NFL Week 6 Power Rankings Roundup: Bengals and Patriots top AFC

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When Week 5 ended, there were still six undefeated teams remaining, a far cry from last season when there was no unbeaten club left through the first five weeks. The Cincinnati Bengals went 3-0 last year, though their first loss came in Week 5 against a Super Bowl contender (and eventual champion) in the New England Patriots, following their Week 4 bye.

That left Cincinnati at 3-1 after getting shellacked by the Pats, and this year's team faced a similar situation when the Seattle Seahawks came to town for Week 5. It actually looked like the end result would be similar when the Bengals fell behind 17 points, but they managed to score the final 20 points of them game and rally to victory to improve to 5-0.

That was enough to keep Cincinnati ranked in the top three of nearly every major power ranking this week. On average, the Bengals are coming in at No. 3, just behind the Green Bay Packers and aforementioned Patriots. It's beginning to look like a two-horse race between Cincy and New England in the AFC.

As we've seen many times with the Bengals, a lot can change over the course of a season. Injuries more often than not have kept Cincinnati from being a true title contender by the time the playoffs rolled around. However, there's no debating this team would absolutely be a threat to win it all if the playoffs started today.

That's why six of the seven major power rankings have the Bengals at the No. 3 spot or higher. The guys at ESPN are the only ones not completely sold on Cincinnati being a top-three team. They continue to put the Bengals at the No. 5 spot in their rankings, behind the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons in addition to the Packers and Patriots.

Here's a roundup of the current power rankings compared to last week.