After Sunday’s action, a lot of power rankings are going to have to remove the Philadelphia Eagles out of first place after they got demolished by the San Francisco 49ers. Not this one, as the Eagles had already been ousted from the top spot based on their performance in the prior weeks. Sunday’s blowout loss wasn’t guaranteed, but there were certainly signs based on how both teams had been playing in recent weeks.
Likewise, the Kansas City Chiefs were dropped last week despite winning, because they hadn’t looked very polished either and low and behold, they took a loss at the hands of a below-.500 Green Bay Packers on Sunday night, proving that evaluation correct as well.
Power rankings aren’t supposed to be in order of record, or what’s the point? Sure, you have to have a top record to top the standings, but there’s so much nuance in how teams are vibing, that there is supposed to be some discretion, even when a team has beaten other good teams. This week, there’s not a ton of movement from Week 13’s rankings, but there were enough eye-raising performances to shake things up a bit.