The Bills dropped a heart-breaker to the Raiders on Sunday in magnificent fashion, giving up 29 straight points in the 38-24 loss that put their playoff chances on life support.
The power rankings, however, either didn’t notice or didn’t care, because the team remains around the middle of the pack in most of the rankings across the Internet.
SBNation, for example, only dropped the Bills one spot, to 15. As usual, they don’t give team-by-team blurbs, but the Buccaneers moved from 15 to 13 after beating the Chargers and inserting themselves squarely in a battle with the Falcons for NFC South supremacy.
Elliot Harrison moved the Bills down four spots at NFL.com, but they remain in the middle of the pack at 16. He references their collapse in the middle of the third quarter and compares the play of Tyrod Taylor to that of former Bills QB Bruce Mathison (that’s not a good thing, if you needed clarification). The Ravens, Steelers, Buccaneers, and Packers all moved past the Bills after winning and remaining in playoff contention last week.
ESPN has the Bills even lower, at 18, but that only represents a one-spot fall from last week. Their stat of the week: the Bills have an NFL-high five losses when scoring 24 or more points. The Packers, Vikings and Cardinals all moved past the Bills, while the Chargers and Texans all fell back into the twenties.
Finally, the Bills once again showed up on the fringes of The MMQB’s Fine Fifteen, coming in at 19. The Titans, 19th last week, and the previously-unranked Colts both came in ahead of the Bills at 17 and 18, respectively.