NFL Week 12 Power Rankings: Ravens are toying with the rest of the NFL

Change happens quickly in the NFL, but Baltimore clearly stands as the league’s top team right now, writes Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar.

32. Cincinnati Bengals

(Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports)

(0-10. Last week: 32)

In being mathematically eliminated from the playoff contention on Sunday, the Bengals made the league’s earliest such exit since the 2002 season — when it also happened to the Bengals. So, at least Zac Taylor’s team can say that it’s matching franchise history in one category. That distant Bengals team fired head coach Dick LeBeau, hired Marvin Lewis and selected Carson Palmer with the first overall pick of the 2003 draft. We have no clue what the new Bengals are going to do next season, but if they think Ryan Finley is the answer at quarterback, they may want to think again. Finley looked decent in the preseason against stock defenses, but against the Ravens and Raiders as Andy Dalton’s replacement, he’s completed 47.5% of his passes and averaged 4.6 yards per attempt. That’s a remarkable combination of inaccuracy and conservatism. There should also be a re-do at defensive coordinator, where Lou Anarumo presides over a unit that makes every opposing quarterback look like an unholy combination of Joe Montana and Steve Young. The Bengals likely will have the first pick in the 2020 draft, and they’d better be smart with it. Cincinnati rebounded to finish 8-8 in 2003 after a 2-14 campaign the year before.

31. Washington Redskins

(Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)

(1-9. Last week: 31)

You’ll have to forgive the Redskins’ social media person for being this excited about a touchdown in what turned out to be a 34-17 loss to the Jets.

Before this 45-yard screen pass from Dwayne Haskins to running back Derrius Guice in the fourth quarter, Washington hadn’t scored a touchdown since the third quarter of its Week 6 win over the Dolphins. That’s 16 consecutive quarters — the equivalent of four games — without a touchdown. That’s the longest such streak for any NFL team since the 2000 Ravens went 21 straight quarters, and it has transpired under the watch of interim head coach Bill Callahan, put in place after Jay Gruden was fired following a Week 5 loss to the Patriots. Lost in all this offensive malaise is defensive coordinator Greg Manusky, who must be wearing a Teflon suit. You may remember that the 2000 Ravens won the Super Bowl on the backs of an all-time defense, which the Redskins definitely do not have. Manusky’s crew was busy giving up 400 net yards to the mediocre Jets and letting Sam Darnold throw a career-high four touchdown passes. If there’s an NFL team more in need of blowing everything up and starting over, I can’t think of it.

This video pretty much sums it up.

30. New York Giants

(AP Photo/Steven Ryan)

(2-8. Week 11 Bye. Last week: 30)

A Week 11 bye wasn’t going to erase the concerns about Giants franchise running back Saquon Barkley, whose productivity hit a new low against the Jets in Week 10. Barkley ran the ball 13 times for just one yard, one week after gaining just 28 yards on 14 carries against the Cowboys. Not a good trend for a guy who’s supposed to be the face of your offense. Especially against the Jets, Barkley was running hesitantly behind an ineffective offensive line — unable to break anything against a defense that stacked the box, seemingly unafraid of the passing game. If Barkley is to reverse this against Chicago’s defense on Sunday, it will be up to quarterback Daniel Jones and his receivers to force Chuck Pagano’s fronts to play the Giants honestly. Barkley has been a factor in the passing game, but without his efforts on the ground, Big Blue has little chance to end its six-game losing streak.

29. Miami Dolphins

(Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)

(2-8. Last week: 26)

Well, it was a nice two-week stretch for the Dolphins, in which they got off the schneid for the season, beat the Jets and Colts, silenced tanking accusations and lowered their place in the 2020 draft order. On Sunday, the Bills brought Brian Flores’ team back to reality by handing the Dolphins a 37-20 loss in which all areas of Miami’s undermanned roster were exposed. Bills quarterback Josh Allen was able to throw to his targets with relative impunity against coverages that didn’t always add up, Miami quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was sacked seven times, and Fitzpatrick threw 45 passes without a single touchdown. The Dolphins offense put just 23 rushing yards up against Buffalo’s vicious fronts, and were it not for a couple of fourth-quarter option plays in which running back Kalen Ballage once kept the ball off the direct snap for seven yards on his own, and once handed to receiver Jakeem Grant for a seven-yard touchdown, the rushing attack would have been non-existent. Outside of Grant’s 101-yard kick return, and DeVante Parker’s career-high 135 receiving yards, there wasn’t much else to discuss. Flores seems like the right guy to oversee Miami’s inevitable rebuild, but it’s worth remembering how far this team has to go before it will be competitive in a serious sense.

28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

(Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

(3-7. Last week: 24)

Football 101: It’s difficult to win games when your quarterback can’t stop throwing interceptions, and that’s been Jameis Winston’s problem all season. With his four picks in Tampa Bay’s 34-17 loss to the Saints, Winston matched his career high of 18 interceptions in a season from 2016. Of course, it took Winston 16 full games to do it back then, as opposed to 10 games this time around. Maybe he’s not the right quarterback for Bruce Arians’ “No risk-it, no biscuit” philosophy. Perhaps more distressing was what wideout Mike Evans said after the loss.

“They did the exact same coverages they did last time they played us — a lot of two-man and Cover-2, almost every single snap,” Tampa Bay’s top receiver said of New Orleans’ defense. The lack of ability to adjust has more to do with Winston than it does with Arians, who has always understood how to test defenses with interesting combinations of deep routes to the front side and easy reads to the back side. But it’s difficult to do any of that when your quarterback is under constant duress from heavy blitz percentages, and he’s spraying the ball all over the field. Arians has been fairly resolute regarding the idea that not all of Winston’s interceptions are his fault, and this is absolutely true. O.J. Howard’s weird behind-the-back fumble led to one pick, and Mike Evans’ inability to box out Saints safety P.J. Williams in the end zone led to another. But enough of Winston’s mistakes are clearly his to make you wonder if this is ever going to work.

27. New York Jets

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(3-7. Last week: 29)

The Jets have now rolled off two straight wins after starting the season 1-7 and bottoming out in a Week 9 loss to the Dolphins. Credit must be given to Sam Darnold, who amassed five touchdowns to just one interception in that two-week stretch and looked especially effective when moving outside the pocket against the Redskins’ befuddled defense in Sunday’s 34-17 victory. Credit also must be given to safety Jamal Adams, who is playing out of his mind this season, seemingly unaffected by the impasse he had with the team earlier in the season. Adams has been stellar as a blitzer in Gregg Williams’ system, putting up a career-high three sacks on Sunday. With six on the season, he’s well on the pace to break the single-season mark for quarterback takedowns by a true safety — eight by Arizona’s Adrian Wilson in 2005. Adams wants to be paid like the NFL’s best at his position, and the Jets would be smart to do it, because a defensive player of his effectiveness and versatility — he’s just as good in intermediate and deep coverage as he is as a box blitzer — doesn’t come around too often.

26. Cleveland Browns

(AP Photo/David Richard)

(4-6. Last week: 27)

The Browns probably saved their season in a competitive sense with that 21-7 Thursday night win over the Steelers, but boy, did it come at a price. Defensive end Myles Garrett was suspended indefinitely — at least through the end of this season — after ripping Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet off his head and whacking him over the head with it. Defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi also was suspended a game for his role in the fracas. Earlier in the game, safety Damarious Randall delivered a helmet-to-helmet hit on rookie receiver Diontae Johnson that had Johnson bleeding from his right ear. The Browns lead the league in penalties and ejections, and though this was Garrett’s most obvious extracurricular infraction, it wasn’t his first.

One would prefer to shy away from such overarching statements, but the Browns have a culture problem, and it doesn’t appear that anyone in the building is capable of fixing it.

25. Denver Broncos

(David Berding-USA TODAY Sports)

(3-7. Last week: 25)

Whatever you think about the prospects for the 2019 Broncos, first-year head coach Vic Fangio is one of the brightest defensive minds of this era, and he showed why in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Vikings. Denver ran up a 20-0 first-half lead as Fangio’s defense showed all kinds of different coverage and pressure looks at Kirk Cousins, throwing the Minnesota quarterback way off his game. At the same time, Broncos quarterback Brandon Allen was able to take advantage of Minnesota’s vulnerable secondary to a degree. But when the Vikings went no-huddle in the second half and forced Denver into base personnel situations, the picture cleared for Cousins, and Minnesota scored touchdowns on all four of its drives in the third and fourth quarter. What the Broncos can take away from this loss, and other close losses this season, is that they have a capable head coach, a strong defensive vision, and two offensive stars in wide receiver Courtland Sutton and running back Phillip Lindsay. It isn’t going to be enough for a winning record this season, especially with yet another limited quarterback in a seemingly endless string of them since Peyton Manning retired, but there are arrows pointing up in the Mile High City.

32-25 | 24-17 | 16-9 | 8-1

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