2011 NFL Power Rankings – Week 11

NFL Power Rankings 2011 Pre 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Playoffs

Our rankings heading into Week 11:

Rank Team Comment
1 Green Bay Packers The Packers didn’t give the Vikings a chance to stay in the game like they did in their last meeting and this time the defense looked as good as the offense. Rodgers has 30 total TDs right now to just 5 total turnovers. Records are going down.
2 San Francisco 49ers The 49ers have two more tough games (Ravens and Steelers) surrounded by five division games against awful teams. Unless something surprising happens, San Fran should be 13-3 by seasons end at worst.
3 Pittsburgh Steelers The Steelers took the division lead for now with a win over the Bengals. They’ve worked their way back into the driver’s seat for a playoff spot after a slow start.
4 New Orleans Saints The somewhat up and down Saints came through with a big overtime win versus Atlanta and are in the drivers seat in the NFC South. They are in decent shape to make the playoffs, but does this team scare other teams when they have to play on the road outdoors?
5 New England Patriots After two losses in a row, the Patriots reversed their fortunes with a solid 37-16 win over the Jets on the road to re-take sole possession of first in the AFC East. Next up for New England is a Monday Night Football showdown against the Chiefs at home.
6 Baltimore Ravens The Ravens suffered another embarrassing loss against the Seahawks this week. Fortunately, they are still 6-3 and hold tiebreakers against the Texans, Steelers and Jets.
7 Houston Texans Houston faced limited fight from the Buccaneers on their way to a 37-9 victory; unfortunately, Matt Schaub is lost for the season and Matt Leinart must step in and maintain Houston’s AFC South lead. Next up is the Texans’ bye week and some well-deserved rest.
8 Chicago Bears The Bears avenged their week 5 loss to the Lions in a big way, crush Detroit 37-13 in a statement game for them. Suddenly the Bears look like strong contenders in the NFC once again and they are getting better play on both sides of the ball as of late.
9 Detroit Lions After week five people started to talk about the Lions and Packers running the table up until their Thanksgiving day matchup. Losers of three of their last four, Detroit has fallen to a tie for second in the NFC North and there are some serious concerns arising.
10 New York Giants Just a week removed from a big win against the Patriots, the Giants failed to take control of the #2 seed in the NFC as they fell to the surging 49ers.
11 New York Jets New York suffered their first home loss of the season in a 37-16 game against the rival Patriots. Next up for the Jets is the unorthodox rushing offense of the Denver Broncos on a short week for Thursday Night Football.
12 Atlanta Falcons Atlanta missed a chance to pull even with New Orleans, but 4 of their next 5 games are very winnable leading up to their rematch with the Saints. They are in the wild card hunt but are currently behind both Chicago and Detroit.
13 Cincinnati Bengals The Bengals fought hard but were unable to retain their division lead by beating the Steelers. This weekend’s matchup against the Ravens could be a fork in the road for their 2011 season.
14 Oakland Raiders Carson Palmer showed flashes of his old abilities in a 24-17 win over the Chargers on the NFL Network, allowing the Raiders to improve their chances in the AFC West. Oakland travels to Minnesota next week hoping to maintain their grip on the divisional lead.
15 Dallas Cowboys The Cowboys destroyed the once-mighty Bills to the tune of 44-7. DeMarco Murray’s emergence has been huge for an offense that has been inconsistent in the past.
16 Buffalo Bills On the big stage at Jerryworld, the Bills came up small in a 44-7 los to the Cowboys. Buffalo’s early-season run is looking more like an abberation as the losses pile up; they travel to Miami next week for an AFC East showdown.
17 San Diego Chargers In the first Thursday Night Football game of the season, Philip Rivers and the Chargers fell 24-17 to the up-and-down Raiders. The loss drops San Diego in the AFC West standings, though the division is still up for grabs as they prepare to face Chicago on the road.
18 Tennessee Titans Tennessee shredded the Panthers to the tune of a 30-3 victory and the Titans are keeping pace in the AFC South; even better, Chris Johnson managed 130 yards on the ground. The Titans travel to Atlanta next week to face a Falcons team coming off a heartbreaking OT loss.
19 Tampa Bay Bucs With their third loss in a row, Tampa Bay is playing themselves out of a playoff spot in a hurry. With the Packers up next, you can basically pencil in another loss which will drop them to 4-6 and essentially out of the playoff hunt.
20 Denver Broncos Tim Tebow may not have completed a pass until the third quarter, but he did enough for Denver to earn a 17-10 victory over the rival Chiefs. Denver hosts the Jets on the Thursday Night Football stage this week.
21 Philadelphia Eagles Andy Reid’s Eagles are officially a disaster. A 4th-quarter collapse at the hands of John Skelton and the Cardinals is not what the Eagles organization or fans were expecting this season.
22 Kansas City Chiefs Despite Tim Tebow completing only a handful of passes, the Chiefs could not put enough points on the board to avoid a 17-10 loss to Denver. Kansas City’s chances of staying in the AFC West race are beginning to look slimmer as they prepare for a Monday Night Football game in New England.
23 Seattle Seahawks Two of Seattle’s three wins have come against playoff bound teams (Ravens and Giants). To be fair, they have played a pretty brutal schedule up to this point and may not be as bad as their record indicates.
24 Arizona Cardinals Arizona picked up it’s second win in a row against the heavily favored Eagles. Larry Fitzgerald had a great game, and it wasn’t with Kolb at QB but backup John Skelton which makes you wonder even more about Kolb’s ability.
25 Jacksonville Jaguars The Jaguars became just the latest team to take advantage of the Indianapolis Colts and their lost season, with Jacksonville taking a 17-3 victory. While the Jaguars are 4 games back in the AFC South, a win at Cleveland next week would keep their slim divisional hopes alive.
26 Carolina Panthers Inexplicably, Cam Newton’s worst game of the year and Carolina’s lowest scoring game came against Tennessee. At this point Carolina’s biggest motivation is playing well enough to help Cam win rookie of the year.
27 Minnesota Vikings The Vikings were clearly not even in the same league as the Packers and Ponder got a look at what an great defense can do to a game plan. The Vikings can continue to look towards the future at this point, as this year has been one to forget.
28 Washington Redskins A once-promising season has taken a dive as the Redskins lost to the Dolphins this weekend and fell to 3-6.
29 Cleveland Browns The Browns lost to the Rams, and that’s pretty much all you need to know about how things are going with them.
30 Miami Dolphins It would appear that the “Suck for Luck” campaign has been ended in Maimi, with the Dolphins rolling to a 20-9 victory over the Redskins for their second consecutive win. Miami hosts Buffalo next week looking for their first divisional win of the season.
31 St. Louis Rams Apparently the Rams wanted to make sure they had no shot at the top draft pick and picked up win number two against the Browns. Unfortunately for them this year, even if they could manage to get to .500, that won’t get you into the playoffs in the NFC West like it would have a year ago.
32 Indianapolis Colts It would appear that the “Suck for Luck” campaign has been ended in Maimi, with the Dolphins rolling to a 20-9 victory over the Redskins for their second consecutive win. Miami hosts Buffalo next week looking for their first divisional win of the season.

Commentary breakdown: Alex (AFC North, NFC East), Brian (AFC East/South/West), Pat (NFC North/South/West).

Alex Chalupka - Originally from the Baltimore-Washington area, Alex is a huge Baltimore Ravens and Maryland Terrapins fan who currently resides in Little Rock, Arkansas. He’s also an Orioles fan and follows the NBA and other sports as objectively as possible. He enjoys writing about all sports and is the founder/editor of theSportsGeeks.com. - Follow him on Twitter here - Visit his personal website

Brian Parker - Born in Maine, a state with no professional sports team, Brian Parker is nonetheless a huge statistics nerd and fan of the NFL and NHL, with some passing interest in the MLB. Regional ties see him as a Patriots and Red Sox fan, though a childhood of watching Patrick Roy tend the net as a Montreal Canadien puts him on the opposite side of his fellow New Englanders for that NHL rivalry. Brian has both an M.A. and a B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of Maine. - Follow him on Twitter here - Visit his personal website

Pat Lussenhop - Pat was born and raised in rural Minnesota and is currently living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He graduated from St. John's University (MN) with a degree in psychology and went on to get his masters in school psychology at the University of Northern Iowa. He's a lifetime sports fan and follows basketball and football the most. His favorite teams include any team that has "Minnesota" in it's name and he enjoys sports statistics and any good sporting debates. - Follow him on Twitter here

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