NFL Power Rankings Week 11: Updated Standings After 'Thursday Night Football'

With their Thursday night victory over the Tennessee Titans, the Jacksonville Jaguars remain viable contenders to win the AFC South. That sentence explains all there is to know about the 2015 NFL season.  

The entire league is a mess. When assembling power rankings for any of the major four sports, it usually takes until the teens to look at a mediocre team placed highly among other mediocre teams. In Week 11, the process begins before escaping the top five.

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

4-5 And Still Alive

In a league loaded with subpar squads, a mere 11 organizations hold winning records. Thirteen teams, meanwhile, have exactly four victories, with 11 entrenched at 4-5.

Despite their losing records, they're all in decent shape. The AFC clubs trail a playoff occupant by at most one game, and the NFC hopefuls face no more than a two-win deficit. Someone among the ruckus is bound to get hot and escape the fray.

Do these C-students have what it takes to ace the final stretch?

Houston Texans

Gary Landers/Associated Press

Rewind to Oct. 25. Trailing the Miami Dolphins 41-0 at halftime before falling to 2-5 and losing star running back Arian Foster for the season, the Houston Texans were a reasonable choice for worst team in the NFL.

Fast-forward to present day. They're 4-5 and tied with the Indianapolis Colts atop the AFC South.

The offense has fluttered without Foster, gaining 526 total yards and 30 points through two games. Yet the defense allowed six points, all field goals, in each of the team's two victories. John McClain of the Houston Chronicle examined the Texans' stinginess since their catastrophic first half versus the Dolphins:

Just like that, they are neck and neck with the Colts. Both carry minus-27-point differentials, and both must deal with injuries under center. While not as steep a blow as Indianapolis losing Andrew Luck, Houston will encounter the New York Jets without starter Brian Hoyer, per McClain:

Following their stunning upset over the previously unbeaten Cincinnati Bengals, the Texans can't afford a letdown. Three of their next four games come against the AFC East, and all of them are better than the last-place Dolphins who creamed them.

Then again, they simply need to stay alive until late December, when they'll end the season with three division games. If a suddenly resurgent No. 12 defense can conquer the tepid AFC South, they'll prove a feeble playoff participant, but one boasting DeAndre Hopkins, J.J. Watt and home-field advantage in the opening round.

Washington Redskins 

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Let's start with an important disclaimer: The New Orleans Saints defense barely qualifies as an actual NFL unit. Kudos to Kirk Cousins and Co. for demolishing them in a 47-14 rout, but torching the league's worst group doesn't make the Washington Redskins title contenders. The Titans did it too.

Albeit a one-time anomaly which doesn't warrant a long-term extension, Cousins' 324 yards and four touchdowns at least shows he can exploit a vulnerable opponent and hold his own as a starting quarterback. Yet the real positive sign from last weekend was the team's 209 total rushing yards.

Player	Rush	Rush YD	YPC
Alfred Morris	15	92	6.1
Matt Jones	11	56	5.1
Chris Thompson	2	54	27.0
Darrel Young	3	7	2.3

The club kept slipping down the leaderboard before Week 10, but the outing bumped Washington up to No. 18 in rushing offense. Alfred Morris, the team's workhorse from 2012-14, compiled 51 combined rushing yards through his previous four games. Rookie Matt Jones had averaged 2.6 yards per carry since Week 2's breakout performance.

“We really made it a point of emphasis today to get it going in the ground game; coaches challenged us, challenged the whole team,” Morris told the Washington Post's Liz Clarke after the win. “Our position coach challenged us to get it going on the ground, to get back to what we were.”

Making the team's week even better, the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys all lost. Washington is suddenly tied with the Eagles and a half-game behind the first-place Giants, who get a Week 11 bye after giving the New England Patriots their toughest challenge all season. A year removed from a 4-12 campaign, Washington is suddenly a viable option to win the NFC East. 

In order to show the G-Men up and take down the league's only other undefeated team, the Carolina Panthers, Washington must harness another huge Sunday from Morris and Jones. Cousins won't pick apart a passing defense allowing 6.0 yards per pass attempt, but Carolina has relinquished 4.1 yards per carry.

Even if Washington can't pull off a road upset, it will play four of its remaining six games within the NFC East. Unfortunately for the unlikely playoff hopeful, neither matchup against the Dallas Cowboys occurred during Tony Romo's seven-game absence.

St. Louis Rams

Tom Gannam/Associated Press

We should all know better by now. These are the St. Louis Rams. They may knock down superior NFC West adversaries, but an abysmal passing game prevents them from sustaining any consistent success.

No matter whom the head coach trots out under center, he's a colossal bust in an archaic scheme. During Nick Foles' unsuccessful nine-game reign, St. Louis ranked last in pass attempts, completions, passing yards and yards per attempt. 

The revolving door will spin one more time, as Fisher announced a quarterback change earlier this week, per the team's official Twitter account:

Under Fisher's watch, the Rams haven't registered a top-20 offensive team in terms of yards or points scored. They have also yet to register a winning record, and all three trends are holding during his fourth season. Even with a stud rusher in Todd Gurley, an offense routinely running three plays (Gurley run up the gut, Gurley play-fake, end-around to Tavon Austin) doesn't cut it.

The bad news? The Rams still must face the Bengals, Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks (on the road) this season. The other games, however, are against the Baltimore Ravens (this weekend), Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers.

In order to stay alive, they need to beat Baltimore before facing Cincinnati and Arizona in back-to-back weeks. With an abysmal passing offense and defense allowing an opposing 70.0 completion percentage, the Rams or poised for another seven or eight-win season.