NFL Power Rankings Week 11: Playoff Contenders Falling Rapidly

This is the time of the season when the contenders start distancing themselves from the pretenders, or vice versa.

Headed into Week 11 of the NFL season, there are a few teams on the outside looking in on playoff spots and they better start turning things around in a hurry if they intend on having a successful year.

For fans of these three teams, they've become habitual nail-biters.

3. New York Jets (5-4)

If the playoffs were to start today, the Jets would be done for.

The Jets are game behind the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals in the wild-card picture and just got embarrassed by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Week 10, 37-16.

Head coach Rex Ryan keeps telling us the Jets are Super Bowl-bound and they keep disappointing, being "led" to doom by quarterback Mark Sanchez.

The Jets beat two bad teams in the Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins, two inconsistent teams in the Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers and a Buffalo Bills team that just got blown out by the Cowboys, 44-7.

Against top teams like the Ravens and Patriots, the Jets prove they aren't a top team.

2. Buffalo Bills (5-4)

The Bills defense continues to let the team down.

If it wasn't for the Bills' shutout of John Beck and the Washington Redskins, they'd be allowing 27.2 points per game this season.

On top of that, new franchise quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who just signed an extension, has thrown five interceptions in his last two games.

The Bills are falling just as fast as they were rising in the beginning of the season.

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-5)

Are the Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs connected at the hip or something?

After both squads exploded out of the doldrums last season, they both have 4-5 records this season.

Not only has the defense been bad, giving up 25.9 points per game, "up-and-coming" quarterback Josh Freeman has struggled after a breakthrough campaign in 2010, throwing nine touchdowns to 13 interceptions.

Against the Texans in Week 10, the Buccaneers got battered, 37-9, while Freeman was sacked four times and threw three interceptions.

The Bucs and Chiefs are finding out first hand never to take success for granted.