NFL Power Rankings: 3 Hot Teams That Are Bound to Cool off

The Kansas City Chiefs won their fourth game in a row on Monday night. It wasn't pretty, but they won. Because they did, they are now tied for the AFC West lead.

Not too shabby considering how terrible the Chiefs looked at the start of the season. That just goes to show what getting hot can do for you.

Sadly, what goes up must come down, and what gets hot must cool off. These are the laws of physics and of the NFL, and they never fail.

When you take a look around the NFL, there are a couple of teams that are pretty hot coming out of Week 8. My guess is that all of them are going to cool off, but I know with some certainty that three of them are bound to cool off sooner or later.

For your reading pleasure, those three teams are listed below.

Kansas City Chiefs (No. 14 overall)

After a lead-in like that, the Chiefs pretty much have to be on this list, you dig?

Truth be told, you can't help but admire the Chiefs right now. They looked dead in the water after they lost to the Chargers in Week 3, and here they are sitting on a four-game winning streak that has launched them into the playoff picture. Bravo.

But I don't buy it. I hate to do the old shoulda-woulda-coulda routine, but the Chiefs lose on Monday night if Philip Rivers handles that snap late in the fourth quarter. Even after they managed to pull it off, I'm still not all that convinced that the Chiefs are that much better than the Chargers (though, admittedly, my power rankings tell a different story).

The reason I'm down on the Chiefs is because I feel like they're overachieving again. They've gotten their four consecutive wins against two dreadful teams in the Minnesota Vikings and Indianapolis Colts, a team without a quarterback (at the time) in the Oakland Raiders, and a team in the Chargers that looked like it had no awareness whatsoever that it was playing on Monday Night Football.

Put the Chiefs up against a worthy opponent, and they'll lose. It just so happens that every team they're going to play from Week 11 to Week 16 qualifies as "worthy."

That is where the Chiefs will get their reality check.

Cincinnati Bengals (No. 12 overall)

We go from one team with four consecutive wins to another with four consecutive wins. The Bengals haven't lost since Week 3, and are making a surprise run at the AFC North title.

Their win against the Buffalo Bills notwithstanding, the Bengals have beat up on some pretty weak teams during their four-game win streak. I guess you have to tip your hat to them for not slipping up.

But as I've said many times in recent weeks, we're going to see just how good the Bengals are when they finally play the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. Those two traditionally control the fate of the AFC North, and both are strong this year. They could very well put the Bengals in their place.

It's going to happen. I don't see a huge collapse in Cincinnati's future, but even a couple losses could be the difference between a wild card berth and a ticket home at the end of the season.

Because I love underdogs, I'm hoping for the first, but planning for the second.

San Francisco 49ers (No. 2 overall)

As you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of the 49ers. They're 6-1 overall and winners of five games in a row. The first couple of wins weren't very pretty, but the last three have been more than convincing.

At this point, the 49ers look like the kind of team that could win as many as 13 games. No matter what happens, they're definitely going to the playoffs.

Nevertheless, I can't escape the feeling that the 49ers are due to hit a rough patch before the season ends. As much as I like them, I have doubts about their style.

In case you're not familiar with the 49ers, their formula for winning football games is simple. They play very good defense, hand the ball off to Frank Gore and then hope Alex Smith doesn't make any mistakes. As evidenced by their winning streak, it's working pretty well.

However, this is a formula that could break down very easily. If the defense has a bad day, the 49ers are not going to have enough offense to compensate. If Gore has a bad day, Smith is more prone to making mistakes. And so on.

The 49ers will be no worse for wear by the end of the season, but you can rest assured that they're going to go through some growing pains.

Zachary D. Rymer's Week 9 Power Rankings

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