NFL Power Rankings, Week 6: Lions leapfrog Bills and Eagles to claim No. 1 spot; Chargers keep falling

Copied!

It has been more than a decade since we didn’t make it out of Week 5 with at least one unbeaten team.

Both the Eagles and Bills were upset upset at home by AFC up-and-comers, and it was another upsetting loss for the Ravens — by 34 points in Baltimore. Ouch. The Chargers also lost painfully again.

Is there a truly great team in the NFL? That remains the big question right now. At least the entertainment value hasn’t let up a bit. The most fun game on Sunday was the Buccaneers-Seahawks shootout that felt like a playoff preview. Titans-Cardinals was the opposite of that, with Arizona finding a new, more inventive way of losing in excruciating fashion.

Bookending Week 5 were two bangers: The 49ers’ stunning overtime win over the Rams on Thursday and Monday’s Chiefs-Jaguars barnburner, with Jacksonville prevailing on one of the stranger game-winning TDs you’ll ever see. Both of those triumphant teams are 4-1, with the Niners losing to the Jags and the Jags losing to the … Bengals? It’s been that kind of season so far.

In my latest rundown of the league hierarchy, there’s a new team at No. 1 … and No. 32. Plus, a whole lot of shuffling in between. Frankly, in this roller-coaster campaign, I don’t really think we’ll have clarity on who the true heavyweights are until at least November.

NOTE: Up/down arrows below reflect movement from the Week 5 Power Rankings.

After the Eagles and Bills lost, it wasn’t hard to vault the Lions to the top spot, with Detroit having hit another gear since the thorough beating suffered in Week 1 at Green Bay. Sunday’s performance was great for three quarters, but then the Bengals went into turbo mode and almost made it a game again. All of the top teams have had games such as this, so I am not going to make too much of what happened in the fourth quarter. Knowing Dan Campbell, he’ll mine it as a source of inspiration. But there remains the question of just how good this defense is. The formula of containing the run and forcing turnovers worked until the Lions got overaggressive and less disciplined late in the game. We’ve seen far more good defensively than bad over the past three-plus games, but the true test will come against the Chiefs on Sunday night.

The Eagles held the lead from the mid-second quarter to the mid-fourth, and during that span, they turned around and handed the ball to Saquon Barkley one time, not counting plays negated by penalty. Once. Over a span of 25 plays. The Eagles now average fewer than 100 rush yards per game, and that includes what Jalen Hurts does with his legs. This team used to get a lead and put opponents in a sleeper hold with the run game, but no longer, it appears. Hurts and A.J. Brown also don’t seem to be on the same page, missing on a few key connections, and you have to wonder what the future of this pairing is. The Eagles aren’t suddenly in the toilet, but this loss underscored some of the issues that have bubbled up of late.

Read More