NFL Power Rankings Week 5: Post-Thursday Night Football Standings, Review

The NFL's Week 5 Thursday Night Football encounter had plenty riding on it, just for unexpected reasons. 

Going into the showdown, those in charge of making the schedule likely presumed the New England Patriots would be on a roll and so would the Indianapolis Colts, provided Andrew Luck was back in the fold. 

Instead, the Patriots entered at 2-2 and the Colts 1-3. 

Coming out of the prime-time affair, the Patriots got back on track with a 38-24 win behind three touchdowns and a pair of interceptions from Tom Brady, which happened to be the same line posted by Colts quarterback Andrew Luck. His Colts, however, head south to 1-4 and like everyone else will watch to see just how far the Patriots can climb from here. 

Here's how it shakes up the power rankings.  

2018 NFL Power Rankings

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

Minnesota Vikings

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

The Minnesota Vikings are flirting with danger. 

Minnesota looked like a team ready to compete for the NFC North this year, not to mention by this point of the season. The front office swapped out one-hit-wonder Case Keenum for the steady hand of Kirk Cousins, and there didn't seem to be much of a chance a Mike Zimmer-orchestrated defense would collapse. 

But it's never so simple. 

These Vikings are 1-2-1 with no real consistency to speak of. They beat a bad San Francisco team, tied Green Bay and then got walloped by the miserable Buffalo Bills, 27-6. There, Zimmer's highly regarded unit let rookie Josh Allen coast his way to 196 yards and a score while the Buffalo ground game pounded its way to 128 yards and two scores, both of those going to Allen. 

Then, the Vikings went out and coughed up five passing scores to Los Angeles Rams' Jared Goff in a 38-31 loss. 

"We did not play well defensively," Zimmer said after the Rams loss, according to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com). "Offensively we moved the ball well, but we had too many missed tackles, and too many people were left wide open. I've not ever had a team that's been this poor in pass coverage. We are going to have to look at everything."

Indeed, things don't exactly get easier for the Vikings, not with dates against Philadelphia, New Orleans and Detroit on the schedule before a Week 10 bye. Then the schedule features Green Bay, New England and Seattle, to name a few. 

Cousins is playing safe football with 10 touchdowns and two interceptions, but the Vikings have had to attempt 189 passes to just 73 rushes while the defense flounders, and time is running out for Zimmer to correct the mistakes. 

Jacksonville Jaguars

Stephen B. Morton/Associated Press

The Jacksonville Jaguars still have plenty to prove. 

Jacksonville is 3-1, but looks can be deceiving. The Blake Bortles-led squad has wins over a 1-3 New York Giants team, an early-season-underperforming New England team and a 1-3 New York Jets team. 

The best team the Jaguars played, the 3-1 Tennessee Titans, beat them in a 9-6 stinker. 

That loss to the Titans showed Jacksonville's limitations, mostly on offense. The play calling didn't make much sense, rushing it only 19 times on a 4.6 per-carry average but floating up 34 passes with Bortles, who completed 21 of them for 155 yards—written another way, he averaged 4.6 yards. 

In other words, the Jaguars are going to have hosts of problems against quality opponents, starting in Week 5 against the Kansas City Chiefs without star running back Leonard Fournette: 

It doesn't get any easier from there. 

Jacksonville then has to contend with Dallas, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington and division foes, making for a tougher-than-it-looks road for a team that got away with shocking the world last year. 

The Jaguars won't be able to do the same again without help from the offense, which could mean a sharp drop in the rankings is possible if Bortles can't hold up against better teams.  

Cincinnati Bengals 

John Bazemore/Associated Press

It might be time to stop sleeping on the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Those Bengals are in control of the AFC North rather handily after starting the year 3-1, including wins over Baltimore and Atlanta. 

The lone loss is the real talking point, though. Away from home, the Bengals went down 31-21 at the hands of the Carolina Panthers, permitting Christian McCaffrey 184 yards on the ground and Cam Newton two rushing scores.

The catch? Cincinnati was down starting linebackers Preston Brown and Vontaze Burfict while the offense missed starting running back Joe Mixon and wide receiver A.J. Green missed the majority of the second half with an injury. 

Winning games the Bengals usually don't (like the prime-time game against Baltimore), the 2018 version of the team feels different and is starting to return to full strength with Burfict coming off the suspended list and other notes:

Granted, the Bengals still have to navigate the AFC North and line up against teams like Kansas City and New Orleans. 

But for now? The high ranking isn't a fluke by any measure. At some point, old tropes about teams have to go out the window. Another AFC North team is showing this with the way Cleveland is finally starting to look competitive again. 

The Bengals are doing it by finally playing up to the immense talent the roster contains.