Jason Lisk put the Texans on top of his power rankings. Both Aaron Schatz and Brian Burke loves the Broncos. The Patriots offense looks historically great. I know what you’re thinking: wasn’t it only five weeks ago that I read somewhere that the NFC was by far the superior conference in the NFL?

That still may be true. Football Outsiders has the Jaguars, Chiefs, Raiders, Titans, Browns and… Colts as their bottom six teams in the league. Advanced NFL Stats largely agrees, putting the Jaguars, Chiefs, Titans, Bills, Cardinals, Colts, Browns and Raiders — that’s 7 AFC teams — in the bottom quarter of the NFL. There is a large gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in the AFC, and the three teams straddling the border — Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis — are tremendously flawed. That says nothing of the middle tier of the AFC, populated by the schizophrenic Dolphins, Bengals, and Chargers. The AFC may not be any good this year, but that doesn’t mean it the Super Bowl winner won’t come from there.

[As always, the number of wins I’m projecting each team to finish the season with is in column 3. The fourth column – PWIN – shows how many wins I projected last week, and the difference column represents how many wins I added or subtracted this week. The “RSOS” column stands for the remaining SOS for the team, based on the number of projected wins I’m giving to each of their opponents. The “RHG” column stands for remaining home games.]

Team	Rec	Wins	PrvWin	Diff	RemSOS	RemHG	Comments
Atlanta Falcons	8-1	13	13	0	0.473	4	Their first loss doesn't change their outlook -- this is a 13-win team that should get the #1 seed in the NFC.
Houston Texans	8-1	13	13	0	0.464	3	Until someone mentioned it Monday Night, I forgot the Texans play in a dome. There's no team built for the outdoors like Houston.
Denver Broncos	6-3	13	12	1	0.375	4	They still have, by far, the easiest remaining schedule. Their win total keeps rising.
Chicago Bears	7-2	11	12	-1	0.504	3	The loss to Houston isn't as significant as Jay Cutler's concussion.
New England Patriots	6-3	11	11	0	0.513	4	Suddenly, the remaining schedule looks a little challenging, with Ind, @NYJ, @MIA, Hou, and SF the next five weeks.
Green Bay Packers	6-3	11	11	0	0.473	3	If Green Bay can manage to win road games against the Lions and Giants the next two weeks, the hype machine will be rolling.
Baltimore Ravens	7-2	11	10	1	0.554	3	Not a fan of this team at all, but they're getting a break facing Pittsburgh this week.
San Francisco 49ers	6-2-1	10.5	12	-1.5	0.531	3	There are no gimmes left on their schedule and the 49ers are starting to show some cracks.
Pittsburgh Steelers	6-3	10	11	-1	0.473	4	Losing Ben Roethlisberger hurts, but an easy schedule means the Steelers are playing with a safety net.
New York Giants	6-4	9	10	-1	0.563	3	Four weeks ago, I wrote: "I've projected the Giants at 9 wins every week so far, and I'm not going to change now. The Giants are plagued by inconsistency." Two weeks ago, I had them at 11 wins. I should know better.
Seattle Seahawks	6-4	9	9	0	0.500	3	Three home games remaining = three more wins.
Indianapolis Colts	6-3	9	9	0	0.527	3	No, a win over Jacksonville does not give you a bump in the projections.
Dallas Cowboys	4-5	9	8	1	0.420	5	Streaking and still have 5 games left in Jerry's World to go with a creampuff easy schedule.
Miami Dolphins	4-5	8	9	-1	0.504	4	Seriously, what was that? The loss to Tennessee wasn't just the most unexpected game of the year; it was also the worst one.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	5-4	9	7	2	0.576	3	Josh Freeman is having a magnificent year. The schedule is difficult but a 9-win season is within their grasp.
New Orleans Saints	4-5	8	7	1	0.558	3	There's no margin for error for the Saints, who aren't good enough to operate with no margin of error.
Cincinnati Bengals	4-5	8	6	2	0.446	3	Can the Bengals win three straight games against the little sisters of the AFC West?
Minnesota Vikings	6-4	7	7	0	0.661	2	Not only does Minnesota have the most difficult remaining schedule but the Vikings are the only team with two home games left.
Tennessee Titans	4-6	7	6	1	0.469	3	I'm not about to buy into this team, but maybe they can use that win as a springboard.
St. Louis Rams	3-5-1	6.5	6	0.5	0.478	3	A win over the Jets in the Schottenheimer Bowl may be the highpoint of the season. Anything would be better than kissing the 49ers.
San Diego Chargers	4-5	6	7	-1	0.536	4	Now that I think I've got them figured out, surely they're about to go on a winning streak.
Detroit Lions	4-5	6	7	-1	0.661	5	The loss to the Vikings effectively ended their season, as they are tied with the Vikings in having the hardest remaining schedule in the league.
Washington Redskins	3-6	6	6	0	0.464	4	Robert Griffin III off a bye week against the Eagles? Cover your eyes, Philly fans.
Arizona Cardinals	4-5	6	6	0	0.554	3	The St. Louis Cardinals won a game more recently than the football version. A regular season game.
Oakland Raiders	3-6	6	6	0	0.429	4	An easy remaining schedule means they probably won't be in contention for the top pick.
New York Jets	3-6	6	6	0	0.406	3	I hate this team.
Buffalo Bills	3-6	6	6	0	0.442	5	For the Bills, playing the Patriots close tends to be the highlight of their season.
Carolina Panthers	2-7	6	6	0	0.446	3	This team is much more talented than a 2-7 team, but I'm not sure what that gets them.
Philadelphia Eagles	3-6	5	6	-1	0.473	3	Yeah, the schedule is easy, but Philadelphia is on a 5-game losing streak that shows no sign of ending.
Cleveland Browns	2-7	4	4	0	0.509	3	The last 7 games will be very important for some members of the Cleveland franchise.
Jacksonville Jaguars	1-8	3	4	-1	0.518	3	Blaine Gabbert is ranked 33rd in NY/A out of 34 qualifying quarterbacks, sandwiched between the awfulness in Arizona.
Kansas City Chiefs	1-8	3	3	0	0.527	4	Hey, at least they didn't tie!