NFL 2023: Week 12 Power Rankings & The Rest

Tier I - The "Unmitigated Disaster" Uno

32.) Carolina Panthers  =  1-9  (163-275)

Tier II - The "2023 Draft Jockeying" Quadro

31.) New York Giants  =  3-8  (149-285)

30.) Arizona Cardinals  =  2-9  (192-284)
29.) Chicago Bears  =  3-8  (230-286)
28.) New England Patriots  =  2-8  (141-238)

Tier III - The "Just Plain Bad" Duo

27.) Tennessee Titans  =  3-7  (168-214)

26.) Washington Commanders  =  4-7  (236-305)

Tier IV - The "Barely Alive" Trio

25.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers  =  4-6  (192-200)

24.) Atlanta Falcons  =  4-6  (189-217)
23.) New York Jets  =  4-6  (150-204)

Tier V - The "Soft Underbelly of the AFC" Quinto

22.) Las Vegas Raiders  =  5-6  (185-225)

21.) Denver Broncos  =  5-5  (217-268)

20.) Indianapolis Colts  =  5-5  (242-248)

19.) Pittsburgh Steelers  =  6-4  (166-195)

18.) Cincinnati Bengals  =  5-5  (202-226)

Tier VI - The "LA Story" Duo

17.) Los Angeles Rams  =  4-6  (195-220)

16.) Los Angeles Chargers  =  4-6  (259-238)

Tier VII - The "Good, Bad Teams" Duo

15.) Green Bay Packers  =  4-6  (202-202)

14.) New Orleans Saints  =  5-5  (214-198)

Tier VIII - The "Bad, Good Teams" Trio

13.) Seattle Seahawks  =  6-4  (216-218)

12.) Minnesota Vikings  =  6-5  (253-230)
11.) Houston Texans  =  6-4  (238-208)

Tier IX - The "High Upside Middlers" Trio

10.) Cleveland Browns  =  7-3  (227-180)

9.) Buffalo Bills  =  6-5  (294-190)

8.) Jacksonville Jaguars  =  7-3  (230-204)

Tier X - The "Just Plain Good?....." Trio

7.) Detroit Lions  =  8-2  (272-229)

6.) Miami Dolphins  =  7-3  (305-238)

5.) Kansas City Chiefs  =  7-3  (225-164)

Tier XI - The "NFC Powerhouses" Trio

4.) Dallas Cowboys  =  7-3  (302-175)

3.) San Francisco 49ers  =  7-3  (279-157)

2.) Philadelphia Eagles  =  9-1  (273-212)

Tier XII - The "We've Seen This Story Before" Uno

1.) Baltimore Ravens  =  8-3  (304-177)

Looking Ahead to Next Week's Games

16.) New England Patriots (2-8)  @  New York Giants (3-8)  (1:00 - FOX)

15.) Carolina Panthers (1-9)  @  Tennessee Titans (3-7)  (1:00 - FOX)

14.) Los Angeles Rams (4-6)  @  Arizona Cardinals (2-9)  (4:05 - FOX)

13.) Chicago Bears (3-8)  @  Minnesota Vikings (6-4)  (MNF - ESPN)
12.) Washington Commanders (4-7)  @  Dallas Cowboys (7-3)  (Thanskgiving - CBS)

11.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-6)  @  Indianapolis Colts (5-5)  (1:00 - CBS)
10.) Miami Dolphins (7-3)  @  New York Jets (5-5)  (Friday - Prime)
9.) Pittsburgh Steelers (6-4)  @  Cincinnati Bengals (5-5)  (1:00 - CBS)

8.) New Orleans Saints (5-5)  @  Atlanta Falcons (4-6)  (1:00 - FOX)
7.) Green Bay Packers (4-6)  @  Detroit Lions (8-2)  (Thanskgiving - FOX)
6.) Kansas City Chiefs (7-3)  @  Las Vegas Raiders (4-6)  (4:25 - CBS)
5.) Cleveland Browns (7-3)  @  Denver Broncos (5-5)  (4:05 - FOX)

4.) San Francisco 49ers (7-3)  @  Seattle Seahawks (6-4)  (Thanksgiving - NBC)

3.) Baltimore Ravens (8-3)  @  Los Angeles Chargers (4-6)  (SNF - ESPN)

2.) Jacksonville Jaguars (7-3)  @  Houston Texans (6-4)  (1:00 - CBS)
1.) Buffalo Bills (6-5)  @  Philadelphia Eagles (9-1)  (4:25 - CBS)

Re-Post: The Mumbai Attacks, (now 15) Years Later

I posted this five years ago when the attacks were 10 years old. With everything going on in the world, and more than that the weirdness of had Pakistan made teh Cricket World Cup Semifinal, the match would have moved away from Mumbai, because Pakistan cannot play in Mumbai, brought it all back.

Fifteen Years Later, Mumbai is thriving, and despite me having two cancelled trips back in 2022 and 2023, I will make all effort to go back to the beautifully weird city of the bay.

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I am Indian. If I have to self-identify, I do as that. Over the years, I've grown proud to be Indian. Actually, I was always proud, but I'm now more proud to be 100% Indian. When I was really young, and we were regaled in history class stories of Ellis Island and my classmates ancestors coming across, scores of the 'poor, huddled masses', etc., I desperately wanted to have another flag in my family tree aside from India's. I can twist and contort my personal history to include the Portuguese flag, the peoples that colonized the ancestral part of India I am from (Goa), converting many of my ancestors, changing our names to Portuguese names (Pinto and Menezes in my case - the name of the ex-Portuguese National Team goalkeeper and ex-Brazil National Team head coach). Let's be honest, very likely the Portuguese had their way with some and there is a non-zero chance I have some Portuguese blood in me.

I am a Mumbaikar. I am from Mumbai. My roots are from Mumbai. My grandmother's apartment still exists in Mumbai, and that is where my connection to this story lies. That was a long intro, but it means something to be a Mumbaikar, especially in 2018, ten years after our city was rocked. More than a Mumbaikar, I am a person connected with Colaba, the old home of all things Mumbai, a district that is still a bit lost in the times, the colonial home of Mumbai's beauty, but now surpassed as industry expanded their horizons. Of course, Colaba is still important to Mumbai writ large, and was the location of the attacks that rocked the city in November, 2008. The assailants, Pakistani loyalists somewhat led by a US-born terrorist, focused on Colaba, on my home, with excruciating impact.

From my grandparent's flat, the one my Dad and his brothers and sisters grew  up in, where my Aunt and cousin still live, you can see the Taj hotel rising above across the street and couple gullies (alleys, in US parlance). Their apartment building is across the street, literally, from the Leopold Cafe. These landmarks meant little to me pre-2008. But after the terrorists started their attack at the Leopold cafe, exiting and running towards the Taj to hold that majestic hotel hostage, it meant a lot more. I was not in Mumbai that night. My cousin and Aunt were, and they heard the gunshots. I distinctly remember us (my family and my uncle's in Boston) calling my aunt who lived in Colaba that evening, not fully realizing the seriousness and criticality of it all.

In the gulley that connects Leopold Cafe and the Taj Hotel is a tailor - Waghela Tailors. A man who I assume is Mr. Waghela, was killed in the attack. He was in process of closing up his shop, rapidly turning the crank that would gate up his store, when a shot randomly fired off of an assault rifle by a terrorist hit him. He was my dad's tailor. 

His son runs the store now, still remember who Vera Menezes's kids are, and by extension, to some degree who I am. Furthering my connections to the attack, my Uncle got married at the Taj Hotel in 1981. There are multiple pharmacies there, all of whom know my family, having set up shop in Colaba, off the causeway, since 1960-something. They all experienced loss. They all heard the gunshots.

I live close to New York. I went to the World Trade Center about a week before teh attack. I loved that building. Still, I am so much more closely connected, at a personal level, to the Mumbai attack than 9/11. In a weird way, the connection to the Mumbai attack grew over time, as I learned just how close my family lived, just how personal the ties were. 

When the attack happened in November, 2008, I hadn't been to Mumbai for five years, and hadn't visited our apartment in the Esperanca building in seven years. My grandmother died in 2002. I last visited in 2001, obviously too young to understand the legacy of Colaba, the Taj Hotel, and Leopold Cafe. Honestly, in 2001, no one really knew about Leopold Cafe.

I visited Mumbai next in 2011, a one day trip on a layover from Bangalore back to the US. I visited in earnest in 2011 summer, spending six weeks in Mumbai, all the while looking forlornly out my apartment window at the Taj, rising as a pillar above the cloudy monsoon-laden skies. I went to the Taj for the first time (that I can remember) during that trip. And went to Leopold countless times, with the bullet-shattered windows still left unfixed, a testament and monument to the horror that was November 28th, 2008. 

I can't stress enough that my family's home is right across the street from Leopold Cafe, a good five minute walk to the Taj. 10 years later everyone in Mumbai has commendably moved on. Waghela is run by his son. The Taj has laxed its security - so much so it allowed me and my cousin to enter at 2am after a temporary blackout cut power in our flat in 2013. Leopold is as popular as ever, now with a whole host of white people, transient tourists as patrons.

In the ten years since the attack, I have visited our apartment six different times, each time marvelling how close we were to the action. My cousin, as horrifying as it sounds, had a birds-eye view to my country's 9/11. If we picked the perfect moment, we could have seen the terrorists leave the Leopold Cafe post-attack and run through the gulley back to the Taj, all from our perch on the 3rd floor of Esperanca building. In a way, I'm, happy I was 8.000 miles away on 11/28/2008, but also wish I could have been there, to have a first-hand view of how evil people can be. But then also have a reference point to remember again how well man moves on. Never in defiance, but in memoriam.

There is a reason the attackers picked so many landmarks in Colaba. It was the heart off the Colonial era Mumbai. When I tell fellow Indian acquaintances that my family lives there, I often get met with a stare and awe. I am not close enough to India to verify how rare or special this is. What I see in Colaba is its age. There is a great amount of history and import to be sure, but when my cousin and I want to go out, we go to Lower Parel or Bandra, or areas that have left their colonial roots well behind. 

But Colaba is that center. Be it the western tourists that walk its causeway, fighting past hawkering stall owners looking for a fix. Be it the landmarks that were so present long before my consciousness. Be it the new places that have sprung up post attack - like Stock Bar or Colaba Social. Be it the long remembered Sports Bar XS, which was my cousin and my haunt du jour in 2011 summer.

I've lived too close to many terrorist attacks. Obviously, 9/11is the most present. Change a few variables, and I could have lost my Dad (he didn't go to the ;Windows of the World' breakfast that day, on the 110th floor of the 2nd building) and Uncle (who normally took the Boston-to-Los Angeles flight that was hijacked). Someone in my neighborhood lost their dad. Todd Beamer, one of the people who led the mutiny on Flight 93, went to my family church. I still remember when a guidance counselor entered our class room and called out a student, a friend, who's dad worked in the building, luckily on the third floor.

A bit more opaquely, I went to Istanbul Airport two weeks before it was attacked by terrorist bombs. I was in Dallas a week before a shooter opened fire during a rally. I've had my close cases. That all said, apart from the highest interpretation of 9/11, nothing comes close to the Mumbai Attack.

I didn't know it at the time, but over the years, I've grown to appreciate both the intimacy the attack could have had to me, and how well us fellow Mumbaikars have turned the blind eye and just moved on. There is tragedy and bloodshed all over those gulleys, but Mumbai moved on. Each night I spend in the Esperanca building, I look out of our window to a Taj Hotel Tower that was once on fire with hostages inside, look across the street to Leopold Cafe, which still wears its scars, and think of what could have been. But also what has become., a city that moved on, shoved the desolation in the face of the assailants, moved on with pride, whether it being Waghela's son, or Bademiya expanding, or Leopold Cafe squeezing every ounce of notoriety for being location zero.

I am a Mumbaikar. In that sense I move on as we all do. The only time I've been to the Taj hotel was post-attack, same with Leopold, where today I go and order my Kingfisher without even glancing upwards at the window with bullet-holes still in it. I've taken a train from CST (aka VT) station). I've walked the causeway, walked the gulley. I've changed to an OCI resident visa status to allow me to go back and forth to India - something not allowed with a generic visa after a US-born person went back-and-forth from Pakistan to Mumbai to aid in the planning. I am a Mumbaikar who now understands the stakes, who understands that I could have heard the gunshots. It was thanksgiving weekend in the US, and I am thankful for getting to live through what happened next.

Nostalgia Diaries: Oswalt, Pence & Berkman in other Stripes

This has to be easily the most random, most pointedly specific, of any of these. And it is because as I write this, a fat content cat baseball wise, having seen my team win two World Series in recent times (as noted a lot in my last post...), watching my theoretical "rival" Texas Rangers win their first title (honestly... good for them). It got me thinking about my history with baseball. Obviously, I've written about the Astros often during their recent run of success. And I've written about their 2005 run in the Nostalgia Diaries in teh past. But I rarely wrote about the dark days.

And they were dark. 

It is hilarious that from 2004-2023, the Astros were wildly successful in the macro sense. In that tidy 20 year period, they made more LCS's than anyone (9, no one else is more than seven - Dodgers, Yankees), making four World Series (tied with the Red Sox for most). But of course, in that 20 year period, they also had a nine year stretch of not making the playoffs (2006-2014). In that stretch, they lost 100+ games three times - the last two years of taht the result of pretty blatant tanking. Of course, before the blatant tanking, they should have been blatantly tanking - losing a more pathetic 90-95 games a lot of years, ruining their farm system with terrible trades and awful mismanagement. It was dark times.

But in that stretch there was weird periods of light, mainly when guys that played a long time for the Astros went elsewhere and did great things. My three favorite Astros in the pre-Dynasty era were Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman and Hunter Pence. Oswalt and Berkman were great at a time when the team was great. Neither was the best, but Oswalt has a legitimate argument for being the 2nd best pitcher of the 2000s, behind Roy Halladay. Berkman was one of the quietly best sluggers of the 2000s. Pence was nowhere near as reputed, but he was the last good prospect and player the Astros had in that era, where despite his hilariously awful swing, he had good seasons for bad Houston teams.

All three of them were traded, in pretty quick succession. Oswalt and Berkman in 2010, to the Phillies and Yankees respectively. That offeseason, Berkman signed with teh Cardinals - the last year in which the Cardinals were a direct division rival of the Astros. Hunter Pence was traded in 2011 to the Phillies, and then in 2012 to the Giants. All three would go on to have incredible playoff moments - and in Berkman's and Pence's case - Championship moments, all at a time when their home team in Houston was lousy.

Let's start with Hunter Pence. He was actually pretty poor playing good time for the 2012 Giants title team, but in 2014, when the Giants were basically Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey and 23 guys - arguably Hunter Pence was the first of those "guys". In 17 games, he hit .333/.405/.470. He hit a key home run in Game 1 of the World Series against the Royals. He became a Giants legend, in that he won a second title with them, and was oddly one of the few guys to be good for the 2013 Giants, which like most odd-year Giants, was a rarity. But really, this is not about Pence. This is about Berkman and Oswalt, my first two baseball loves.

Berkman is an interesting case. He was almost laughably good in his Houston tenure. Yes, the start of his career coincided with teh steroid era, but in his 11 full seasons in Houston (1999-2009), he hit .299/.412/.556, with 313 HRs and 1041 RBIs, and 46.4 WAR. This isn't necessarily HOF numbers, but not so far off. He was too good for what was the 2006-2009 Astros, and they relented and traded him, to the Yankees first for Mark Melancon and Jimmy Paredes. He didn't do all that much for the Yankees. He did a whole lot for the hated Cardinals.

In 2011, Berkman quietly hit .301/.412/.547 - teh team's second best player behind Pujols. He was awful in the field, but who cares. Why who cares? Because he was involved in two of the biggest moments in their crazy Game 6 win.

Lance Berkman hit a two-run HR in the bottom of the 1st to make it a 2-1 game. That would be far from his most important moment. We all know about David Freese in the 9th inning. But what we may forget is two batters before that, with the Cardinals down 7-5, with one out, following a Pujols double, Berkman drew a walk. Berkman walked a lot, like a whole damn lot. This was maybe his most improtant walk ever. On Freese's triple to tie the game, Berkman scored the tying run.

And of course, an inning later, with teh Cardinals again down to their last our, their last strike, Berkman delivered with a patented, splayed swing and single to cetner to tie the game again. Berkman had some clutch hits in Houston, to be sure, most memorably his Home Run to the Crawford Boxes in 2005 Game 5, that gave the Astros the lead that Pujols would rob away. This time, Berkman was on the evil side, help8ing Pujols win another ring.

Weirdly, I actually rooted for him. So is the life of a baseball fan who has to transitively root for other teams because their own favorite team is so fallow and poor. I don't feel bad. That 2011 season saw the Astros lose 100+ games, the first of three straight seasons. We were left rooting for old favorites.

And that brings be to Oswalt, forever my favorite Astro, forever the guy that got me to love the game. He's the one guy who when the Astros turned bad, I actively wanted them to trade him to somewhere better, somewhere where he could pitch in October again, pitch in those amazing moments again. And so they did in 2010, sending him to Philadelphia for JA Happ, Jonathan Villar and Anthony Gose (who?). 

Oswalt the Philly was brilliant. Rejuvenated, reborn. In 13 starts for the Phillies, Oswalt went 7-1, with a 1.74 ERA, with a 0.895 WHIP in his 80 innings, and a 316 ERA+ for that time period. Halladay was on that Phillies team and would win the Cy Young that year. During the period they overlapped, Oswalt was better. And entering Game 2 of the NLCS against the soon-to-be-dynastic Giants, Oswalt needed to pick up Halladay, who lost a semi-duel to Lincecum in Game 1 (Jesus all these names give me nostalgia right off the bat).

He wasn't on my favorite team. He was wearing a different uniform. It was all wholly new and weird. But all in all, Oswalt pitching in the playoffs was magical. It brought me back. It had been five years since I really experienced anything in October I cared about, and suddenly I cared again. It wasn't with Houston, but it was with an NL team, in a roaring ballpark. That's all that mattered.

8 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 8 K's. Oswalt was incredible. The Philadelphia fans embraced him wholeheartedly. His weird delivery just flummoxing a Giants team that would ultimately be victorious. The best part is how Oswalt ended his night. He ended the seventh by striking out Pat Burrell (NLCS MVP) with a ridicukous curveball, thrown at 69-mph like he is wont to do. Then he led off the bottom half by hitting a single. After getting bunted over to 2nd (quick pause to talk about the hilarity of bunting over the pitcher...), he scored from 2nd on a single. He flew that day.

It was werid watching Oswalt do this for sure, but at that moment my Astros fandom was on pause in full. I was left rooting for people. I'm not, for the most part, a root for laundry guy. I have my favorite teams, be it the Astros, the Colts, the Spurs, the Devils, but the guys that I like that come up with one of those teams, well I'll always root for them. It helps that generally when Pence, Berkman and Oswalt left Houston, the Astros were in such shambles it didn't much matter. If anything, at minimum, it just gave me something else to cheer for, but cheering for these things is what makes sports fun even if it isn't for the team you love.

I will never not love that Hunter Pence escaped Houston, after being called up after the 2004-05 fun, and won two World Series for the Giants, the most fun of dynasties. I hate that it was for the Cardinals, but I will love that Lance Berkman had his moment in the sun. And of course, the connection with a starting pitcher is always a bit deeper. Seeing Roy Oswalt pitch on the mound in October 2010, after going five years without that month coming into play, was beautiful, was haunting, was incredible - and seeing him spin eight innings, that beautiful wizard that he was, is a memory of a lifetime. 

I'm so glad the Astros got good from 2015 onwards that I can stack memories of my team in my uniform, but in that weird, dark, desolate nine year period, I went seeking for these random moments of glory, and found them with my three favorite players wearing different uniforms doing amazing things. Do I wish they could've done those in Houston? Sure. But I'm just glad I got to watch them all the same.