The Bills are riding a two-game winning streak after holding off the Jaguars on Sunday in Buffalo. The optimist could look at that and note that the team is back above .500 and winning when they desperately need wins to stay in playoff contention. The pessimist could point out that they've won their last two games by a total of 11 points against teams that are a combined 2-11-1 since Week 5.
The power rankings didn't seem to care much either way.
SBNation kept the Bills unchanged from last week at 14. The NFC North-leading Lions jumped from 15 to 13, while the Eagles (losers of six of their last eight games) dropped from 12 to 16.
NFL.com’s Elliott Harrison gave the Bills a slight boost, pushing them up one spot to 12. Most of his blurb focused on the vulnerabilities of the Broncos and Dolphins, two teams the Bills are chasing in the wind card race, but he failed to point out the Bills’ daunting challenge on Sunday in Oakland. The Vikings dropped three spots this week to make room for the Bills after their loss to the Lions.
ESPN kept the Bills right where they were last week, slotting the team in at 17. They laud Buffalo’s “sixth-best point differential” this season (which I put in quotes because it’s actually fifth-best, proving that it’s apparently too much to ask for the Worldwide Leader to go a month without a basic factual error when it comes to the Bills’ blurb in the power rankings), a total that is better than the 9-2 Raiders squad they visit in a few days. The Eagles and Vikings fell past the Bills, but the Chargers (who beat the Texans on the road) and Buccaneers (who won at home against the Seahawks) made big jumps over Buffalo.
Rounding out the usual suspects is The MMQB, which kept the Bills on the fringes of the Fine Fifteen in the 17 spot, up one from last week. The Eagles dropped into the fringes behind the Bills at 18, while the Texans fell out of the top 20 entirely. The Packers made their return at 15 after their Monday Night Football win in Philadelphia.
Over the last two weeks, the Bills have barely moved an inch in the power rankings on most sites. Their next game, however, could trigger a seismic shift in either direction, depending on the outcome.