And then there were none with no losses.
The San Francisco 49ers, the last of the undefeated, suffered their first loss of the season Monday night in a wild overtime thriller against the Seattle Seahawks, leaving us to once again rethink what the top of the NFL mountain looks like through 10 weeks.
Tom Brady will be the first one to remind us that nothing really matters at this point of the season, but if we truly subscribed to that theory, life would be a lot more boring.
With that said, here are the Week 11 NFL power rankings.
1. New England Patriots (8-1, Last week: 2): Coming out of the bye, the Patriots also seem to be getting healthier as they enter the real teeth of their schedule. When the chips are down for the stretch run, though, they still must be considered the favorites all things considered.
2. San Francisco 49ers (8-1, 1): The 49ers took their first L of the season, becoming Russell Wilson’s latest victim. We’re not going to drop them too far, though, especially considering they were without their two best offensive playmakers: George Kittle and Emmanuel Sanders.
3. Baltimore Ravens (7-2, 4): In a classic letdown spot on the road against a bad team following an emotional win, the Ravens stomped out the Bengals behind a historic offensive performance from Lamar Jackson. A big matchup with Houston is on tap this weekend.
4. Seattle Seahawks (8-2, 6): Are the Seahawks flawed? Of course, as evidenced by Wilson being sacked five more times Monday night. But at this point, you have to wonder if the QB’s greatness will overcome all other deficiencies for arguably the hottest team in the NFL.
5. New Orleans Saints (7-2, 3): Well, who saw the Saints losing to the lowly Falcons at home off the bye? We’ll give them a pass, as everyone gets a stinker, but it is worth noting the Saints have now played three games this season in which they’ve failed to score a touchdown.
6. Green Bay Packers (8-2, 7): Only four teams in the NFL allow more yards per game than the Packers, yet Green Bay is allowing the 12th-fewest points per game — definition of “bend but don’t break.” That may not be sustainable, but 8-2 is 8-2.
7. Minnesota Vikings (7-3, 8): If the Vikings had any other QB with a 112.0 passer rating and had won five of their last six, we’d seriously be considering them as the NFC’s best team. Because Kirk Cousins is their QB, though, there will be skepticism, but you can’t argue with the results lately.
8. Kansas City Chiefs (6-4, 5): Admittedly hard to rank them below a Vikings team they beat two weeks ago, but it’s also hard to deny the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs just lost to the Titans. They’re also kind of like the anti-Vikings at this point, where we might be overrating them because of who they are and what they’ve done in the past. KC has to figure things out — fast.
9. Houston Texans (6-3, 10): The Texans will have had two weeks to prepare for Lamar Jackson ahead of a massive AFC matchup this weekend. Will that be enough?
10. Dallas Cowboys (5-4, 9): Dallas would have fallen farther if not for the fact that just about everyone else in this neighborhood lost. At some point, though, it would be nice if they beat someone outside their division.
11. Philadelphia Eagles (5-4, 11): We’re going to learn a lot about the Eagles this week when they return from their bye to host the Patriots.
12. Carolina Panthers (5-4, 13): Yeah, we’ll move up the Panthers after a loss. They came within an inch and a two-point conversion of pushing the Packers to overtime at Lambeau. Their pass rush, plus the threat of Christian McCaffrey, makes them a team no one should want to face right now.
13. Oakland Raiders (5-4, 16): Oakland was able to get by a sloppy Chargers team and now gets back-to-back tilts with the Bengals and Jets. If they win both, that sets up a Week 13 matchup vs. Kansas City that might be for first place in the AFC West. Go figure, huh?
14. Pittsburgh Steelers (5-4, 18): The Steelers are shooting up the board, and for good reason: Pittsburgh has won four in a row, and their four losses this season came against New England, San Francisco, Seattle and Baltimore (in overtime) — pretty good teams, no?
15. Los Angeles Rams (5-4, 12): Hard to do much of anything on offense when your offensive line has as many flaws as the Rams’ unit does right now. Their season might be on the line vs. Chicago on Sunday night.
16. Buffalo Bills (6-3, 14): The Bills were given every chance to win against a Browns team that’s probably still trying to score from the 2-yard line. This has been a nice season to build on, but don’t be surprised if things start to fall apart for Buffalo down the stretch.
17. Indianapolis Colts (5-4, 15): In our weekly NFL picks column, we stupidly wondered whether Brian Hoyer was that much of a downgrade from Jacoby Brissett — emphasis on “stupidly” there. Credit Indy for staying afloat this long, but it’s looking like the injuries will ultimately be too much to overcome.
18. Tennessee Titans (5-5, 21): Tennessee has now won more games this season with Ryan Tannehill at QB than they did with Marcus Mariota. A win against KC is always impressive, regardless of the Chiefs’ recent issues.
19. Chicago Bears (4-5, 22): Chicago benefited from Matthew Stafford’s injury, as the Bears offense looked pitiful at times again vs. Detroit on Sunday. But, hey: If they win Sunday in Los Angeles, the Bears’ path to the playoffs gets a little bit clearer.
20. Jacksonville Jaguars (4-5, 20): It’s Nick Foles’ team again, and he’ll get a couple of early tests, starting this week at Indy and then in Nashville next week. If they can win both of those road divisional games, the Jaguars will be very much alive in the AFC playoff race.
21. Los Angeles Chargers (4-6, 17): Just when you think the Chargers are about to be back, Philip Rivers comes out and throws three interceptions (and it could have been more) to sink them. It might be a last-ditch effort to save the season Monday night in Mexico vs. the Chiefs.
22. Detroit Lions (3-5-1, 17): The Lions were actually pretty competitive with Jeff Driskel under center, but allowing touchdowns in the final minute before halftime and opening minutes of the second half — against the Bears, no less — is not a good way for Matt Patricia to build job security.
23. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-6, 23): Jameis Winston threw two picks, fumbled once and was sacked five times … and the Bucs still found a way to win. That doesn’t seem very sustainable.
24. Cleveland Browns (3-6, 25): It was ugly, but a win is a win, and four of Cleveland’s final seven games are against Miami, Cincinnati or Arizona, so they’re not dead yet.
25. Denver Broncos (3-6, 25): The Broncos had a bye and no one noticed.
26. Arizona Cardinals (3-6-1, 24): The Cardinals had no shortage of chances to get a road win in Tampa Bay but ultimately fell short. If you’re an Arizona fan, though, you have to love the improvement you’ve seen from Kyler Murray as the season progresses, with the No. 1 pick posting a 102.9 passer rating over the last five games.
27. Atlanta Falcons (2-7, 28): The Falcons, with Dan Quinn as their head coach, beating a rested Saints team in New Orleans might be the most surprising outcome of the NFL season thus far.
28. Miami Dolphins (2-7, 30): Brian Flores deserves some Coach of the Year buzz, for finding a way to keep the Dolphins motivated despite Miami’s ongoing tear-down efforts. The Dolphins obviously aren’t doing anything this year, but they might end up contending sooner than any of us might have thought.
29. New York Jets (2-7, 31): As Sam Darnold pointed out after the game, the Jets just need to win out and they’re in playoff contention. That’s all!
30. New York Giants (2-7, 27): Daniel Jones has as many touchdown passes (10) as he does fumbles in the last four games. Might want to figure that one out.
31. Washington Redskins (1-8, 29): We hope they all had a nice week off.
32. Cincinnati Bengals, (0-9, 32): Burrow for Burrow!
