Week nine of the 2011 NFL season is in the books and the Green Bay Packers further established themselves as the top dogs in the NFL. They nearly blew a huge lead against the San Diego Chargers, but held on late after an offensive explosion and improved to 8-0. At this point, the Packers are simply a notch above everybody else to date.
The San Francisco 49ers improved to 7-1 and remain the only team to hold steady fairly consistently behind the Packers. As my own power rankings show, we had some changes in the three to eight range due in part to a pair of top ten matchups. The Ravens beat the Steelers and the Giants beat the Patriots, which shook up the top a little bit. The 49ers will have a chance to make some noise this week as they host the Giants. This will allow for some shake-up depending on the outcome of the game.
The Oakland Raiders continued their recent free-fall as they lost at home to the Denver Broncos, dropping to 4-4. The AFC West is a wild one right now with the Raiders, Chiefs and Chargers tied at 4-4 and the Broncos only a game back at 3-5. This race will go down to the wire as the Raiders try and figure out how to get their offense on track.
On to the Week 10 NFL Power Rankings (previous week in parenthesis). As always, feel free to tweet your disagreements to @sbnbayarea:
1. (1) Green Bay Packers (8-0)
2. (2) San Francisco 49ers (7-1)
3. (5) Baltimore Ravens (6-2)
4. (6) New Orleans Saints (6-3)
5. (8) New York Giants (6-2)
6. (7) Atlanta Falcons (5-3)
7. (3) Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3)
8. (4) New England Patriots (5-3)
9. (9) Detroit Lions (6-2)
10. (14) Cincinnati Bengals (6-2)
11. (11) Houston Texans (6-3)
12. (15) Chicago Bears (5-3)
13. (10) Buffalo Bills (5-3)
14. (12) San Diego Chargers (4-4)
15. (17) Dallas Cowboys (4-4)
16. (19) New York Jets (5-3)
17. (16) Philadelphia Eagles (3-5)
18. (18) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-4)
19. (13) Oakland Raiders (4-4)
20. (20) Tennessee Titans (4-4)
21. (21) Kansas City Chiefs (4-4)
22. (22) Cleveland Browns (3-5)
23. (27) Denver Broncos (3-5)
24. (24) Minnesota Vikings (2-6)
25. (25) Carolina Panthers (2-6)
26. (23) Washington Redskins (3-5)
27. (28) Jacksonville Jaguars (2-6)
28. (30) Arizona Cardinals (2-6)
29. (32) Miami Dolphins (1-7)
30. (26) St. Louis Rams (1-7)
31. (29) Seattle Seahawks (2-6)
32. (31) Indianapolis Colts (0-9)