NFL Power Rankings Week 6: Updated 2015 Analysis Before Thursday Night Football

Although the best in the NFL continue to showcase their ability, the rest of the league has seriously struggled to keep up in the standings.

Week 5 featured five undefeated teams keeping their perfect records intact, excluding the Carolina Panthers on bye. However, only six other squads even have a winning record, with many others continually failing to live up to expectations. You can only trust talent for so long without seeing some results.

While teams like the Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams lost to quality opponents and still have plenty of hope going forward, others saw a major drop in the power rankings after depressing losses. Here is a look at a breakdown of the league along with the biggest fallers heading into Week 6.

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

Biggest Fallers

Kansas City Chiefs

Ed Zurga/Associated Press

A season that once had promise completely fell apart Sunday. Not only did the Kansas City Chiefs blow a 17-3 lead to the Chicago Bears, but they also lost Jamaal Charles for the season because of a torn ACL.

ESPN Stats & Info noted just how important Charles has been to this offense in recent years:

"

Highest percentage of team's yards from scrimmage, since start of 2012 (entering Week 5) Matt Forte: 31.2 Jamaal Charles: 30.9

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 11, 2015"

This season, the Pro Bowl running back had 541 yards from scrimmage with five of the team's 10 offensive touchdowns. Charcandrick West and Knile Davis will replace his touches, but no one can replace his impact on the field.

Obviously, the healthy players aren't simply going to give up despite a 1-4 start.

"There are two choices," starting quarterback Alex Smith said, per BJ Kissel of KCChiefs.com. "You can let this get to you. You can get sidetracked, you can get distracted and you can make excuses. Or we all can look internally, stay together and fight."

This is an encouraging mindset, but a betting man would pick the former. Kansas City shut down offensively without Charles in Week 5, and Smith isn't enough of a downfield passer to overcome the loss in future games.

After four straight losses, it seems like the Chiefs are a lost cause this season.

Baltimore Ravens

Nick Wass/Associated Press

Even after an 0-3 start, the Baltimore Ravens had a chance to turn things around. They defeated the rival Pittsburgh Steelers and had a relatively easy upcoming schedule to keep adding to the win column.

This positive momentum halted abruptly with a 33-30 home loss to the Cleveland Browns last Sunday. The defense allowed 33 points plus 457 passing yards from Josh McCown—not exactly a banner day for the unit. 

Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun did note some injuries helped contribute to the poor defensive play:

With Terrell Suggs also out, this is a lot of bodies to replace. Then again, Chris Burke of Sports Illustrated argued the group was simply outcoached:

Regardless of the cause, it is tough to have any confidence in the defense to make a stop at any point in the near future. With the offense also struggling without healthy receivers, it will be hard to turn things around.

It's difficult to ever count the Ravens out of it, but time is running out for them to make a move.

Detroit Lions 

Leon Halip/Getty Images

While the Detroit Lions are the only winless team remaining in the NFL, a difficult early schedule is a lot to blame for the poor start. That said, they sure did look awful on Sunday.

Detroit gave up 28 points in the second quarter as part of an embarrassing 42-17 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals that saw quarterback Matthew Stafford benched for Dan Orlovsky. Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reported the circumstances of the quarterback change:

After throwing three interceptions in the loss, Stafford has a new plan, per Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com:

The problem is this remains a pass-heavy offense with no run game in sight. This would be fine if Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady was at the helm, but Stafford has been the worst quarterback in the NFL this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Through five weeks, he is rated last among 38 passers…and by a significant margin.

Meanwhile, the defense, which had been a bright spot in losses to the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, was torched by Carson Palmer and company in Week 5. The schedule gets easier, but there is little reason for optimism going forward based on what we have seen to this point.

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