NFL Power Rankings Week 15: Predictions for Post-Monday Night Football Standings

Another week of NFL action is almost in the books, and we'll be saying goodbye to Week 14 after the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots do battle on Monday night.

Fortunately for football fans, the final game of Week 14 should be a terrific one—and it'll be one with some potentially serious playoff implications. Both the Ravens and the Patriots are battling for the postseason. At 10-2, the Patriots currently hold the No. 1 seed in the AFC, but they cannot clinch a first-round bye or the AFC East title for at least another week.

The Miami Dolphins are still in play for the AFC East crown after moving to 8-5 on Sunday.

The Ravens, meanwhile, are looking to stay atop the AFC North, which will require a win. If Baltimore can get to 8-5 on Monday night, the team will be tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers but own the head-to-head tiebreaker.

All of this playoff drama piles on top of the drama-filled week that was. The New York Giants kept the Dallas Cowboys from clinching the NFC East by handing them their second loss of the season on Sunday night. The aforementioned Dolphins got a win but may have lost quarterback Ryan Tannehill. The Kansas city Chiefs took control of the AFC West on Thursday with a win over the rival Oakland Raiders.

What does all of this mean for the NFL landscape at large? We're going to examine exactly that right here with our early Week 15 power rankings. We'll be ranking all 32 teams based on factors like record, team performance, divisional competition and team health. We will also factor our prediction for Monday night into the equation.

In addition, we'll take an in-depth look at some of the more interesting entries on our list.

NFL Week 15 Power Rankings

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

Notable Rankings

1. Dallas Cowboys

Let's start off by addressing the top team on our list, the Dallas Cowboys. Yes, the Cowboys were handed their second loss of the season on Sunday night, but that isn't reason enough to move them from the top of our power rankings.

For one, it's incredibly impressive that the Cowboys were able to string together 11 wins in between their two losses to New York. This is a young team led by a pair of offensive rookies, and winning has pretty much seemed natural for the majority of the season.

Unless the loss to a division rival somehow sends Dallas into a downward spiral, we're not too concerned with one three-point loss on the road. If anything, the Cowboys can probably take some confidence away from the game thanks to the performance of the team's defense.

While rookie quarterback Dak Prescott struggled for the Cowboy—17-of-37 for 165 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions—the Dallas defense kept the team in the game. The Cowboys held the Giants to just 260 net yards of offense and 10 points. If not for a 61-yard touchdown catch-and-run by Giants wideout Odell Beckham Jr., the Cowboys would have won.

There are going to be times where a rookie like Prescott is going to struggle. Knowing that the defense can still put the team in position to win at those times should give Dallas a lot to build upon heading into the postseason.

The loss should also give the Cowboys motivation heading into the postseason.

"It’s a bad feeling, but I mean it kind of gets you resettled, gets you back right," Prescott explained, per Jarrett Bell of USA Today. "I mean after we lost to these guys the first time, we went on that run, so maybe we can do something similar."

Even assuming the Patriots win on Monday night and equal Dallas' 11-2 record, we're still keeping the Cowboys up top. The Patriots are definitely a strong contender, but the loss of star tight end Rob Gronkowski dampers their chances of going all the way this season.

So long as the Cowboys and Patriots are neck-and-neck in the win-loss column, we're going to give Dallas the edge.

8. Seattle Seahawks

The 8-4-1 Seattle Seahawks have a pretty strong grasp on the NFC West. In fact, they can wrap up the division with a win next Thursday against the Los Angeles Rams.

However, there's a reason why Seattle isn't one of the top teams in our power rankings. To put things bluntly, Seattle has too often been an atrocious team on the road this season. Sunday's embarrassing 38-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers was affirmation of this, but it's certainly not the first sign of an issue.

Seattle mustered just five points against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a couple of weeks ago. The team scored just three points against the Rams in Week 2 and six points against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7.

If the Seahawks cannot find a way to earn a first-round bye and a home playoff game, it could spell disaster. It's definitely difficult to see the team's inconsistent offense—which is rated 28th overall by Pro Football Focus—keeping pace with a team like the Atlanta Falcons or the Detroit Lions on the road.

Heck, given the state of the offensive line—rated 31st in pass blocking and 30th in run blocking by Pro Football Focus—the Seahawks could easily struggle against a team like the Giants in the opening round of the postseason at home.

New York's defensive front created havoc against the Cowboys on Sunday, and the Cowboys have a great line.

It also doesn't help that star safety Earl Thomas has been lost for the season with a broken leg. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was able to pick Seattle's defense apart without Thomas, as his absence appeared to have a trickle-down effect on both coverage and the pass rush.

The Seahawks have been too up and down to consider Super Bowl favorites. Now that the team has been weakened, Seattle might not even be a favorite to win a postseason contest.

17. Houston Texans

Michael Hickey/Getty Images

OK, so the Houston Texans are still leading the AFC South thanks to a critical win on Sunday over the Indianapolis Colts. However, we're not high on this team—to the extent that we didn't even rank the Texans in the top half of our power rankings.

Part of the reason we're down on Houston is the team's presence atop one of the weaker divisions in football. Part of the reason is that there's a strong chance the Tennessee Titans actually step in and steal the division by season's end.

For now, we're ranking the Texans above the Titans because Houston has a head-to-head win over Tennessee. The Titans, though, are playing better football right now, especially on offense.

Tennessee is rated sixth in overall offense by Pro Football Focus. The Texans are rated just 27th. The Titans also appear to have a much better quarterback in Marcus Mariota.

Even though the Texans managed to win on Sunday, the victory wasn't thanks to quarterback Brock Osweiler—who is looking more and more like a legitimate free-agent bust. Osweiler finished Sunday's game 14-of-24 for 147 yards with an interception.

For the season, Osweiler has completed less than 60 percent of his passes, has fewer than 2,700 yards passing and has 15 turnovers to go with 14 passing touchdowns. As a team, the Texans average just 17.6 points per game.

Does anyone really believe Osweiler and the Texans offense are going to be able to match up with the Steelers or the Oakland Raiders in the postseason? This is assuming the Titans don't keep the Texans out of the playoffs entirely.

A lot is going to hinge on Tennessee's Week 15 matchup with the dangerous Kansas City Chiefs. If the Titans can somehow knock off Kansas City and then beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, they'll be able to take the division with a win against Houston in the season finale.

Even if the Titans lose, they'll still have an opportunity to make Week 17 an AFC South title game. The Texans will have to fend off the Jacksonville and the Cincinnati Bengals to get to that point.