NFL Power Rankings Week 6: Predicting Post-Monday Night Football Standings

If you came into Week 5 expecting landscape-altering finishes that would wildly change the way you viewed the 2015 season, well, sorry. That wasn't happening.

That said, if you were looking for a bevy of contests that came down to the last minute, Week 5 had everything you could possibly want. Nine of the 13 games played heading into Monday night were decided by one possession. Now, not all of these were good games. Anyone who sat all the way through Denver-Oakland or Buffalo-Tennessee without bursting into tears should receive a bouquet of flowers.

But...the games were close! And that's, like, at least better than bad games that are blowouts! (I think.)

As for any of those contests changing the league's hierarchy? Nope. Didn't happen. We're sitting here with a near-identical landscape with a very clear group of teams at the top of standings, another group at the bottom and then an overwhelming group of seemingly mediocre teams in the middle.

With that in mind, let's take a quick look at the Week 6 power rankings and assess some of the more notable teams from the weekend's action.

Rank	Team	Record
1	New England Patriots	4-0
2	Green Bay Packers	5-0
3	Cincinnati Bengals	5-0
4	Arizona Cardinals	4-1
5	Denver Broncos	5-0
6	Atlanta Falcons	5-0
7	Carolina Panthers	4-0
8	Seattle Seahawks	2-3
9	New York Giants	3-2
10	Buffalo Bills	3-2
11	Pittsburgh Steelers	2-2
12	New York Jets	3-1
13	Indianapolis Colts	3-2
14	St. Louis Rams	2-3
15	Philadelphia Eagles	2-3
16	Minnesota Vikings	2-2
17	San Diego Chargers	2-2
18	Cleveland Browns	2-3
19	Baltimore Ravens	1-4
20	Oakland Raiders	2-3
21	Dallas Cowboys	2-3
22	Chicago Bears	2-3
23	Washington	2-3
24	Miami Dolphins	1-3
25	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	2-3
26	Houston Texans	1-4
27	Kansas City Chiefs	1-4
28	Tennessee Titans	1-3
29	New Orleans Saints	1-4
30	Jacksonville Jaguars	1-4
31	San Francisco 49ers	1-4
32	Detroit Lions	0-5

Teams of Note

Rising: Buffalo Bills (3-2)

Weston Kenney/Associated Press

A week after looking like one of the worst teams in football, the Bills came back from a 10-point deficit in the second half to earn a 14-13 win over the Titans.

It was far from a pretty victory. Buffalo was held scoreless in the first half, got nothing from the running back position with LeSean McCoy and Karlos Williams out and was playing the Titans. This wasn't a victory Rex Ryan will be putting on the wall in his office.

It was, however, the exact type of game the Bills need to win to make a playoff run. Without their top two running backs and lead receiver Sammy Watkins, they got just enough from their offense and a strong defensive outing to beat one of the NFL's worst teams. Tyrod Taylor single-handedly did the damage on offense, throwing for 109 yards and adding 76 on the ground while accounting for both Buffalo touchdowns.

"Quarterback has the biggest heart," Ryan said of Taylor, who was banged up early in the game but stayed in, per Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. "Man, it was tough sledding, but he had guts. He has heart and wasn't playing great, but at the end of the day, he is the reason we won the game."

The Bills host Cincinnati next week, which will likely be a loss with McCoy and Williams still on the mend. Being 3-3 is far from ideal, but without Taylor's heroics, they were probably looking at being 2-4 before their trip to London on Oct. 25.

Falling: Denver Broncos (5-0)

Let's start off by stating the obvious: Being undefeated through five weeks is an enviable position. Eighty percent of the league would trade positions with Denver in a heartbeat. The AFC West is all but locked up a quarter of the way through the season. They're one of three teams you have to throw into the AFC championship picture.

Does anyone feel good about that? Absolutely not. Five games into the 2015 season, it's safe to say the Peyton Manning of old isn't coming back. The old Peyton Manning, however, appears here to stay. Manning has thrown for 1,234 yards and six touchdowns against seven interceptions this season. The only other quarterback to have thrown more picks is Matthew Stafford, who was benched for Dan Orlovsky this week.

Things...aren't great.

And as Manning told Allie Raymond of the the team's official website:

"

We want to play better offensively, we want to do our job and somehow, someway, it's about helping the Denver Broncos get a win. But there's no question, offensively, we certainly want to play better. We're going to stay committed to it, and everybody wants to try to do a better job and that certainly starts with me. I want to do a better job and do a better job playing quarterback to help our team get into the end zone more.

"

The Broncos have been held under 25 points in four of their five games so far and rank 17th in points per game. Problems abound beyond Manning, particularly on the offensive line and at running back. But Manning has made a career of making the most out of very little. He's been the most adept quarterback in football at getting the ball out of his hands early almost since his NFL arrival, and it's not as if the likes of Joseph Addai and Donald Brown are heading to the Hall of Fame.

Denver will go as far as Manning takes them in January. Despite having one of the best defenses of his career, it doesn't appear Manning's arm has enough left to take them very far.

No One's Quite Sure: Seattle Seahawks (2-3)

Gary Landers/Associated Press

Is this a string of bad luck, an early-season malaise or a sign of real trouble? No one can really tell in Seattle. The Seahawks are off to a 2-3 start, dropping each of their first three contests on the road—two of which came in frustrating fashion.

There was the inexplicable Week 1 loss in St. Louis, which saw the once-formidable Seahawks defense allow Nick Foles to lead an 84-yard, game-tying drive to set up overtime. Then there was Sunday's debacle in Cincinnati.

For three quarters, all the expected narratives played out. The Seahawks picked off Andy Dalton and rendered the Bengals offense fangless; they got a massive contribution from backup running back Thomas Rawls, who did quite the Marshawn Lynch impression in Beast Mode's absence; they even scored a defensive touchdown.

In 15 minutes, however, that all came crashing down. Dalton resumed his 2015 superstar ascent, accounting for two touchdowns and leading a last-minute field-goal drive to force overtime. The Bengals then followed the St. Louis blueprint, holding Seattle's offense at bay before setting up a game-winning field goal to move to 5-0.

“Look, we’re not anywhere like we are dead and gone," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said, per Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “We don’t feel like that at all. We’ve just got some things we have to get fixed up, and I think we can. These guys are forthright, and they are strong individuals, and they will hang together, and they will work to get it done. The baffling part is that we played so well for three quarters."

What makes Carroll's choice of the word "baffling" so apt is that there is no obvious fix here. Russell Wilson hasn't lit the world on fire with his performance, but he's also not playing poorly. He's actually setting a career high in completion percentage, is on pace for his highest yardage total and is roughly on par with his 20-touchdown total from 2014.

Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

While his rushing numbers are down from last season, they're right in line from his first two campaigns. What we're seeing here is a regular old regression to the mean.

With Rawls performing fine as Lynch's replacement, the problems are obviously more on the defensive side, but the team lacks a glaring weakness. Everything about the Seahawks performance this season has been just fine. Football Outsiders ranked their pass defense and rush defense 15th coming into the week. They've been eerily mediocre in nearly every aspect of the game.

Given the talent on this roster, that's unacceptable. We just need to see them play for a few more weeks to figure out whether this is a phase or a sign of things to come.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.