NFL Power Rankings: Teams Lucky to Still Be in Playoff Race

When it comes to the NFL playoff race, there are teams that are in pretty good shape, there are teams that are well out of it and there are teams that are just lucky to be there.

To say that a team is lucky to be in the postseason hunt is not an insult, mind you. In fact, it implies that a team has done something right in order to still be in postseason contention.

So you see, saying a team is lucky is much closer to being a compliment.

With that in mind, I aim to dish out a few compliments. Here are four teams that I think are truly lucky to still be in the postseason chase.

Oakland Raiders (No. 16)

A couple weeks ago, the Raiders had the AFC West in their clutches and appeared to be a lock for the postseason.

Thanks in large part to key injuries, the Silver and Black has fallen back to the pack in a big way, losing two straight games in embarrassing fashion. They suddenly look like a shell of the team that was dominating the AFC West for a while there.

At the moment, the Raiders are looking up at Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos in the division, and there are a couple of teams ahead of them in the AFC wild card pecking order.

But given what has transpired this season, the Raiders are lucky they're not worse off. They've been killed by injuries this season, but it's worth noting that they didn't let Jason Campbell's season-ending injury kill them. Carson Palmer has been pretty bad of late, but the Raiders did manage to win three games with him at the helm. If they didn't make that deal, they would have been out of the race weeks ago.

To be sure, the Raiders need to make the playoffs to justify the trade. But right now, at least that's a possibility.

Detroit Lions (No. 15)

With the Chicago Bears falling off the pace and the Dallas Cowboys focused on recapturing the NFC East, the Lions seem to be home free in the NFC wild card hunt.

That's pretty remarkable when you consider how poorly the Lions have played in the last five weeks. They've lost three of their last five games and could have easily lost the other two games to the Carolina Panthers and Minnesota Vikings.

This is particularly true of the Vikings game, which ended on a play that included an uncalled facemask penalty on quarterback Joe Webb. Had the Vikings gotten the call, they could have pulled out a last-second win.

The Lions got a little luck there, and they needed it. That's because they're simply not a great football team. They're not a bottom feeder, mind you, but that they're not much better than the Carolinas and Minnesotas of the league should tell you something.

The Lions could prove me wrong by finishing strong, but that's not going to be easy with games at Oakland, vs. San Diego and at Green Bay. In all likelihood, they'll go stumbling into the playoffs. 

But hey, they'll go without complaining. Getting there will be a victory in and of itself.

New York Giants (No. 13)

A couple days ago, the Giants were a broken team on a downward spiral.

Then they beat the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, and suddenly, people are speaking of the Giants as if they could go on another run like they did in 2007.

This despite the fact the only reason the Giants beat the Cowboys is because the Cowboys gave them the game on a silver platter. For the second week in a row, Jason Garrett's brain froze and he made a series of stupid decisions, and the Giants benefited from them.

You have to give the Giants credit for capitalizing on Garrett's boneheaded moves, of course. It's not their fault Garrett gave them the game, and you do have to applaud them for finishing the game off with a blocked kick.

If the Giants do lose that game, though, they're sitting on a five-game losing streak. 

The 2007 team, for the record, never lost more than two in a row.

Cincinnati Bengals (No. 11)

I've criticized the Bengals a lot in recent weeks, which is a shame, because I think they're a good young team that could be the next great thing in the AFC.

The Bengals looked like they were the next great thing in the AFC a couple weeks ago when they were 6-2 and on top of the AFC North. Since then, they've lost four of five and have been dealt a reality check by teams that are much better than they are.

Cincinnati's struggles should not come as a surprise. This team has seven wins this year, and six of them came against teams that currently have sub-.500 records. The Bengals are not so much a good team as they are a team that is better than bad.

You have to look at that from a glass-half-full perspective. Just last year, the Bengals were by far one of the worst teams in the National Football League, and they were capable of beating pretty much nobody. That they are now beating bad teams is a sign that the team is indeed on the rise.

The next step is beating the good teams. If the Bengals are lucky, they'll get a chance to prove they can do that in the playoffs. If not, well, there's always next year.

Zachary D. Rymer's Week 15 Power Rankings

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