NFL Power Rankings: 4 Teams Falling the Fastest

Power rankings are a fickle beast. I have general guidelines I like to follow when putting them together every week, but none of these rules are hard and fast.

Generally, a loss means a team will fall, but not always. The same goes for wins—maybe a win makes a team rise, but depending on the opponent, point margin or how the team really performed overall, it might not jump a spot.

However, sometimes a team so convincingly stumbles that it doesn't just fall in the rankings because of a loss—it plummets.

Here are four teams that have dropped more than a single spot between Weeks 12 and 13, followed by my complete NFL power rankings for Week 13.

No. 24: San Diego Chargers (Last Week: 21)

What on Earth has happened to the San Diego Chargers?

Yet again many experts' Super Bowl pick at the start of the season, the Chargers now sit at 4-7 after dropping their sixth straight game, against the Denver Broncos in Week 12.

In four of their six losses, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers has had a completion percentage below 60 percent, as he continues to force passes, throw interceptions and take big hits. He has more interceptions than touchdowns at this point, throwing 16 scores and 17 picks.

The Broncos aren't that intimidating a team on offense, but that once-strong San Diego defense couldn't contain Tim Tebow. And it was made painfully clear in that game that Chargers head coach Norv Turner no longer trusts his team to perform as well as it should.

San Diego needs to make a lot of changes in the offseason, and the first step will be to relieve Turner of his coaching duties. But that's only one solution to just one problem.

San Diego has gone from being one of the NFL's best teams to being very near the basement of the rankings in a very short time, but it's going to take longer than that to turn things around.

No. 12: Chicago Bears (Last Week: 8)

With quarterback Jay Cutler under center for the Chicago Bears, it finally looked like the team had come into its own.

Starting the season much as they did last year with Cutler constantly under pressure and plays not developing fast enough, the Bears were able to make the necessary changes that allowed the team to maximize its strengths, leading to wins.

However, now that backup QB Caleb Hanie is starting at quarterback while Cutler heals from thumb surgery, the team needs to take a different approach on offense. That needs to start with limiting how many times Hanie attempts passes.

Hanie threw 35 times in the team's Week 12 loss to the Oakland Raiders, completing just 18 of them for 254 yards, two scores and three interceptions.

The interceptions clearly cost Chicago the game, and if they want to make the playoffs, they need to keep winning. To keep winning, they must stop passing the ball so much lest Hanie turn it over.

The poor offensive strategy combined with the defense's inability to stop the Raiders from scoring points (albeit via the leg of kicker Sebastian Janikowski rather than allowing touchdowns) has the Bears dropping four spots to No. 12 in my Week 13 rankings.

No. 7: Houston Texans (Last Week: 3)

Heading into Week 12, I chose to keep the Houston Texans at their No. 3 ranking from the previous week, simply because they were on the bye.

I also didn't want to penalize the team for having to put starting quarterback Matt Schaub on injury reserve and moving on with backup Matt Leinart before seeing Leinart play.

Leinart, as it turned out, played fairly well, completing 10-for-13 passes for 57 yards and a touchdown, before leaving the game with a broken collarbone that likely has ended his season.

The Texans must now turn to their former third-string quarterback, T.J. Yates, for the rest of the year (and perhaps the postseason) and that means the Texans need a new game plan fast.

Though the Texans won in Week 12 over the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars and their injury-plagued defense (and lowest-producing offense), Yates didn't perform all that poorly, going 8-for-15 for 70 yards, These successive major changes to the team doesn't serve to make it stronger.

In fact, it may just serve to make the team so one-dimensional that they might not be so hard to beat as the season winds down. The Texans aren't in trouble yet, to be sure, but trouble does loom large.

If they can meet their new challenges, Houston will return to the top five of my power rankings in coming weeks.

No. 16: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Last Week: 14)

Up one week and down the next, the 4-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had what can only be described as a disappointing season after narrowly missing the playoffs in 2010.

In Week 12, they lost to the Tennessee Titans after looking like they had the win wrapped up, as inconsistencies and weak play by quarterback Josh Freeman reared their ugly heads yet again. It doesn't help that Tampa Bay went into the contest fielding the 30th-ranked defense in the league either.

The Buccaneers rose as high as 14th last week on the strength of their Week 11 loss to the Green Bay Packers that saw the squad come close to winning a number of times with Freeman, running back LeGarrette Blount and tight end Kellen Winslow all out-gaining their Packers counterparts.

But now, Tampa Bay has lost five straight games. While the team is better than its record suggests (and is why I still have them in the very middle of the rankings), it's just not winning games. With Freeman playing like he did in his 2009 rookie season, it looks like his stellar 2010 was the fluke.

Full 32-Team NFL Power Rankings for Week 13

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

*Subject to change pending outcome of Monday night's Saints-Giants contest