Power Rankings (Week 14)

(Change from last week shown in parentheses)

1. Chiefs (-): At this point, I really don’t think it matters what happens in the regular season for this team. They’re winning each week, but they’re letting drastically inferior teams hang around with them throughout these games. But until proven otherwise, I don’t think anyone can feel confident that they can stop this offense for 60 minutes. This is the best team in football. Period.
2. Saints (+1): Drew Bress goes out — nothing changes. This team just keeps winning. How? Because their defense is awesome. They’ve allowed a total of 44 points over the last 5 weeks. I don’t care who they’ve faced — that’s an awesome stat. Could they still blow it come playoff time as they’ve done year after year? Of course. But this is the most well-rounded team in the NFC and it’s not particularly close.
3. Packers (+1): Since Week 3, the Packers have not beaten a team that is currently .500 or better. They also only play one more team that currently has a winning record. Good fortune aside, this team is still very good. Aaron Rodgers is the MVP of those players in the league not named Patrick Mahomes. Davante Adams and Aaron Jones are both unstoppable. It’ll be interesting to see this team against better competition in the postseason, but I don’t think anyone wants to face them.
4. Steelers (-2): In the first game without Bud Dupree, it wasn’t the defense that cost them their undefeated season — it was their offense. The Football Team is a solid defense, so of course you have to give them credit. But this is now back to back weeks where this Steelers offense failed to get to 20 points. Maybe James Conner and Maurkice Pouncey returning from the Covid list will be the jolt they need, but they better fix things fast. 3 of their final 4 games come against teams with 8+ wins.
5. Bills (-): A dominant showing by this team on Monday night proved that they’re going to be tough to beat in the postseason. Josh Allen played an incredible game. If he doesn’t make the mistakes he’s accustomed to making, this team shouldn’t fear anyone.
6. Colts (+2): Aided by a fumbled snap late, this Colts team got back on the winning track this week. Their defense will keep them in every game, and their offense is diverse enough where so many different guys can come through on any given week. They have a huge matchup this week against the Raiders. A win would go a long way in securing this team a playoff spot, and possibly a division title.
7. Browns (+5): Baker Mayfield just got his signature win of his young career. All season long, despite this team winning games, everyone still had their doubts about Baker. They were beating bad teams. The ground game was carrying them. They were playing bad weather, ugly games. No one, including me, was giving Baker any credit. That better stop after this week, because they destroyed a quality Titans team primarily on the strength of his right arm and quality decision-making. This team will have a winning record for the first time since 2007 and is in prime position to make the playoffs for the first time since 2002.
8. Seahawks (-2): I’m not really sure how to explain what happened to this team this week. The offense looked absolutely lifeless. The defense gave up 6.1 yards per rush. And they lost a home game to a Colt McCoy-led Giants team. If this was a single occurrence, it would be easy to just sweep it under the rug and not pay it much mind. But this team has been up and down all season long.
9. Titans (-2): The roller coaster continues for this Titans team. Fresh off of back to back victories against two quality AFC teams, they get steamrolled from the jump against the Browns. Sure the final score was close, but don’t be fooled — they were dominated. I don’t know who the real Titans team is, but they’re running out of time to show up consistently.
10. Rams (-1): Huge week for the Rams. Not only did they win, but the rest of the stacked NFC West all lost, so now they sit atop the division at 8–4. This team can beat anyone as long as Jared Goff doesn’t turn the ball over. Their defense has been very good all season long, and that’s not likely to change.
11. Buccaneers (-1): Coming out their late-season bye week, the Bucs look to right the ship. They don’t play a single team with a winning record the rest of the way, so they should likely get into the playoffs. But what seed they get is still to be determined. More important to them is not the seed they get, but how they play these final 4 weeks. Do they get Antonio Brown more involved on offense? Does this defense get back to getting after the QB? We shall see.
12. Ravens (+2): Everyone expected a get-right game for this team against the Cowboys this week and that’s exactly what they got. Lamar and this ground game dominated. The defense played well. And they won a blowout. But once again, this performance came against a bad team. They have a Monday night matchup against the Browns this week. Let’s see how they look then before we say this team is back on track.
13. Dolphins (+2): Sure, it was against the Bengals, but this team played a fairly dominant game this week. Their defense held them to under 200 yards of total offense. Their offense more than doubled that. They need to figure out red zone offense though if they want to hang with better teams. 1 TD in 4 trips simply won’t cut it. Still, this team is 8–4 as it faces it’s toughest stretch of games this season. They close the season out with the Chiefs, Patriots, Raiders, and Bills. If they get into the playoffs, they will likely have earned it.
14. Raiders (-3): Would you rather win ugly or lose pretty? Because just two weeks ago, this Raiders team looked as good as they could’ve looked in a loss to the Chiefs. This week, they looked about as bad as they could’ve looked in a win against the Jets. Regardless, they got the W, which keeps their playoff hopes alive. They’ll need to fix their run defense if they want to go anywhere. Giving up 200+ on the ground and 6+ per carry is a surefire formula for losing football games — unless you’re playing the Jets.
15. Cardinals (-2): Things are not looking for this team after their 5–2 start. They’re now 6–6 and if the playoffs began today, they would be sitting at home waiting for next season. Kyler Murray has not been running much of late, likely due to being a little banged up. That has completely changed this offense from looking like an explosive powerhouse to extremely middle of the road. Against a formidable Giants defense this week, it’ll be important for Kyler to use his legs to spark this team.
16. Giants (+3): What a win. On the road in Seattle, against a hot Seahawks team, Joe Judge directed a Colt McCoy-led Giants team to victory. This team has now won 4 straight, none more impressive than this one. This defense has been very good all year. This week simply highlighted that. If Daniel Jones comes back and plays turnover-free football, this team can hang with anyone because of that defense.
17. Vikings (-): It wasn’t pretty by any means, but winning this week put the Vikings in the playoffs if the season were to end today. The fact that that can be said after a 1–5 start to the season is impressive in its own right. They’ll likely be favored twice the rest of the season and underdogs twice as well. It’ll be interesting to see if Kirk Cousins can get this team a big win and somehow a playoff berth.
18. 49ers (-2): The 49ers have fought valiantly all season amidst an array of injuries, but this team simply doesn’t have the active talent on its roster to beat good teams, as was evident in their loss this week to the Bills. Still just a game back in the NFC wild card race, they aren’t done yet, especially if George Kittle comes back. But they’ll likely have to win out to have a shot.
19. Patriots (+1): This team simply refuses to die. They’ve now won 4 out of their last 5 and are clinging on to an outside shot at the postseason, despite how poorly they have looked at times this season. Their next 3 games come against teams all with at least 8 wins on the season.
20. Football Team (+8): What a performance by this team against the formerly undefeated Steelers. Winners of 3 straight, Ron Rivera has this team tied atop their division and playing great football when it’s mattering most. This defense is no joke. And Alex Smith is playing good enough football to make this team a real threat week in and week out.
21. Falcons (-3): The Falcons scored 1 TD over 8 quarter of football in 3 weeks time against the Saints defense. That’s not very good. Also, what a strange schedule for this team. They just got done with playing the Saints twice in 3 weeks, and they also finish the year playing the Bucs twice in the final 3 weeks. Weird.
22. Panthers (-1): Coming out of an extremely late season bye, the Panthers should be getting CMC back, which is really only relevant for the few fantasy owners who drafted him who qualified for the playoffs. 3 of their last 4 opponents are relevant in the playoff race. This team has fought hard all year long, so I expect them to give those teams some trouble at least.
23. Texans (-): What a brutal way to lose a game. 2 yards from potentially taking the lead, coming out of a timeout, to have a bad snap is simply the mark of a bad team. That can’t happen. On the bright side, Deshaun Watson showed he can make just about anyone a 100-yard WR as Keke Coutee went for 141 and Chad Hansen (go ahead and google him, I’ll wait…) went for 101.
24. Lions (+3): New coach. New energy. New results. This team, which for the last 2+ seasons was accustomed to blowing double digit leads consistently under Matt Patricia, came back miraculously from a 10 point deficit in the final minutes of the game. Darrell Bevell is getting a ton of credit for the energy he brought all week and into the game, and rightfully so. What isn’t getting enough credit is Matthew Stafford once again leading a 4th quarter comeback in the craziest of ways. This team was down 10 with 4:33 to go and started their drive from their own 4 yard line. Stafford went 96 yards in 2 minutes and change. Wow.
25. Broncos (-): What a battle on Sunday night by this team. Holding the Chiefs to just 22 points, which is their lowest point total of the season, is no easy feat. Drew Lock looked decent much of the game as well, although his final stat line was less than impressive.
26. Bears (-2): The streak continues. 6 losses in a row. And this time it was done in incredible fashion. Throughout the streak it was the offense letting this team down. This week the Mitchell Trubisky and this offense did what they do against the Lions and ripped them apart for much of the game, securing a double digit lead for most of the way, only to blow it in the final minutes. Because of that hot start, this team still remains just a game out of that final wild card spot, which is wild if you’ve watched them play over the last month and a half.
27. Chargers (-5): Well, that happened. 45–0. This team can’t wait to put this season behind them because it does appear that they have a bright future. The question remaining is will Anthony Lynn maintain his job after this season. I’m not sure if these last 4 games will impact that decision. But I do know that winning some more games wouldn’t hurt his chances.
28. Eagles (-2): Finally. That has to be the feeling Eagles fans have now that Jalen Hurts is going to be the starting QB this week. I still don’t blame Carson Wentz alone for this offense’s poor play. It’s clearly a total mess by all parties involved. Regardless, it wasn’t working. The team got a bit of a spark when Hurts came in and now they’re in desperation mode as far as winning the division where a few weeks ago they were in the driver’s seat. If nothing else, Eagles fans will now have to find something else to complain about.
29. Jaguars (+2): To be a Jaguars fan right now has to be fun. This was now the second week in a row where they played a team currently in playoff position, held their own, and came out of it still with a loss to keep them in shouting distance of that first pick. Good job Jags.
30. Bengals (-1): Ugly game against the Dolphins this week, and I’m not talking about the fights that broke out. They were held under 200 yards of total offense. Joe Burrow must be a hall of famer already with the way he made this offense look while he was healthy.
31. Cowboys (-1): The Cowboys can’t stop the run. They’re now second worst in points differential in the league. And although Andy Dalton has them at least respectable offensively, they don’t strike fear in any defense. I wasn’t going to drop them in these rankings, despite their poor play last night, until I saw Ezekiel Elliot get stuffed 3 times from the 1 yard line at the end of the game. This team stinks.
32. Jets (-): Joe Namath. Curtis Martin. Keyshawn Johnson. Chad Pennington. And now Gregg Williams. That is the list of names that Jets fans should forever be thankful for. What a potentially franchise-saving playcall for this team. Well done.