NFL Power Rankings Week 15 Bears rise Steelers out of top 10

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NFL Power Rankings, Week 15: Bears rise, Steelers out of top 10 Published: Dec 11, 2018 at 01:32 AM Elliot Harrison The mighty fell. This past weekend in the NFL saw three top-tier teams go down, as the , and all went flat on the road. Pittsburgh continued a maddening trend of dilly-dallying its way through the first half before trying to produce a frantic comeback late. New England was victimized by the most frantic play in football, where every player on offense laterals to every other player on offense at the end of the game -- save for the fact that . Then there was Los Angeles, the consensus No. 1 from the readers' perspective, who played keep-away football -- as in, keep the ball away from your own offense. Furthermore, the struggled through three quarters before , while the needed extra football in order to . With everyone playing for their last chance at the postseason dance, expect games to stay tight, even among the elite. On to your elite thoughts ... I will feel this way when the lions are good... if that day ever comes jared collins (@j_collins03) It will. Remember they won three titles in a six-year period ... in the 1950s. Just be patient. And wait- the browns are kinda good... Doug Haghighi (@gutcheck907) Yeah, but the NFL is better when the are bad. Just kidding. And when Dak is good.... Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) Cool. So when is that? ... OK, despite the turnovers, Prescott throw for 455 (with a little help from his friend in the No. 19 jersey). The rest of the playoff field did a little shimmying, as well, particularly in the NFC East and AFC South. See how those teams rate below. Even the bottom third of the rankings absorbed a shakeup. Your take on any squad is welcome: is the place. Let the di sension commence! For more in-depth analysis on the updated league pecking order, tune in to NFL Network every Tuesday night at 6 p.m. ET for "The Power Rankings Show." Want to add YOUR voice? Provide your thoughts in a tweet to , and your comments could be featured on air. Previous rank: The Bucs never let the off easy, do they? New Orleans was trailing by two scores deep into the third quarter with nothing doing from the offense. Then, as they are prone to do, the exploded for 25 unanswered points, with a heavy boost from the special teams. delivered the nail in the coffin, as the old kids call it, with . I was listening to the broadcast, which meant I heard former player/current broadcaster Deuce McAllister awkwardly announce that Ingram tied some guy named Deuce McAllister for the most rushing touchdowns in franchise history (49). Ingram's unselfish, steady play since his return from a four-game suspension has made quite a difference for this group. **Historical note:** In terms of awesome short touchdown runs, you can't beat against the in the 2006 Divisional Round. </content:power-ranking> Previous rank: Much of the country might see against the as a stumble -- but this space sees it as a glowing positive. Kansas City has not won a defensive battle all season, and although Sunday's affair would hardly be cla sified as a Neil Smith- and Albert Lewis-inspired defensive slugfest, the ' D made some huge stops. 's strip-sack in regulation. Then Bob Sutton's group held the fort on the second po se sion of overtime. Ultimately, the might be asked to win this style of contest in the postseason -- think about with the . Then again, don't think about it. Previous rank: The denizens of the Twittersphere -- along with a few colleagues at NFL Network -- voiced their collective displeasure at the . Welp. Unlike when Los Angeles in Seattle, or with a win. Sean McVay's group was out of the top spot last week partially because it lost to the with the other major factor being the ' spotty defensive play. But that wasn't the case on Sunday night, with and the offense unable to get anything going against the . Goff fared miserably most of the evening, while running back suffered through the biting cold and the bite of an immensely talented front seven. Time for the to throw that game film in the toilet and gear up Previous rank: No matter how cruddy the are, no matter what their record is, no matter what the ' record is, New England can't buy a win in South Florida. Miami could be starting Cleo Lemon at quarterback and still beat Bill Belichick and Co. At i sue Sunday was not just the wild endgame scenario, but also the end-half scenario, when uncharacteristically took a sack deep in territory with no timeouts left, preventing the Pats from kicking a field goal. Then there was , who characteristically (at least, this year) mi sed a field goal and an extra point. Little things. Including having Gronk in to post up, only for him to instead . Back-seat coaching: Why not use as the center fielder there? Gordon can high-point balls and he maybe would have been agile enough to reach . Previous rank: Love the , but boy do they play to the level of their competition. Two weeks ago, they were fully capable of lighting up the in the second half to they plodded their way squarely into Bengals-esque mediocrity. Most folks were too zoomed in on Eagles- or the ' debacle in Oakland to pay much attention to the squeaker at the L.A. soccer hub. Especially after the Bolts scored at will while going up 14-3 in the first half. Maybe the were looking ahead to the dandy of a matchup . Let's just say that ain't they'll be facing out there. **Side note:** Respect, Michael Badgley ... making 14 of 15 field-goal tries since joining the fray in October is heady stuff. Badgley saved the day versus Cincy. </content:power-ranking> Previous rank: As detailed in dominating defense still resonates in the NFL. Yes, even in this era, when the middle of the field has become a posh fairway on which tight ends can rack up fantasy points, and anything so much as breathing heavily on the quarterback extends drives. The upended on on fourth-and-4 with le s than five minutes left served as the nightcap on a date with the league's premier offense that couldn't have gone any better for Chicago. Perhaps most encouraging was the resurrection of the ' run game, which tallied 194 yards. In particular, , who has been bottled up all year, ran wild (for him), gaining 101 yards on the Soldier Field gra s. Nice work. Previous rank: The ' winning ways but the happy days aren't done in Houston. If Week 14 taught the pro football world anything, it's that the AFC superpowers are vulnerable. The in Miami, while the had the late in the fourth quarter -- at Arrowhead, no le s. The disappointing aspects of the ' lo s were twofold: 1) They blew an opportunity to put the rest of the AFC South away, and 2) the offense regre sed. If Houston is to have a shot at playoff succe s in mid-January, the running backs will have to do better than 2 yards per carry. And the third-down offense sucked. Previous rank: Who wants to play the right now? Anyone? Anyone? (Is this an appropriate time for a Ferris Bueller reference? No, overdone.) Seattle took care of busine s . That's really the only way to Derrick Pouliot Jersey put it. The traded blows with the in a defensively controlled contest, then let their top-ranked ground game take over, kind of like every other week during this win streak they have going. The 'Hawks ran a whopping 42 times for 214 yards -- the ninth time this season they've eclipsed 150 yards on the ground. Their leading rusher, , ran for 90 yards, which speaks to what a talented stable of runners Pete Carroll has, including his QB1. Who knows how the defense is playing so well, especially that young secondary. Again, who wants to play these ? Previous rank: For much of it seemed the would have to win in spite of their quarterback, which is a daunting prospect when you consider that even the defenses eventually get worn out Robert Thomas Men Jersey . Luckily for Dallas, in the fourth quarter to build a lead. Then Cooper proved his worth (high trade price be damned!) when he hauled in an underthrown go-route and And Cooper proved his worth by outjockeying corner on an inaccurate Prescott throw Prior to the late unearthing of a pa sing attack, the Dallas defense was masterful, limiting Philadelphia to nine points following three Prescott turnovers. Hope the Rod Marinelli/Kris Richard 11 are otherworldly in the playoffs -- otherwise, the 'Pokes will be one-and-done. Previous rank: The gave the and came up just short. Sometimes you simply have to tip your cap. Baltimore was bested by the most exciting quarterback to enter the league in years rolling to his right and like his arm a rubber band. Wink Martindale's defense kept the viable, and the special teams delivered in the clutch on ' late in the fourth quarter. But then went out and won the game. Don't know about you, but I would love to see these two tee it up again, if you know what I mean. Previous rank: Now was a helluva response. Think about it: The to a team that started -- and which was blasted -- after In order to have a realistic chance at the AFC South, Indy merely had to then take down a outfit that had put up nine straight wins. And the Handily. will receive the usual praise, yet much props go to Matt Eberflus' defensive unit, which imposed its will Sunday at NRG. Indianapolis shut down the running backs, then consistently got off the field on third down to make way for Luck. Notching five sacks sure didn't hurt, either. Indy's next three: Previous rank: The stunk up the joint in Oakland bad enough to but not so bad that they couldn't try to climb back in with a hurried, late push -- much like and Yes, Pittsburgh was without and even for a stretch, but personnel-wise, the should never have been in a position to need a field goal just to be damned. Boswell's shank looked like a corner kick gone haywire -- you could use the same adjective to describe what's going on with Pittsburgh's AFC North hopes. The are lucky the had to play the this weekend. Next up: then Yeesh. Previous rank: The ' slow tumble down the rankings boggles the mind. What's more perplexing is the avoidance of . Why in the world does Minnesota ignore the running game ... in close games ... with an RB1 who accelerates through a crease quicker than Twitter blames after every bad play? Cook looked plenty rapid the few times he received a handoff in his belly on Monday night. The would-be stud tailback carried the football 13 times for a respectable 55 yards in a game that was 3-0 most of the night. So, game script had nothing to do with nothing. This after getting 9, 10, 9, 10, 10, 10 and 16 carries in his previous eight games. Thank goodne s for that Week 1 workload, or else folks might speculate whether there are clauses in his contract about accepting 11 carries or more. Meanwhile, don't get too carried away about the Vikes' playoff prospects ... Previous rank: Kudos to the , who stayed relevant in with a dominant showing Well, at least Tenne see made them look that way. The ' defense made life difficult for , sacking him four times and pre suring him even more than that, while mostly taking away the Jacksonville running game. Also give some love to , who equaled Tony Dorsett's 35-year-old record, Like Dorsett, the feat required Henry to walk (trot) the tightrope down the sideline, with a wicked stiff-arm or three thrown in for good measure. Is it too soon to ask where that was all season? Henry outpaced his per-game average entering Week 14 (39.5 rushing yards) by 198.5 yards. Previous rank: The played their first game sans since a Jan. 1, 2006 win over the , which was the capper to a 4-12 campaign under Mike Sherman. Must've been weird for Cheeseheads watching at home, even those who wanted a regime change. The early results on the move to interim HC Joe Philbin were mostly glowing. Green Bay posted a 34-spot on the scoreboard, marking their highest-scoring effort since October of The Pack moved the ball on the ground, too, racking up 138 yards at a rate of 5.5 per rush, including a couple of sneaky dashes. Third-down defense played a huge role in Philbin's debut, as the couldn't string together enough first downs to stay aloft in Lambeau. Next up: You betcha. Previous rank: "The Miami Miracle" is not nearly a creative enough name to suit No way. No one who watched the on the patented will soon forget it. The Bucs came close in Atlanta earlier this year, but The most fun impo sible play might have come from the , at the end of a 2003 game against the Jags. (Though John Carney sliced the extra-point try, meaning all the hysterics were for naught.) You shan't attribute Miami's feat to mere luck. Heard tell SiriusXM Radio immediately after the game that the rehearse their desperation play every Saturday in practice. They have also rehearsed beating New England late in the year enough times that the outcome is starting to become a foregone conclusion. Next up: in a game with ma sive playoff implications. Previous rank: Well, The ' schedule down the back stretch is as favorable as that of any playoff hopeful, but they are not off to a fast start, having laid an egg at the Big Blue Jean. In the first half, Denver stunk worse than the stadium cheese Niners fans had with their red wine, with a late flurry making the 20-14 lo s seem much closer than it really was. ' absence hamstrung the pa sing attack all afternoon, as couldn't get the ball downfield. Keenum failed to hit in pa sing yards despite chucking it 42 times. Keenum's longest completion of the day: 21 yards, on the final meaningle s play of the game. Next up: Now I'm wondering if they'll actually end up dropping two of these three. Previous rank: To say the late-touchdown-nullifying OPI on was a bad call would be like saying Hugh Douglas and Terrell Owens And it was only compounded by a terrible roughing-the-pa ser call on on the following play, though fans were probably satisfied with that ruling. Man, what a crappy sequence. What all the ticky-tack judgement at the end of obscured was a wonderful football game, another in a long line of exemplary NFC East title bouts between Philadelphia and Dallas. In three of the last four years now, at has gone into overtime. Sunday did not disappoint, even if Doug Pederson's group left town dejected. Say this for his football team: Philly left it all out on that field at JerryWorld. , and played their butts off. As did . What a game. Remember also that the season is far from done. With the , Bucs, and all losing, 8-8 might be enough to earn that sixth seed in the NFC. No, seriously. Previous rank: If you haven't seen it yet, hop on over to the highlights section of NFL.com and watch 's 51-yard bomb to . Ah, what the hey -- You're welcome. That's the same thing general manager John Dorsey can say to all of the fans should be offering right about now. Mayfield brings confidence and sorely-needed swagger to a franchise that hasn't had any since the days of Jim Brown. (Bernie Kosar's 1985 'fro is the closest Cleveland had gotten in the interim.) is a phenomenal player, but other than two (very) short touchdown runs, Gregg Williams' defense shut him down. Walk-CMC. Previous rank: Checked in on in the third quarter and darn near spit up the $112 bottle of whatever-my-holistic-doctor-implored-that-I-take. The only thing more rotten than the stuff in that bottle was finding out Saturday that Jr. a day after was Rather than pack it in, Big Blue dominated the every which way to Sunday. What more can you say about ? The man racked up nearly two bills in scrimmage yards and now has 12 games of over 100 yards from scrimmage. The rookie record? Thirteen, by Eric Dickerson. Previous rank: giveth, and taketh away -- in a big way. The 2018 season hasn't been Slay's greatest. It hasn't been the ' greatest, either. But one of the league's better corners killed it on Sunday. With Detroit nursing a 3-0 lead over the late in the third quarter, Slay read 's route, then beat him to the spot of the pa s. Slay had his paws on the football before Sherfield had even finished his route. Sixty-seven yards later, Believe me, that was a plenty-big lead in this game. Hey, . Get excited. </content:power-ranking> Previous rank: At least the How else to bake a warm plate of cookies out of this five-game losing streak? Once again, the secondary struggled. While the didn't exactly air it out, completed 18 of 22 pa ses and averaged over 10 yards per throw because of two chunk plays to and . Other than a 25-yard scamper, was held in check. That's the story for Carolina: When the defensive backs get beaten for huge plays and/or McCaffrey doesn't go off, bring on the lo ses. Previous rank: *Once upon a time, MarkSanchez got the start in a key game in the NFC East. **The Journeyman,** as he was known to be called, started 0 for 4, then completed his first pa s for 3 yards. After connecting with AdrianPeterson on a monstrous 3-yard heave, his next completion went to the other guys ... and that, kids, is the story of how the G-Men got off to a 40-zilch start while Sanchez waited a full half-quarter before throwing a pick-six.* OK, so maybe that wasn't the most gripping yarn. But if , fresh off not playing any football for three years, might be the greatest f^()&&) football story ever told. Previous rank: The Bucs donned their monochrome magic-marker unis on Sunday, which almost conjured enough tricks to turn the into losers again. Tampa's much-maligned defense impre sively held down a formidable New Orleans offense for three quarters, limiting and friends to 144 total yards in that span. The turning point? which kick-started a tidal wave of 25 unanswered points, all scored in the final third of the contest. The Bucs aren't totally out of the wild-card race yet, though. Not with the , , and all losing. What are the chances Tampa wins OK, so maybe the Bucs are done. Previous rank: Though the AFC East matchup garnered le s attention than games with playoff stakes, the versus the rates as one of the surprises of the week. After e sentially , then coming a non-dive away from , Buffalo botched it. rushed for more than 100 yards for the second straight week, making him the first QB since Tobin Rote in 1951 to accomplish that odd feat. Le s notable was his pa sing day, which included a low completion percentage and two picks. Meanwhile, the run defense, which was mostly stellar all day, stumbled on the game's Still surprised by the ' win, frankly. Previous rank: If the last few weeks are any indication, the might be fortunate to finish 6-10. Hard to believe for a group that nearly won the two years ago and came a football-in-between-Julio-Jones'-hands from defeating the champs in last season's Divisional Round. The injuries are what they are, but Atlanta is playing terrible football right now. The numbers look so-so, but bear in mind that 14 of the ' 20 points and nearly two-thirds of their total yards came in garbage time after they fell behind 34-7. Surely Dan Quinn's outfit can handle the visiting right? Previous rank: The 1970s were back in Oakland on Sunday, at least for an afternoon. It is difficult not to get nostalgic seeing the in their road whites taking on the Silver-and-Black in the same venue that saw three rough playoff games in the disco decade. Dancing was allowed in the stands Sunday, as Oakland delivered . As your friendly writer has stated before, say what you want about Jon Gruden, but the guys in that locker room are competing for their coach. , in particular, deserves a Spider 2Y Banana's worth of credit for his showing: 25 of 34 for 322 yards and two scores. **Historical note:** The last Pittsburgh-Oakland playoff game played at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was the 1976 AFC Championship Game. The knocked off the two-time defending champ , 24-7, en route to winning their first two weeks later. The head coach was John Madden, who I hope watched this 2018 affair somewhere. </content:power-ranking> Previous rank: The gave the their best right hook Sunday -- and came pretty doggone close to at their place. That would have been an upset that literally no one saw coming. The website tracks every analyst in the country's picks -- that includes over 100 people. Not a single prognosticator took Cincy. Yet, there were the frisky , down 23-21 and attempting an onside kick with 1:50 to go. They could've easily closed up shop after the drove the length of the field on the first two po se sions to go up 14-3, but Marvin Lewis' guys stuck with it. Lewis has taken it on the chin this year, but he returned a few body blows Sunday. Previous rank: If tight end doesn't make first-team All-Pro, then not only is the A sociated Pre s' proce s rigged, but aliens never landed at Roswell and Tai Streets was not a sweet football name. Which is to say, Kittle deserves the nod over , and (even if targets Ertz with every other throw). Kittle has ascended into some seriously rarefied air this year. His 210 receiving yards on Sunday counts for the third-highest single-game mark of all time, behind only Shannon Sharpe's 214 and Jackie Smith's 212. In case you are wondering, both of those guys have their likene s sitting in the Robby Fabbri Men Jersey bust room upstairs over in that museum in Canton. Kittle's 1,103 receiving yards are the most by a TE in history, and the NFL record in said category is not exactly unreachable. Gronk holds the mark with 1,327 yards in 2011. We'll see if Kittle gets there. If performs like he did Sunday, Kittle will. Previous rank: The Jags looked ready to go fishing The receivers struggled to consistently come up with big grabs, dropping another handful to go with a catalogue that rivals those "Soft '70s" CD catalogues you can buy at 3 a.m. on the History Channel. The tackling might have been worse, which actually is surprising with this bunch. I'm fully aware football is an emotional game, but and a few guys were celebrating their tackles on that late goal-to-go stand as if it was the AFC Championship Game. Only problem: The score was 30-9, , with half the fourth quarter gone. Previous rank: No one noticed Sunday, but the Gang Green had been cruising on a red-eye toward the top pick in the 2019 -- or, at least, they appeared to be, following six straight lo ses. Enter . And enter major coaching stones from Todd Bowles. The rookie's return to the lineup provided a spark, even if he was far from Namath-ish (or even O'Brien-ish). But Bowles' call to go for it with a minute-and-change left, when a field goal could've tied the game, was rad. How often do you see 3-9 teams like the play it safe when their season is going to nowheresville? As former head coach Herman Edwards lectured all of us ... Nah, I won't say it. Previous rank: A week after the pulled the most Cardinals-esque move ever: against the visiting . How could Arizona play that ugly -- against Detroit, mind you -- in front of the home crowd? Where were the warm vibes from Lambeau? The Cards generated enough heat to score three points. At least they made up for it by committing eight penalties. In an game (not in a good way) so awful the XFL would have disowned it, in the third quarter e sentially decided the outcome. Rosen did complete eight balls to . For 12 yards. Reason No. 6,937 that full-point PPR leagues are dumb. Full- leagues would go over much better, especially when it comes to games like this one. This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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