Tuesday is NFL Power Rankings day around the Internet, which means we'll have an explosion of informed, semi-informed, and un-informed opinions about where the teams in the NFL rank. Whatever you think about the power rankings, it's certainly safe to say that both the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders will take hits this week. The Raiders were battered on the road by the Pittsburgh Steelers, while the 49ers embarrassed themselves at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. No loss is "good" but it's safe to say the 49ers loss has to qualify as the worse of the two Bay Area losses this past weekend.
The 49ers came into the Bucs game hoping to make a statement and really climb back into the NFC West divisional race. As things shook out, they could have cut the Seahawks lead to one game with six to go. Instead they remain two back and looking more lost than ever. There are now six teams with 3-7 records, and four more with records worse than the 49ers. At this point I really see no problem sticking the 49ers at the worst of the 3-7 records. The Bucs are not a bad team by any means, but when you get shutout at home for the first time in 33 years, something is clearly wrong. Although the 49ers remain in the race for the division, they've shown no reason to think they can win consistently. I'd imagine they'll probably drop below one or two of the 2-8 teams at this point in the power rankings.
The Raiders went into Pittsburgh on a strong hot streak that had them leading the division. Unfortunately for the Raiders, that all came to an end at Heinz Field. The Steelers really had little problem handling the Raiders; well except for Ben Roethlisberger getting slapped around by Richard Seymour. But even that got Seymour ejected from the game so the Steelers likely won that little spat. The Raiders had climbed up into the 12-14 range, but even though Pittsburgh is a solid football team, they'll probably take a bit of a tumble. Teams like the Chargers and Chiefs will likely pass them, as will other 5-5 teams.