Pats top Falcons in Bettors' Poll

Power ratings for all 32 NFL teams from handicappers going into Week 7

Originally Published: October 16, 2012
By Dave Tuley | ESPN Insider

LAS VEGAS -- After a big weekend of NFL upsets, the New England Patriots remained the top team in the Vegas NFL Bettors' Poll.

The top three teams in last week's poll -- the Patriots, San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans -- all lost and saw their power ratings, from our panel of Teddy "Covers" Sevransky, Sal Selvaggio and yours truly, take a dip, but the collective group didn't penalize the Patriots as much, as they lost in Seattle while the 49ers and Texans lost at home.

The New York Giants, with their convincing 26-3 upset of the 49ers, moved up to the No. 2 spot in our power ratings. The Green Bay Packers moved into a fourth-place tie with the Texans, showing that, even though the Packers blew them out 42-24 on Sunday night, they would be around a pick 'em if they were to meet on a neutral field. A team's collective season of work outweighs a single-game performance, so we rarely show big changes in teams' power ratings from week to week.

One team that was downgraded significantly this week, though, was the Baltimore Ravens, which had been tied for fourth in last week's ratings. They beat the Dallas Cowboys 31-29 but didn't cover the spread and should have lost the game. They dropped 1.5 points in our ratings, also due in part to the loss of team leader Ray Lewis and star corner Lardarius Webb.


To see the Vegas handicappers' power ratings of all 32 NFL teams, plus where the value is in the early lines this week, become an ESPN Insider today.

Dave Tuley

ESPN Insider
Dave Tuley has covered the Las Vegas race and sports book scene since 1998 and runs his own website, ViewFromVegas.com.

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