NFL Power Rankings Week 11: Winning Teams That Aren't Fooling Anyone

The NFL is weird this year. By my count, there are only about seven contenders that seem to be legitimately good, meaning that they stand a good chance of winning every game that they play.

As for the other contenders, well, I guess they are best summed up by the word "meh." Some of them just aren't that good, no matter what their records may say.

This is particularly true of the teams that are just barely over the .500 mark. Some of them are halfway decent, but I don't think anybody should be fooled by the four teams listed below.

Tennessee Titans (No. 17)

Given the circumstances at play in Nashville, that the Titans are 5-4 and still in the thick of the AFC South race is actually pretty impressive. They deserve a tip of your cap, if you have one.

But don't mistake the Titans for a good team. They were pretty good early in the season, but since then they have fallen back to the pack. At best, they are mediocre and are only capable of beating teams that are more mediocre than they are.

Case in point, take a look at Tennessee's last two wins. One was against the Indianapolis Colts, and the other was against the Carolina Panthers. Those teams have two wins between them.

Outside of those two teams, the Titans have faced three winning teams since Week 5, and they have lost to all three. 

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Buffalo Bills (No. 16)

As soon as the Bills started hot this season, my guess is that all of us wanted them to go on and make the playoffs.

Right now, it's looking like that won't happen. The Bills have lost three games out of four, and they seem to have lost the offensive punch that they exhibited in the early portion of the season. They have also been beaten by clearly better teams, with their lone win coming against the Washington Redskins and their disastrous offense.

Can the Bills still turn it around? Possibly. The defense would have to start overachieving and Ryan Fitzpatrick would have to rediscover his lost efficiency.

It could happen, but I'd just as soon bet on the Bills being the Bills.

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New York Jets (No. 14)

For a variety of reasons, people love to rip on the Jets. As such, you're probably not surprised to see the Jets listed here.

The Jets are a team that is perennially overrated, but this year they seem more overrated than ever. They're virtually incapable of doing anything offensively, and their defense has been more porous than usual.

Moreover, none of the Jets' wins are particularly impressive. The Dallas win in Week 1 was a gift from Tony Romo, and the other four came against bad teams in the Jaguars, Dolphins, Chargers and Bills.

The one thing I will concede is that the Jets will probably be good enough to earn a wild-card berth. But given what we've seen, I'd be very surprised to see them advance to the conference championship game for a third straight season.

They certainly won't advance beyond it, anyway.

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Oakland Raiders (No. 13)

Boy, am I going to hear it for this one.

The funny part is that the Raiders are actually my team. I want to like them, and I do.

But I don't have much faith in them. This is primarily because they are an awful defensive team, and likely won't be getting any better down the stretch. They can definitely run the football well, but their quarterback situation worries me.

Which, of course, implies that I'm not ready to buy Carson Palmer quite yet. You'll have to excuse me, but one good performance against a crappy Chargers team does not equal a trend.

For what it's worth, the Raiders are winning the AFC West this year. Their competition seems to have disappeared.

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Zachary D. Rymer's Week 11 Power Rankings

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