New NFL power rankings, Week 12: Cowboys, Seahawks, Patriots still the class of the NFL

It was a pretty predictable week in the NFL, which doesn’t happen too often. The betting favorite won in 11 of the 13 matchups in Week 11, and that means there really isn’t too much swapping to do in the power rankings.

The teams at the top won, the teams at the bottom lost, and all was normal except for a couple games. The Kansas City Chiefs didn’t look anything like a 7-2 team against the wildly chaotic and inconsistent Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but other than that, teams in the postseason hunt mostly looked the part.

The Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots still look like the class of the NFL. The Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns still ... uh ... don’t.

The Chiefs climbed all the way to 7-2, but did so with some unimpressive victories in November. It looked like it could be a bubble set to burst and a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers certainly qualified as that.

Before the 19-17 loss to Tampa Bay, the Chiefs struggled to find offense against the Carolina Panthers and Jaguars. There are scarier opponents on the schedule ahead, so the Chiefs better get their offensive issues figured out soon.

But at least the Chiefs are still in contention. It looks like it might be safe to put a fork in the Arizona Cardinals after a 30-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. A week ago, the Cardinals barely survived the San Francisco 49ers, and four of the next five teams on the schedule have winning records.

With so many favorites winning, there wasn’t a lot of room for teams to make huge moves up the power rankings. Washington looked every bit like a top 10 team in a primetime win over the Green Bay Packers.

Both the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins have been overdue for a bit of a jump given their play in recent weeks and both went up some — although, neither team was particularly impressive in Week 11. The Dolphins were shut down on offense until the final two drives and somehow got things figured out just in time, and the Lions managed just 14 rushing yards against the Jaguars.

A quarterback got hurt for the Browns, the 49ers looked decent for a while before getting outclassed, the Jaguars found a way to lose a winnable game, and just a bunch of bad stuff happened to the Bears.

Basically, just another week for the trash heap.

At least the New York Jets were lucky enough to sit out of the action during a bye week. The Browns get that luxury in Week 13 after a game with the New York Giants next week.