SB Nation released its NFL power rankings for week 12, and as expected the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders both tumbled a bit this week, with the Raiders taking a bigger spill. The Raiders dropped from No. 13 to No. 17, while the 49ers dropped from No. 24 to No. 26. Joel Thorman had comments on both teams:
17. Oakland Raiders (5-5): The Raiders can string together some impressive wins….and then they can lose by 32 points to the Steelers. We’ll see which team shows up the rest of the season. They have company in the AFC West as the Chargers are now at 5-5 as well. LW: 13
26. San Francisco 49ers (3-7): 21-0 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.They had won three of four entering the game against the Bucs but that was clearly a mirage. Like the Cardinals though, they’re lucky the NFC West is so terrible and they sit just two games out of first place. LW: 24
I’d have to agree with his comments about the Raiders, although it’s hard to know what they’re really about given the nature of their loss. It wasn’t a pretty loss, but I can’t imagine people are all that surprised by a loss at Pittsburgh. It certainly would have been nice to see the Raiders provide a slightly more respectable showing.
The 49ers' three wins in four games definitely qualifies as a mirage, although I wouldn’t exactly call it shocking. They won those three games in a fairly haphazard manner and showed plenty of holes that were simply a bit more glaring against the Bucs.