Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing you can do. In the NFL, it certainly applied this week to the two teams who are now occupying the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in our power rankings. The Philadelphia Eagles (+1) and the Kansas City Chiefs (+2) were both on their bye week on Sunday. As they watched from their respective couches, the Baltimore Ravens (-5) became the latest victims of our first-place curse, blowing a double-digit lead and a 97% win probability in the fourth quarter against the division-rival Cleveland Browns (+4).
While their collapse comes as a surprise, Baltimore is still obviously one of the better teams in the league, so we only dropped them five spots down to No. 6, one spot lower than the Browns.
Fresh off their own bye week, the San Francisco 49ers (+7) got back on track with a convincing win on the road over the Jacksonville Jaguars (-6), who came into Week 10 at No. 3 in our rankings. After blowing them out by 30+ points, the Niners are now slotted third behind the Eagles and the Chiefs. Meanwhile, Jacksonville fell to No. 9.
After the 49ers, the team that made the largest jump this week was the Minnesota Vikings (+6), who have stumbled upon the best story in the league this year when they traded for Joshua Dobbs. Minnesota has won two in a row since Kirk Cousins went down with his season-ending Achilles tear and all of the sudden the Vikings are looking like a team nobody would want to face in the Wild Card round.
Another team that took a big leap was the Arizona Cardinals (+5), who dealt Dobbs to Minnesota because they were anticipating getting Kyler Murray back soon. In his return, Murray led the Cards to a comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons (-3) with some help from James Conner, who also made his return from injured reserve.
The team that took the deepest dive was the Cincinnati Bengals (-9), who lost at home to the Houston Texans (+2). More concerning than the loss was the fact that defensive end Trey Hendrickson suffered a freak accident knee injury. If he winds up missing significant time, it would be a massive blow for Cincinnati’s defense.
As for the Seattle Seahawks (+1), we couldn’t give them much of a boost after their three-point win at home over the Washington Commanders (-2). It was far from a convincing victory, and if not for a few mindless penalties down the stretch from Washington’s defense it very easily could have gone the other way.
A win is a win, though – and they might find themselves back in the top 10 if the Buffalo Bills lose to Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos this evening on Monday Night Football. *Rankings for the Broncos and the Bills will be updated after they play.
Here’s how we rank all 32 teams going into Week 11…
32
New York Giants (2-8) - Last week: 32
31
Carolina Panthers (1-8) - Last week: 30
30
New England Patriots (2-8) - Last week: 29
29
Chicago Bears (3-7) - Last week: 28
28
Washington Commanders (4-6) - Last week: 26
27
Atlanta Falcons (4-6) - Last week: 24
26
Arizona Cardinals (2-8) - Last week: 31
25
Tennesseee Titans (3-6) - Last week: 19
24
New York Jets (4-5) - Last week: 17
23
Las Vegas Raiders (5-5) - Last week: 27
22
Los Angeles Rams (3-6) - Last week: 22
21
Green Bay Packers (3-6) - Last week: 21
20
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-5) - Last week: 25
19
New Orleans Saints (5-5) - Last week: 18
18
Indianapolis Colts (5-5) - Last week: 20
17
Minnesota Vikings (6-4) - Last week: 23
16
*Denver Broncos (3-5) - Last week: 16
15
Los Angeles Chargers (4-5) - Last week: 14
14
Cincinnati Bengals (5-4) - Last week: 5
13
Houston Texans (5-4) - Last week: 15
12
Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3) - Last week: 14
11
Seattle Seahawks (6-3) - Last week: 12
10
*Buffalo Bills (5-4) - Last week: 11
9
Jacksonville Jaguars (6-3) - Last week: 3
8
Miami Dolphins (6-3) - Last week: 7
7
Detroit Lions (7-2) - Last week: 8
6
Baltimore Ravens (7-3) - Last week: 1
5
Cleveland Browns (6-3) - Last week: 9
4
Dallas Cowboys (6-3) - Last week: 6
3
San Francisco 49ers (6-3) - Last week: 10
2
Kansas City Chiefs (7-2) - Last week: 4
1
Philadelphia Eagles (8-1) - Last week: 2
