There’s nothing better than watching a bully get beat up. Every team in the NFC had to be happy to see the San Francisco 49ers getting walloped last night by the Baltimore Ravens in front of a national audience. Previously at No. 1 in our rankings, the 49ers did more than just lose – they were exposed where they are weakest in the worst possible way. Before the presumptive league MVP was benched in favor of *checks notes* Sam Darnold, starting quarterback Brock Purdy threw four interceptions, which could just as easily have been six.
The Ravens defense deserves a lot of the credit for throwing Purdy off his game, particularly safety Kyle Hamilton, who had two of the four picks. While they had trouble containing Christian McCaffrey, it turned out not to matter as Baltimore dominated practically every other part of the game. Most impressive was how pass-happy the Ravens’ offensive attack was, showing how much Lamar Jackson has developed. Heading into the final two weeks of the season, any reasonable person has to consider the Ravens to be the Super Bowl favorite. Naturally, they are our new No. 1 team.
Next up on the list, the Miami Dolphins also came through with a big win over the Dallas Cowboys. That victory pushed them up to No. 2 on our list, one spot ahead of the 49ers and three ahead of the AFC East rival Buffalo Bills, who had a lot of trouble getting past the Justin Herbert-less Los Angeles Chargers.
The other LA team is now back in the top 10, as the Rams have won five of their last six games – including a massive playoff implication matchup on Thursday night against the New Orleans Saints. They won’t have a high seed, but truthfully there are very few teams playing better right now. If you’ll recall, these Rams took the Ravens to the limit just a couple of weeks ago.
As for the Seattle Seahawks, their two losses to LA this season don’t look nearly as bad right now as they did in the moment. Seattle has recovered from their devastating mid-season swing of five losses in six games, scoring two dramatic come from behind wins against the Eagles and Titans. At their lowest point, we had the Seahawks down to No. 19, but they’re now back up to No. 12 in our rankings heading into this week’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaking of the Steelers, they just scored over 30 points for the first time this season in their upset win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Mason Rudolph was the big surprise, throwing for 290 yards and two touchdowns – an almost unthinkable output given how poor Pittsburgh’s offense is this season. Mike Tomlin has to think hard about riding Rudolph against Seattle, even if Kenny Pickett is ready to return.
Another surprise offensive outburst this week came courtesy of the Atlanta Falcons, who finally made a much-needed change at quarterback, trading out Desmond Ridder for the highly-underrated Taylor Heinicke. Atlanta dropped 29 points on the Indianapolis Colts. Even more shocking, they did it by allowing Bijan Robinson to be their lead weapon both as a rusher and a receiver. If Arthur Blank can take these lessons to heart the Falcons are going to be very dangerous next year.
The team that took the biggest tumble this week was the Denver Broncos, who lost to the New England Patriots – who had been last place in our Week 16 power rankings. While they made it interesting it won’t do much to quiet the growing chorus of voices who are eager to move on from Russell Wilson this offeason – even if it costs the team $80 million in dead money. Denver is down five spots to No. 22, while New England is up three to No. 29.
Let’s get to the full rankings. Here is how we place all 32 teams heading into Week 17…
