Playoff Power Rankings: Super Bowl week

Last week’s games present an interesting dilemma. The team I thought was the best in the league won, but not in convincing fashion. How does that shake things up? Here goes:

1. New England Patriots

Deflated balls or not, the Patriots absolutely dominated the Colts last week. They’re playing phenomenal football right now in all three phases of the game. The offense scored 30 or more points in half of their regular season games and has now done so in both postseason matches, too. Tom Brady is playing like the first-ballot Hall of Famer he is, Rob Gronkowski is a constant mismatch and LeGarrette Blount is bowling over defenders. The key difference this year, though, has been the defense–particularly the secondary, where Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner can absolutely shut down opposing wideouts.

2. Seattle Seahawks

The champs are the champs until … Yeah, yeah. I know. The Seahawks have topped my power rankings throughout the postseason and I’m even picking them to pull of a narrow victory in the Super Bowl. But they fall out of the top spot here because they frankly got outplayed by the Packers for most of the game last week and were lucky to sneak away with the ugly win. I still think Seattle is best all-around team in the NFL, but the Patriots are hotter right now.