The Steelers have 8 days until CIN, then 6 days until IND. 10 out of 16 games played with an irregular schedule? You can argue the drops are kicking their ass, but this schedule has been brutal. No wonder they've lost 2 straight.
6.		Rams	--	9-4	Imagine only scoring 3 points in a game.
7.		Colts	+1	9-4	Kenny Moore is a player underrated by national media but massively valuable to the Colts. GM Chris Ballard made re-signing him a priority after his breakout 2018 season. Moore has been a reliable performer throughout his tenure as a Colt and added an exclamation point with his insane one-handed interception on Sunday.
8.		Titans	+1	9-4	Derrick Henry had his second 200+ yard 2 TD game against the Jaguars on Sunday. The performance made Henry the 7th player to rush for 1,500+ yards and 14+ TDs through 13 games.
9.		Seahawks	+1	9-4	Nothing cures suicidal thoughts losing like playing the Jets, baby. Sunday was never much of a game, as it was all Seahawks all day. Russell Wilson threw for 4 touchdowns, Jamal Adams broke the single season sack record for defensive backs, and Geno Smith got to play a full quarter against the team that drafted him. What a way to get over a bad loss to the Giants. Up next the Seahawks will take on their final NFC East opponent of the season; Football Team.
10.		Ravens	+2	8-5	This ranker is a brown man, writing about how Lamar Jackson lost 20 pounds dropping some brown, dropping a TD to Brown, to go ahead against the Browns. They go for two. So in response, K-hunt ties the game, 42-42. In response, the Llama sets up the GOAT to nail a 54-yarder, 16th game winner of his career! To say nothing else of the game -- 9 total fucking rushing touchdowns, tying a record held since two defunct teams played each other before anyone on reddit was born... and Jackson runs for a MNF QB record 124 yards -- but still gets all the clutch plays done with his arm, with this middling group of receivers. The even greater news amidst all this is that the schedule doesn't look so bad in the closing stretch, and inspired play like this past Monday from the offense will ease the burden of the Ravens' gradually depleting secondary. Best wishes to Trace McSorely who made an extremely commendable effort to set them up for Lamar's return.
11.		Browns	-4	9-4	Did you bet the over? The Browns and Ravens combined for 89 points in an absolute rollercoaster of a game. While they did not win, the Browns have shown they are contenders. With two games to go a real shot at the playoffs is on the table. The Browns will face the Giants in another prime time game.
12.		Buccaneers	-1	8-5	The Buccaneers pulled off a 26-14 win over the Vikings, bringing their playoff chances to 94%. Vikes kicker Dan Bailey channeled his inner Gary Anderson to win the Bucs' game ball on an 0/3 kicking performance with an additional missed XP. Rookie Antoine Winfield Jr. played a disruptive game against his dad's former team and is looking like he has the potential to be one of the league's next great safeties. With only interim coaches to close out the remaining three games of the season, the Bucs should have smooth sailing into the Wild Card round.
13.		Dolphins	--	8-5	There are no consolation prizes in the NFL, but a single score loss to the best team in the league while the backup waterboy is lining up in the slot is about as close to a one as you'll ever get. While he was able to pull off the win, even Patrick Mahomes couldn't keep this ball-hawking defense from getting a hold of the ball, often. And at some point, if people don't start talking about Xavien Howard in the DPOY conversation, he's just going to go intercept the damned award himself. Hopefully, the long, long list of injured Dolphins get well soon.
14.		Cardinals	+1	7-6	A monster day from Haason Reddick and the defense finally put the Cardinals back on the winning track. Breaking a franchise record with 5 sacks was one thing, but getting all the turnovers was huge. Hopefully the offense feeds off of it and has a good week in preparing for a big game with Philly that has huge playoff implications. It will take a complete team effort to beat Philly with Jalen Hurts starting fresh of a win against the Saints.
15.		Raiders	-1	7-6	The Raiders looked really bad against the Colts, just like they have for the better part of the last 6 weeks. Luckily Gruden finally made the call to fire Pauly G, something fans have been calling for for the past 2 seasons. Only time will tell if it's too little, too late. Every game from here on out is a must win if the Raiders want to make the playoffs.
16.		Washington FT	+3	6-7	Washington is finding ways to win instead of finding ways to lose. The offense was not able to score a TD so the defense went ahead and spotted them 14 points. Chase Young notches his first TD and continues to prove his worth as the 2nd overall pick as a game wrecker.
17.		Vikings	--	6-7	Dalvin Cook became the first back to rush for over 100 yards against the Bucs in over 20 games, but the Vikings were unable to convert long drives into points as Dan Bailey went 0/4 on field goals and extra points. Couple that with some questionable officiating, the Vikings' banged up front seven generating zero pressure on Tom Brady and plenty of self-inflicted wounds and it all adds up to a real tough loss that knocks the Vikings down from wild card favorites to playoff long shots.
18.		Bears	+5	6-7	The Bears finally snapped their six-game losing streak by rolling over the Texans without much difficulty. Trubisky attempted one throw longer than 20 yards.
19.		Patriots	-3	6-7	Los Angeles, is a land of contrasts - In a span of four days the Patriots' hopes for a postseason were revived and then unceremoniously squashed. Run Defense, Offensive Line, Cam and the Receivers, There just are too many holes to cover up with week to week coaching, this team needs some reworking over the offseason. The Pats end the season with the division as always, lets hope to fuck someone’s season or seeding up. And also the Jets.
20.		49ers	-2	5-8	The 49ers defense did their job, holding the Washington offense to a total of 9 points, but the offense had two takeaways brought back for touchdowns and could not recover. The team looks to right the ship this week against the Cowboys.
21.		Broncos	+5	5-8	Drew Lock put up the third-highest passer rating in team history — behind a couple guys you may know. In the battle of 4-8's, the Broncos somehow managed to not blow a sizeable fourth-quarter lead and emerge victorious. Winning the game but losing The Hunt for a Better Draft Pick. Will the team remain in purgatory? Stay tuned.
22.		Giants	-2	5-8	It’s a real joy to watch the rest of the teams in the up-for-grabs NFC East secure wins, with one being against a top-5 team, all while watching your team play so poorly they start setting franchise records. At least we can say the hype was fun while it lasted, right?
23.		Falcons	-1	4-9	Outplayed by a team whose most impressive win is a tossup between the Bengals, Jaguars, and Jets? Check. Outcoached by special teams ace Anthony Lynn? Check. Ten point lead blown, two interceptions with under five minutes left, double check. Good thing age is just a number for the 32nd youngest team in the league.
24.		Panthers	-3	4-9	I'm not sure where the Panthers go from here. Coach Rhule has said that he isn't going to do the team and fans a disservice by beginning to evaluate players, which means that we're going to see more of Teddy Bridgewater (who is 0-7 in one score games this season) crumble at the end of the game. Playing at Lambeau in primetime in December is one of the hardest things a team can do, and it's not going to be an easy test for the Panthers, who so far have shown that they can't win close games, nor can they defend the pass (23rd in passing defense). It's going to be tough sledding, but hopefully Jeremy Chinn can continue his torrid pace and run his way into DROY.
25.		Eagles	+3	4-8-1	Jalen Hurts delivered the spark the Eagles needed to upset the Saints and spread 'quarterback controversy' all over the city of brotherly love. While the season remains a disappointment, the dual running threat of Hurts and Sanders could be interesting to watch going forward, and the NFC Least remains wide-open with 2 divisional games left on the 2020 menu.
26.		Lions	-1	5-8	Even with a loss, Interim HC Darrell Bevell showed that his Lions are here to compete. This game was never out of hands, and the Lions kept it close the entire time. There are still plenty of woes on Defense, but the Offense continued to ball out as expected. With two TD's coming from the run game (Swift and Kerryon), there is already something to look forward to next year. Lately the team has been able to trust the run on short yardage and redzone carries and it has helped the team with consistency in the red zone. Unfortunately, Aaron Rodgers is a QB that can carve up a weak secondary... so that didn't go great. There's around a 1% chance of the Lions getting a playoff spot, not unheard of, but it'll be tough if Stafford's injury progresses and we lose him for the season. #DefendTheDen
27.		Chargers	--	4-9	First of all, props to Falcons Twitter for this gem before the game, and it played out exactly as expected. Both teams did their best to try giving it away at the end, but the Chargers ended up on the winning side this time around. The Chargers had their hiccups again but there were improvements across the board; Justin Herbert's 81.8% completion percentage is his highest of the season, the defense came away with 3 INTs, and special teams probably had their best day. The Chargers get a short week before a Thursday Night tilt in Las Vegas.
28.		Texans	-4	4-9	The Texans are lucky that Paxton is the Texas AG, otherwise they would have had the biggest blowout loss in the state this past week.
29.		Cowboys	--	4-9	The Red Rifle won his revenge game, the defense forced multiple turnovers, and the Bengals were held to 3.4 yards per carry. All that, and the Cowboys still come out of the week with a top 5 draft pick. Honestly, Sunday couldn't have gone better. Now, the only question is whether this was the team turning the corner and the beginning of a strong finish to the season, or this was just a perfect moment of the Cowboys finding a shittier team with serious injuries issues and just doing what should happen in that scenario.
30.		Bengals	--	2-10-1	Giovani Bernard hadn't fumbled since 2013 before his 1st quarter fumble on Sunday. So what does he get for his troubles? A spot on the bench thanks to Zac Taylor. Giovani was one of the only veterans who spoke out in behalf of Taylor and the current coaches when multiple articles were released with "sources" saying that Taylor had lost the locker room last month. You have to question the benching for multiple reasons as the directionless Bengals continue to flounder to blowout losses. Just another reason why this should be Zac Taylor's last season as head coach in Cincinnati.
31.		Jaguars	--	1-12	This one felt more as expected. Perhaps it was in former GM Dave Caldwell's plans— no, wait, hear me out. Adjusting tinfoil hat; Based on the moves taken this offseason to seemingly dump talent from the Jaguars in attempt to amass more draft picks, perhaps the former front office of the Jaguars were banking on this season not being played, due to pandemic reasons. Sure, this may sound farfetched, but I'd like to hear a more reasonable explanation for fielding such a disaster as this team, this season.
32.		Jets	--	0-13	The Jets have now scored on 7 consecutive opening drives, the longest streak in the NFL. After climbing to an early 3-0 lead, I watched Peter Sawkins make an excellent cranachan custard slice on The Great British Bake Off.

I feel like I should preface my MD with a bit of background on my life as it currently stands so there’s a little more info about some of the things I write about (somewhat unconventional "career") –
tl;dr: I am currently in Germany but my residence is in NYC, where I will return in a few short weeks.
I started off working full-time as a software developer out of school, and eventually quit my job to go freelance as an artist a couple years ago, because it was becoming a very viable career for me (as opposed to a side hustle.) So for 3 years, I had a very steady monthly income, and then the past ~2 years have been way more varied in terms of income, but I was generally making much less than before.
When COVID hit, arts jobs effectively went away (as we knew them), and my partner (who is also an artist) and I made the decision ~mid-2020 to give up our lease in the city (NYC) until the arts returned properly. I spent some time with my parents, and he went back to his home country (Germany), where I eventually joined him late last year after they opened up the borders to long-term partners. We’re lucky that during this time, we’ve managed to keep up virtual gigs due to our skillsets.
A few months ago, I also started a full-time job as a software engineer (remotely), and have been working full-time for only about 4 months, which means my income has drastically changed recently. I figured: I'm not sure when arts jobs are going to come back properly, and I might as well make use of my degree (computer science) and past job experience and save up as much money as possible in the interim.
I’ll be returning to NYC in a few weeks and aim to do another MD again once I’m settled so I can do a comparison of what my spending habits are like between the two places.

Section Zero: Background

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Absolutely. My parents are both immigrants and set those expectations really high for me in terms of excelling academically and going to college (it was never remotely in the “plan” growing up not to go to college.) I’ve only got a bachelor’s degree (haven’t pursued anything beyond it), but I was so lucky that my parents were able to pay for it.
Did you worry about money growing up?
My parents shielded a lot of those conversations from me and my siblings, so to be honest, I didn’t really worry about it. Now, I understand that there were a lot of moments where my parents were indeed worried about money, but I was relatively sheltered from it.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
Yes, I have a financial safety net in the sense that if it really came down to it, my parents could bail me out of a generally sticky situation. I haven't had to fall back on it (yet). When I graduated college, I became truly financially responsible for myself, though I did work all throughout college.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
No.

Section One: Assets and Debt

Retirement Balance (and how you got there): $103,455 – maxed out my 401k at my first job, the minute I could start contributing, and when I went freelance, I maxed out contributions to a Roth IRA every year. Most of that is in a robo-advisor account.
Equity: N/A
Investment account balance: $80,822 – all in a robo-advisor account.
Savings account balance: $119,463 – I’m very seriously thinking about potentially buying a place in NYC and might want to use most/some of this for a down payment.
Checking account balance: $5,103 – because my income is quite variable (or at least it was before I got a full-time job again), I manually transfer money every ~2 weeks or so depending on how much I’m getting, so that my balance generally sits around $5k.
Credit card debt: N/A, pay off every month
Student loan debt: N/A, super, super grateful that my parents covered my college education.
Anything else that's applicable to you: In general, my SO and I split bills/utilities/pet expenses down the middle.

Section Two: Income

Income Progression:
2015-2018: First job (software.) Salary started at $105,000/year, and by the time I left, I was making $120,000/year. From 2016-2018 I was also freelancing as an artist on the side.
2019: My first full year as a freelancer, made ~$70,000 that year according to Mint.
2020: Freelance for most of the year, and then started the full-time job ($145k/year salary) very late 2020. According to Mint, I took in $110,000. During the first 9 months of 2020, I was doing a myriad of different things: part-time software work, part-time teaching work, random virtual gigs.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
$8,203.98 / month.
I contribute $100/month pre-tax into my HSA, and am allowed to contribute to my 401k starting next month (which I will max out.)
Side Gig Monthly Take Home:
This amount varies quite a lot depending on the month. I have a couple of side gigs (as mentioned before, I am still taking gigs as an artist – the time difference actually bodes well for me).
Teach online course: $2000 / month. I teach an online course for a university (don’t want to give any more specifics in case it’s easily identifiable…). The monthly income changes based on my class size each semester, but this is what I can expect this semester.
Gigs: ~$4,500 this month

Section Three: Expenses

Rent this month: $129.50 for 1/2 our storage unit in NYC + $390 for 1/2 rent of our apartment = $519.50. This will (significantly) change once I go back to NYC...!
Retirement contribution: As mentioned above, everything I get basically funnels into my individual brokerage acct so that my checking sits at ~$5k at all times. Not really counting it here so as not to double count, just noting.
Donations: I try to contribute ~10% of my monthly post-tax income to donate to causes I care about. Since my income is varied each month, this amount also varies – I expect ~$14,000 this month so I will donate $1400. Recurring contributions include $100/month to the ACLU, $100/month to Doctors Without Borders, $50/month to the Working Families Party, and $27.50/month to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In general I try to support friends' small businesses/side hustles, political causes that mean a lot to me, and arts funds.
Utilities: included in rent
Cellphone: $15/month, part of my family’s family plan
Subscriptions: $12.99/mo Dropbox, $1.99/mo Google Drive, $12.99/mo Hulu, $7/mo Patreon, $9.99/mo Spotify, $119/year Amazon Prime. I’m on my family’s Netflix account, and they’re on my Hulu account.
Pet expenses: ~$30/mo for food/litter
Credit card: $450/year fee, Chase Sapphire Reserve. I do get a $150 credit back on purchases throughout the year through this card.

Section Four: Money Diary

I live with my long-term partner (referred to as D), and our roommate (referred to as C). Though I am temporarily living in Germany, my residence is still in the USA and for my full-time job, I am working east coast hours (I am 6 hours ahead). All the times below are German time; all currency has been converted from Euros.
Tuesday (TOTAL SPENT: $0)
9:00 am - We are moving a new couch into our apartment, from my roommate’s dad’s house. D and C arrive in the van, couch in tow, and we start the day by reenacting that one scene in FRIENDS up and down the stairs.
11:00 am - I catch up on emails from last night and get some ducks in a row for a virtual concert I’m on the production team for. These days it’s all virtual gigs because of COVID, and I’m grateful to have the work. On the plus side, I have my mornings completely free because everyone in the US is sleeping, so I can take my time to answer emails.
11:30 am - Practice. I’ve got a gig that I need to put in the work for in a few weeks, and I really enjoy the ritual of just having this time to myself to actually "hone my craft" (...or whatever).
12:30 pm - I start to grade papers for my teaching job. This is easily the most time consuming part of that job, and probably the least exciting aspect too. The first omen of days to come: the internet is completely shitting the bed. It’s been somewhat of a recurring problem the past few weeks, and apparently we can’t upgrade for a myriad of reasons related to old European cities and living in the middle of them. Both D and I are worried about how we can get work done, because all our work is virtual to a high degree (for both of our gig work, we are constantly needing to upload large-ish files to Google Drive or Dropbox – and for my software work, everything of course is online, not to mention Zoom meetings.)
1:45 pm - Make myself a stir fry for lunch with leftover groceries ($0).
3:30 pm - It’s the first day of (software) work after a long weekend – I try to log on, but the internet still isn’t recovering. I’m beginning to lose my cool since this has been a recurring and somewhat unsolvable problem. Somehow I make it through the 10am standup meeting we have, but the rest of this time is spent freaking out about what we’re going to do about our living situation.
4:45 pm - We make a plan to move D’s setup to his parents’ place (~30 mins away), and pack up things. His dad picks us up and we head over together and set up shop in the basement of his parents’ place, still not really sure what we’re going to do about our living situation.
7:00 pm - I have a very short “Zoom rehearsal” for a virtual gig, reviewing some music for a remote recording session.
7:30 pm - We have dinner with D’s parents – Abendbrot (“evening bread”). Bread, various cold cuts, and cheese – it’s a German staple for “I don’t want to cook” evenings. ($0)
12:00 am - I have a short Zoom production meeting for a gig that I have coming up. It’s late over here, but luckily the meeting doesn’t last long, and I’m in bed by 1 am.
Wednesday (TOTAL SPENT: $44.14)
9:00 am - Couldn’t sleep well last night (I imagine due to the stress.) I wake up still feeling stressed, but get myself some granola from D’s parents’ kitchen, and do my morning ritual of answering emails and continuing to grade papers.
12:00 pm - We head back to our apartment in the city, and I continue to grade papers from there. The internet is working slightly better now, but it’s completely unreliable, so we know we have to make a plan for getting work done consistently. I continue to grade papers.
1:30 pm - D and I pick up lunch from a health food place that is very, very expensive, but makes food that makes us feel healthy and more energetic. I get a “Salmon Buddha Bowl”. We put on an episode of the Office to decompress. ($18)
3:00 pm - I do a short, 25-minute HIIT workout in another attempt to decompress. It sort of works!
4:00 - I start (software) work for the day. My roommate’s mom has kindly let me work in her office for a few hours in the afternoon, where the WiFi is abundant and fast, and the office is conveniently located very close to our apartment. I’m able to get a lot of work done and feel significantly less stressed.
7:30 - I pick up some groceries – enough for the next few days ($26.14) – and head back to our apartment before the 8 pm curfew hits.
8:00 pm - The internet at our place unfortunately still doesn’t work. At this rate it’s safe to assume that we can never depend on it working reliably, and need to find another solution. I have a slight freakout, and D manages to calm me down, and we both resolve that we will figure out a solution tomorrow.
8:30 pm - I make myself some Chinese comfort food for dinner (eggs/tomato dish) with some rice. ($0)
9:30 pm - My roommate C gives me the key to his office space in the city and I head out, slightly nervous that I will be stopped by the police (~7 mins walking distance). Luckily nobody stops me and I’m able to get there and continue working.
11:00 pm - I give a short online seminar about working in the arts for a university, which lifts my spirits because everyone is really enthusiastic, and it reminds me to be hopeful about when the arts eventually return full-swing.
Thursday (TOTAL SPENT: $2.92)
9:30 am - Wake up, dick around for a little bit (looking at random apartments for sale that I can’t afford on Streeteasy, looking at memes on Instagram, playing with our cat…), eventually shower and get dressed
10:20 am - I’ve fallen behind on grading papers because of the internet stress issues, so I finish up the remaining ones right now.
11:30 am - I do some work on the aforementioned virtual concert I’m on the production team for – recording some material, getting the spreadsheet in order – all things I can do without the internet.
1:00 pm - I make myself a salad for lunch, accompanied by some bread and cheese ($0).
1:45 pm - D has made his parents’ place his official office space, so he’s been there since the morning. I am going to work from there today as well, so I head over on the tram with a single-ride ticket. ($2.92)
3 pm - Thursday is my teaching day, so I teach my first of two sections for the day. It’s hard to engage people over Zoom, but the class is generally lively and successful and I’m happy with the enthusiasm some of my students seem to display so early in the semester.
4 pm - Software work begins for the day with our daily 10 am standup meeting.
8 pm - I take a short break to have dinner with D’s parents and D (Abendbrot again – $0)
11:30 pm - I teach my second section of the day, similar to the first.
12:30 am - I’m upset that I couldn’t figure out a bug that was bothering me for the better half of the evening, so I stay up for a while figuring it out. Eventually I do figure it out, and feel extremely happy about it. There are few things in life more satisfying than quashing a bug.
3:00 am - This is when I actually go to sleep. Somehow I’m not able to fall asleep the past few days – I watch a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother to try to decompress a little bit. I don’t even really know why that’s my go-to comfort show right now (a lot of the humor didn’t really age well) – but I feel that part of me feels very nostalgic for my life back in NYC, and this is a lighthearted reminder of that.
Friday (TOTAL SPENT: $0)
10:00 am - I went to sleep really late last night, so I accordingly get up late as well. Granola and almond milk (a sort of fake Müsli) for breakfast.
11:30 am - More email answering and some more work on the virtual concert.
1:30 pm - D’s mom has made an awesome curry for lunch, and she gives me some. ($0)
3:30 pm - I start my (software) work day, a bit more relaxed than I have been in the days before.
6:15 pm - A short, 20-minute meeting with another member of the production team for the virtual concert. It’s a really successful meeting and I feel really glad that this person on the production team is organized, calm, and communicative!
7:30 pm - We decide we won’t stay another evening at D’s parents’ house, so his father drives us back into the city before curfew. We’ve heard from our roommate that the Wifi seems to be working again so I decide to take a chance and see if I can work the rest of the evening from there.
9:00 pm - My roommate, D, and I have a homemade bolognese dinner made from some of the groceries I’d picked up a few nights ago ($0). We are all really exhausted, but D and I are also really glad that we seem to have found a solution to our wifi issue. We spend a lot of the dinner hypothesizing about the erratic nature of the internet. We know that in general, on weekends and on evenings, it seems to work fairly well, so we eventually conclude that there’s some sort of relationship between the German work day, and the internet availability in this apartment.
Saturday (TOTAL SPENT: $74.32)
9:30 am - We wake up slowly. D decided to head to his parents’ place to work for most of the day, so he’s out the door by around 10am. I, on the other hand, loaf around for a while (it’s the weekend!), make myself a smoothie (bananas, almond milk, chia seeds, nuts, and a bit of frozen fruit) for breakfast, and watch the latest episode of the Bachelor (sue me, I’m a die-hard Bachelor Nation member.)
12:30 pm - I do some more work for the virtual concert, but not in a particularly focused manner.
3:30 pm - Whoops, I haven’t gone outside yet. I make a short grocery run to buy some TP and paper towels while listening to a podcast about the Bachelor episode I just watched. I don’t know what it is, but somehow I like listening to people snark over an inane reality show. ($6.95)
4:00 pm - I make myself a REALLY late lunch – salad with bread + cheese ($0)
4:30 pm - My roommate, D, and I had planned to have a nice home-cooked dinner this evening, and we’ve gotten really into making craft cocktails. I myself am really partial to gin cocktails, so I run to the liquor store and pick up a bottle. ($42.37)
5:00 pm - Lots of loafing around – since the internet is working, I watch some more TV, putz around a bit… Hey, it’s the weekend, cut me some slack. :-) (Yes, I should be practicing.) During this time, we reschedule our roommate dinner to tomorrow evening because D made a plan to play cards (online) with some friends.
7:30 pm - I was going to cook myself some mapo tofu this evening since I had the time, but it’s begun to rain and I realize I need to just get some food before curfew hits. I go to the local Chinese restaurant and pick up some mapo tofu there, along with a pork dish for D. ($25)
8:30 pm - I FaceTime a friend of mine who is on the same time zone as me, and we decide to watch a movie together (remotely, of course.) We land on Wolf of Wall Street, which I haven’t seen, but he has. I make a gin sour for myself and we have a lovely time watching the movie and snarking over late-stage capitalism. Of course, it’s three hours long, so by the time it eventually finishes, I’m off for bed.
Sunday (TOTAL SPENT: $8.52)
9:00 am - D and I wake up. He’s off to his parents’ house again to do some work (the freelancer life!)
10:00 am - I’ve made a plan to go on a hike with a friend and his girlfriend. We meet by a coffee shop, and take a lovely walk through the forest together, stopping for a croissant and a tea on the way back ($5.60).
12:30 pm - I head to D’s parents’ house on the tram, where we are having our weekly Sunday lunch together. It’s a really lovely ritual that we’ve kept since he moved back to his hometown this year, and even though we’ve seen them quite a lot this past week, it still feels like its own separate thing. ($2.92)
2 pm - We have a virtual church gig later today, so D and I rehearse together to make sure we, uh, know what we're doing and all.
4:15 pm - We do the church gig. The sermon is about the recent inauguration, and it really touches me. Afterwards, I answer some emails and putz around while D plays some video games.
7:30 pm - D’s dad drops us off back in the city again, before curfew hits.
9:00 pm - We have our roommate dinner in the evening – an Ottolenghi cauliflower recipe, with some potatoes and a lovely beetroot hummus. My roommate has bought the groceries for the evening. Afterwards, I make some cocktails and we also drink some wine (it is quite a debaucherous evening!)
Monday (TOTAL SPENT: $29.21)
9:00 am - Wake up, answer emails (D is again off to his parents’ place), and I do some more work for the virtual concert. There’s some recording work that I also get done for another virtual production that I’m on as well.
10:15 am - I walk to the grocery store and pick up some groceries for the next few days ($29.21)
11:30 am - Back home, I make myself a smoothie and continue the music work I’ve been doing.
1:00 pm - I make myself a Greek salad for lunch with some bread and cheese (are we sensing a pattern here?) and attempt to watch some TV, but because it’s Monday during the day, the internet is just not working. Ah well. I manage to still get some music work done without the internet.
2:15 pm - I do a 25-minute HIIT workout. I really need to get a proper workout routine back in my body after being completely thrown off last week.
3:30 pm - My roommate’s mom has once again kindly offered up her office space for the afternoon, so I head there and start my software work for the day.
8:30 pm - Slightly past curfew, but I walk back home. My roommate and D were going to pick up some döner for dinner, but they were too late, so we improvise something with egg noodles and everything else in the house currently.
9:30 pm - I don’t have any more video meetings for the day and the internet is working well enough for me to work on my software work, so I’m able to finish up work for the day and head to bed around 12:45 am.
Total Spending

Food	$147.63
Public Transit	$5.84
TOTAL:	$153.47

Section 5: Reflection

This was such a great exercise for me. I would say that it was atypical in some ways because of the amount of time we spent at my partner’s parents’ place, which meant we were often eating their food. Otherwise, though, because of COVID, we’re not spending a ton on anything besides groceries and the occasional takeout, and our COL is significantly lower than in NYC.
The internet situation did put me in a really bad headspace for most of the week. The whole ordeal (changing the location of where I work every day) really made me ache for "home" mostly because I feel like I've been living in a limbo for the past year, and I want to go back to a life where I at least feel rooted somewhere. I'm really curious to see the difference when I'm back in the city as well.
Mainly I want to shout out the fact that I have loved reading money diaries for the past few months – a resounding YES to women talking about money. It's been so interesting reading other people's different backgrounds, and it also makes me recognize a great deal of privilege I have, and have grown up with financially (especially not having to deal with student loan debt). Thanks for having me!

Welcome to the week 10 Official NFL Power Rankings! By this point last season there were nine teams with a 6-3 or better record. At the same point in 2020? 15 teams. Which actually belong? 32/32 reporting

#		Team	Δ	Record	Comment
1.		Chiefs	--	8-1	Chiefs are coming off the bye week headed to Las Vegas looking to avenge the early season loss to the Raiders. There are already a lot of narratives going into this game, with buses being at the center of them, but both teams are going to be motivated under the Sunday Night lights. The Chiefs/Raiders rivalry is back.
2.		Steelers	--	9-0	A solid game against the Bengals. No traps. No underperforming. Just the kind of effort, result, and final score you'd expect to see out of a 9-0 team. That said, this upcoming week is critical because Jacksonville always seems to have Pittsburgh's number and the Jags were surprisingly persistent against a very good Packers team. It's often said teams "look ahead", and the Ravens game on Thanksgiving comes on a short week, just 9 days from now. The Steelers need to simply worry about repeating Sunday's performance so they can get through the old rivalry of the unpredictable Jaguars. To reach 10-0 and face the Ravens, who would love nothing more than deny the Steelers an 11-0 record, has to be the current objective. Jacksonville have showed they can play.
3.		Packers	+2	7-2	The Jags punched the Packers in the mouth but Aaron & Co were able to pull out the victory. A late-McCarthy era team might have sputtered the whole game and lost, but this week both sides of the ball buckled down, figured out what worked and what didn't, and got a win. Run defense is still a concern even with getting Christian Kirksey back, and Tae might be injured once again. Still, a win is a win and onto the Colts.
4.		Saints	--	7-2	The Saints continued their winning ways with a slow chokehold on an under strength 49ers team, but come out of the game with one major worry. The hopes of the season now rest on the shoulders of Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill unless Sean Payton can channel Ge Hong to resurrect Brees. Luckily for the Saints the next four games all feature 3-win teams. Jameis gets the chance to prove himself and find him as beloved by the fanbase as Teddy, or collapse the season and be cast out forever.
5.		Buccaneers	+4	7-3	Nothing like a 544 yard, 46 point outing over a division rival to get a team's confidence back on track, and with the absence of Drew Brees, the Bucs reentered the running for the NFC South. Sitting at a cool 7-3, Tampa Bay has the toughest stretch of schedule ahead with the Rams coming up on MNF followed by the Super Bowl Champion Chiefs. With a wild card appearance looking like the worst case scenario, Bucs fans will be able to breathe a sigh of relief for making the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.
6.		Ravens	-3	6-3	With a depleted receiving corps and a depleted DL... The Ravens will be fiiiiiiiiiine against Derrick Henry, now that they don't have Earl Thomas blocking for him.
7.		Cardinals	+4	6-3	Those are the plays you dreamed might be possible after the Cardinals acquired Hopkins in March. Thank you Bill O'Brien! As big as that finish was, it's imperative the team shows up against Seattle on a short week to compete for the division lead. Can't have a letdown game after all that work.
8.		Bills	-2	7-3	In typical Buffalo fashion, the Bills built up their fan’s hopes and dashed them. Then they rebuilt those hopes. Then within a minute Deandre Hopkins re-dashed them. Sometimes you’re just not supposed to win a football game. The football gods decided Sunday was one of those days for the Bills. 7-3 heading into the bye. BillsMafia will take it.
9.		Dolphins	+1	6-3	The talk before this game was that Justin Herbert would likely do well against the Dolphins tendency to blitz heavy and often, yet the Dolphins defense showed that they're going to dictate the terms of the matchup, and Herbert is just another victim of the innovative pass rush and smothering secondary that Brian Flores has built in Miami. Special mention must go to the special teams as, despite Jason Sanders finally missing his first field goal after a franchise record 22 straight, the Dolphins again demonstrated why they're one of the best special teams units in the league, with great performances in all aspects of their game.
10.		Rams	+4	6-3	That's yet another dominant defensive performance, and the Rams have now allowed just 9 points during the second half in the last five games combined. As long as the offense puts together a reasonably competent performance, the Rams have a shot at anyone.
11.		Colts	+2	6-3	The transition from ex-GM Ryan Grigson to current GM Chris Ballard has paid huge dividends for the Colts. This Colts roster, top to bottom, has as much talent as any during the team's tenure in Indy. The team can count on its squads in all three phases of the game, with a huge blocked punt turning the Tennessee contest on its head. If the offense can maintain some consistency, this team should be a force come January.
12.		Seahawks	-5	6-3	Where to start..... Russ isn't the MVP front runner. Pete would rather trust this defense then go for it on 4th and an inch. But hey, at least we've got a historic defense goin for us. The loss to the Rams was the second straight ugly defeat for the Seahawks, dropping them to 3rd in the NFC West. Thursday's game against the Cardinals isn't a must-win, per se..... but Seattle needs to get right fast.
13.		Raiders	-1	6-3	The Raiders absolutely dominated the Broncos. Week 11, on the other hand, will be tough. Once again the NFL gives the Chiefs a game against the Raiders after a KC bye week. Since 2010 the Chiefs will have played an AFC west opponent 9 times following a KC bye week (6 of those 9 times it has been the Raiders). In that same time span they have played against an AFC west opponent only 3 times following their bye week (0x Raiders, 2x Broncos, 1x Chargers). The Raiders not only have to beat one of the best teams in the league this week, but also one of the most unfair scheduling biases of the past 10 years.
14.		Titans	-6	6-3	The Titans now hold a 2-9 record against Phillip Rivers and are 5-20 against the Colts since 2008. The good start to the year for the Titans is in serious jeopardy as they are on a 1-3 streak since their 5-0 start and the next 3 games for the Titans are all against 6-3 teams.
15.		Browns	--	6-3	Nick Chubb, back from injury, ran it out at the 1 to ice the win. Smart move. Ok, so now that is out of the way, Steelers should be #1. Who are we kidding here? KC still hanging around at the top? The were on a BYE. I say this as a Browns ranker: How have the Steelers, who are on a 9-0 terror, not been ranked 1 for so long?!
16.		Vikings	+2	4-5	Mike Zimmer's ability to take a bunch of rookies, 7th rounders and street free agents and hold any offense to 3.0 yards per play is incredible. Meanwhile, Justin Jefferson leads the league in yards per route run and is making DBs look silly week after week.
17.		Patriots	+8	4-5	Bad weather, good rush defense, solid rush offense - what more can you ask for? The Patriots' season remains alive
18.		Bears	-2	5-5	"So I was watching game tape today and I realized, ever since I started playing, every single week of my play has been worse than the week before it. So that means every single week you see me, that's on the worst week of my life." -The entire Chicago Bears offense.
19.		49ers	-2	4-6	The 49ers took an early lead vs the saints, but that lead vanished as eventually the talent disparity won out. It is a testament to the coaching staff and Shanahan's ability to get players to buy in that the team is continuing to battle every week with so many injuries to key players.
20.		Panthers	-1	3-7	Bless the knees. Teddy made it, even if the Panthers' wheels fell off. From ill-timed interceptions to a rush defense giving up the length of the field at a time, mistakes were made in many phases to a strong divisional rival. A more winnable home game against Detroit lies ahead.
21.		Lions	+5	4-5	A W is a W. Without Kenny Golladay on the field, the Lions were still able to put points on the board in the first half. Unfortunately the offense stagnated, and the defense played down to their opponent. Maybe the game script wanted another clutch Matthew Stafford walk off W? No, the true clutch captain Matt Prater sunk a 59 yard chip for the win. This W belongs to the Lions... and Chase Young.
22.		Falcons	-1	3-6	Raheem better be using this bye week efficiently. With remaining games against Kansas City, Oakland, Tampa (2x), New Orleans (2x), there won't be room for errors Atlanta is known so well for.
23.		Chargers	-3	2-7	Something about Hard Rock Stadium just brings bad tidings to the Chargers. This was the worst loss of the season, and it's very telling to lose to a team in the middle of a rebuild. The Chargers are a better team on paper, but that doesn't matter if the other team just needs to execute for 60 minutes in order to win. Kudos to Brian Flores and the Dolphins, they're moving in the right direction. The same cannot be said for the Chargers. The Jets are not the easy win that they should be when they come to town next week, and Tom Telesco gets ever closer to working with another top 5 pick.
24.		Bengals	--	2-6-1	It was refreshing to have a Bengals vs. Steelers game without the extra stuff that has been going on the last few years. Well, except for Bud Dupree's late hit on Joe Burrow, a hit that threw him into the bench and clearly hampered Burrow's mobility the remainder of the game. It's okay, at least Bengals fans didn't have to listen to Jonathan Vilma claim Joe Burrow can't read a defense for the remainder of the game.
25.		Broncos	-2	3-6	A certain Tomas Kalnoky song comes to mind after Drew Lock's performance on Sunday. The World of Suck goes on and on. From Andrew Mason, the Broncos have had the worst passer rating and TD:INT ratio in the league since 2017. With no end in sight, it appears all-too-likely the Broncos will be hoping back on the QB Carousel for another go-round.
26.		Eagles	-4	3-5-1	Scenario: your team scores a touchdown to make it 17-21 before the extra point, which would bring you within a field goal of a tie game, what would you do? If you answered “get sacked for -7 yards on a failed 2 point conversion” you might be the next head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles!
27.		Giants	+1	3-7	The Giants played good football in all 3 phases of the game on Sunday, which is not a sentence I've been able to utter for a long, long time. Daniel Jones put on a clinic in what was arguably the best game of his young career. James Bradberry deserves all the money we threw at him and then some. Graham Gano and Riley Dixon have magical legs. But by far the most vast improvement in play from early in the season appears to be the Offensive Line. From getting Saquon hit 2-3 yards in the backfield every play to moving guys down the field at will and giving Danny Dimes a clean pocket all afternoon, they've become one of the better units on this team as a whole. All in all, a win heading into the bye week is made that much sweeter by the fact that we finally beat the damn Eagles.
28.		Texans	-1	2-7	big mood
29.		Washington FT	--		Absolutely clutch performance by Chase Young who put the team on his back, committed a boneheaded 15 yard penalty with about 6 seconds left to put The Lions in last second winning field goal range. This team and this culture is committed to losing and time after time they just find a way when the chips are up and all the momentum is on their side.
30.		Cowboys	--	2-7	Despite some worries, the Cowboys made it through the bye week unscathed. The way this year has gone, that counts as a win (but not for determining draft order or the division title).
31.		Jaguars	--	1-8	The Jaguars will not go quietly into the offseason. Putting up a big fuss against the Packers proved futile. However, there does appear to be enough raw talent on the team that it's unlikely the Jaguars lose every game the rest of the season. While still frustrating to watch, the team does have it's moments, like field-length PRTDs. Remember kids, don't out-kick your coverage!
32.		Jets	--	0-9	Once again, the Jets failed to do anything at all this week.

Introduction

Hey everybody, this is the first of a weekly segment I'd like to start covering this year's Spring college football season. If you're interested in helping coordinate this, please contact me at [email protected], or if you have any updates or changes to my list, please give me an update via this Google form. This post will be a bit longer than the future ones will be while I introduce things, so bear with me a bit.
If there's one silver lining to Covid-19, it's that we get more college football. Just over two-and-a-half-weeks after the close of the 2020 Fall Football season, the colleges and conferences who elected to defer their season to the Spring of 2021 are kicking off their games, with DIII's American Southwest Conference (ASC), Southern Athletic Association (SAA), and Northwest Conference (NWC) planning to play a total of eight games.
I recently finished going through the posted schedule of every single NCAA football team and creating a document which organizes those schedules into a single source and organized two different ways: You can see the entire schedule broken up day by day or you can look at the schedule of each individual program playing an NCAA team. I could have also looked through the NAIA and NCFA, but the NCAA schedules proved volatile enough that I decided not to in the end. I think the format of the sheet is fairly self-explanatory, but just in case it's not, here's a basic guide:

• For games played by Independents (regardless of level), the "conference" box is colored yellow; additionally, the team who is independent has "(IND)" next to their name. Note that Barton College, who has a scheduling alliance with the SAC for the season, is still counted as an independent
• Inter-conference games are colored orange in the "conference" column.
• Inter-division games are denoted with an asterisk (*) in the "Division" column
• There are a few schedules with "TBA" games listed. Those have red colored words in the team name row and have their "conference" box colored red.
• A few games are listed as "scrimmage games" or "neutral site games" -- see the "comments" column for those games.
• Any time there was a scheduling conflict, or any time only one of the two competing schools had a schedule posted, the row was colored pink and an explanation was put in the "comments" box. If the row is colored pink but the box is empty that means it conflicts with another scheduled game and an explanation is elsewhere, generally close by.

The sheet also has a few other useful tabs: first is a list of teams who played last Fall who are also planning on playing this Spring, or at the least have not officially ruled out playing this Spring. Colleges who played (or attempted to play) in the Fall are listed alphabetically, along with a simple display of their schedule. If it's not currently clear whether the team plans to play or not, their name is highlighted yellow and there's a note indicating as much beside them. There are currently 28 teams who played in the fall and either plan to play this spring or have not formally ruled out playing in the Spring. Most of them played 3-or-fewer games against either Fall opt-ins who needed to round out their schedule, or schools who attempted to start competition in the Fall before postponing to the Spring.
The fourth tab is a list of teams who are confirmed to not be playing this Spring. This list does not include teams who obviously played a full Fall slate of games unless the team played independently of their conference whose other members are playing this Spring. I tried to be pretty conservative with inclusions on this list.
The fifth tab is a list of schools who are officially unannounced on the topic of whether they will play this Spring or not. Many of them may be assumed to be not playing, however several conferences have put out statements to the effect that they are still evaluating current options and that a Spring schedule is not out of the question.
Finally, the sixth tab is a sortable "standings" list of each school who has played so far. It's nothing super fancy and only includes cumulative records, but is a good visual aid.

Notes of Interest

While none of the teams are playing yet, look forward to next week when we get our first Division I level games.
New Mexico State is the only D-I FBS team playing this Spring; several FCS teams are also playing.
Though all members of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC, D-II) are allowed to independently schedule games, currently the only member who has chosen to publicly do so is Saginaw Valley State, who plans to play one game on March 6th.
Despite most conferences being conference only and home/away only, there are a few neutral site games, most of which will be played by HBCUs. The first will be Grambling State vs Prairie View A&M on February 27th in the Cotton Bowl, and the second between Mt. Union and Muskingum on March 12th (I believe the schedules both count this as a home game for Muskingum but I chose not to since it's played in Zanesville and not a town either team is based in). The third game will be Savannah State vs West Alabama in Mobile, AL, and the fourth in Shreveport's Independence Stadium will be played by Grambling State and Southern on April 17th. The final scheduled neutral site game of the season will be the Magic City Classic between Alabama A&M and Alabama State. Scheduled to also be played on the 17th, this game will be played in Birmingham's Legion Field (home of the former Birmingham Iron -- Forge On!).
There are a few games which are tentatively scheduled, but probably the most interesting is the 4/17 matchup between Erskine and Limestone, which will only be played if Limestone fails to make the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) championship.

Week 1 in Spring CFB

Here, I'll give a quick introduction to the currently-planned slate of games for each coming week. A week runs from Thursday to Wednesday, much like the NFL, so this week starts today (2/4) and ends 2/10; this isn't really an issue this week but will be in later weeks. Later I'll try to make a table of the previous week's games, but since this is the first week we don't have any of those yet. I'll also try to include (legal) links to where you can stream the games online, if the team offers such a service.
Times are not guaranteed to be accurate; as a general rule they should follow the time-zone of the home state, but I didn't always check. Also, sometimes, two schedules would list two different times for the same game. I'd generally just stick with whichever one I saw first.
Week 1

DATE	TIME	HOME	AWAY	LOCATION	CONFERENCE	DIVISION	WATCH
2/6	12:00 PM	Belhaven	Mary Hardin-Baylor	Jackson, MS	ASC	DIII	link
2/6	12:00 PM	Millsaps (MS)	Hendrix	Jackson, MS	SAA	DIII	link
2/6	12:00 PM	Puget Sound	Pacific Lutheran	Tacoma, WA	NWC	DIII	link
2/6	12:00 PM	Trinity (TX)	Austin (TX)	San Antonio, TX	SAA	DIII	link
2/6	1:00 PM	Howard Payne	Texas Lutheran	Brownwood, TX	ASC	DIII	link
2/6	1:00 PM	McMurry	Sul Ross State	Abilene, TX	ASC	DIII	link
2/6	1:00 PM	Southwestern (TX)	East Texas Baptist	Georgetown, TX	ASC	DIII	N/A
2/6	6:00 PM	Rhodes (TN)	Birmingham-Southern	Memphis, TN	SAA	DIII	N/A

STANDINGS

For a while I wrestled over whether I wanted to include the records of teams who competed in the Fall in this section. What I think I've decided to do is present them here by record and include their Spring and Overall record later on but rate teams by Spring record only, but I'll still present the overall record just for edification. This won't ever be anything super scientific, just a look at each team's winning percentage ordered by whoever's played the most games to help remove the noise of a new week of conference play as each conference starts up.
For this pre-season ranking, I'll only be looking at teams who are currently confirmed to be playing this Spring.
1. Trine (IN) (2-0) - 1

• The only competing team with multiple wins and no losses in the Fall, Trine leads the pack for the pre-Spring season after wins over Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) foe Adrian (44-27) and a shutout against Manchester University (37-0). They look to return with a conference-only slate.

2. Bluffton (1-0) - 1

• Bluffton beat Arian College (MI) in a close 28-21 game on October 24th; they had a second game scheduled against Trine which they were forced to cancel due to new travel restrictions in Ohio.

3. North Dakota State (1-0) - 1

• The Bison won their sole scheduled game of the Fall 2020 season against Central Arkansas 39-28, defeating the vagrant A-SUN team in a game played primarily to get highly-touted QB Trey Lance some publicity before the NFL draft.

4. Southern Illinois (1-0) - 1

• Southern Illinois defeated Southeast Missouri 20-17 in the only game either team played this Fall.

5. Jacksonville State (3-1) - 0.75

• Though technically the team on this list with the most wins, Jacksonville State is held back by their loss to Florida State (24-41). Otherwise, the Gamecocks made a strong showing this Fall, taking down Mercer (34-28), North Alabama (24-17), and Florida International (19-10).

T-6. UT Chattanooga & Southeast Missouri (0-1) - 0

• Both Chattanooga and Southeast Missouri lost their only games of the Fall season by narrow margins, with the Mocs losing 10-13 to Western Kentucky and the Redhawks losing 17-20 to Southern Illinois.

8. Manchester (IN) (0-2) - 0

• Manchester lost both the games they played this Fall, getting blown out by both Trine (0-37) and Adrian (10-41).

T-9. Mercer, Missouri State, & Western Carolina (0-3) - 0

• Mercer's three losses are mostly fairly respectable, falling to Jacksonville State (28-34) and Abilene Christian (17-20) by close scores, however, the Bears' third loss to Army (3-49) is a little harder to stomach. Missouri State had a similar fate, falling to Oklahoma (0-48) but doing respectably against Central Arkansas (20-27 and 24-33). Western Carolina, on the other hand, played tough games against the strong Flames of Liberty (14-58) and Tar Heels of North Carolina (9-49). Their loss to Eastern Kentucky (17-49) was a bit more humbling.

12. The Citadel (0-4) - 0

• The Citadel's closest game was a 9-14 loss to Army, and from there things got worse for the Bulldogs quickly. 20+ point losses to South Florida (6-27) and Eastern Kentucky (14-37) sandwiched a 0-49 shutout at the hands of Clemson.

13. University of the Incarnate Word (0-0)

• The Cardinals attempted to play Arkansas State this Fall but had the game canceled due to Covid. It feels unfair to rank them 13th for not playing a game, but it would feel more wrong to rank them ahead of teams who actually played.

Closing

I hope y'all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Like I mentioned in the introduction, any and all help is appreciated! Looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks or is looking forward to for this Spring's football season!