Week 8 NFL Power Rankings roundup: Bengals climbing to No. 2 spot

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With Week 8 now here, the latest roundup of power rankings from across the web still has much of the same group at the top. The Bengals also only moved in one ranking, with the team maintaining their ranking from last week nearly across the board.

That's how it should be with the Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Cincinnati Bengals, New England Patriots, and Green Bay Packers all undefeated through the first seven weeks. Recent weeks have seen the Bengals, Patriots and Packers holding the top three spots, and that's not changing this week.

The Bengals are now ranked in the top three in every  major power ranking and are as high as No. 2 in a few rankings. SB Nation's Danny Kelly, Bleacher Report's Sean Tomlinson and CBS Sports' Pete Prisco have Cincinnati in second-place behind only New England.

As for the Bengals' next opponent, the Pittsburgh Steelers are still viewed as a top-10 team even after their 23-13 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab has Pittsburgh all the way up at No. 6 in his rankings. That kind of faith in the Steelers comes from the belief that starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will be back this week after missing the past four games with a knee bruise and MCL sprain. It's safe to say this week's AFC North clash in Pittsburgh will be one of the biggest matchups of Week 8.

The biggest mover on Cincinnati this week is ESPN, who now has the Bengals ranked third in their newest rankings after ranking them in fifth place last week. However, when it comes to ESPN, they can only say/do so many nice things for the Bengals, as evidenced by their write-up of Cincy this week:

Will the perfect season come to an end soon for Cincinnati? Andy Dalton is 7-9 with a 32.9 Total QBR against the Bengals' next two opponents, the Steelers and Browns.

Unlike ESPN, CBS' rankings have some flattering things to say about the Bengals:

The way they were playing, they might not have liked having their bye. They have a commanding lead in the division after two months. If they beat the Steelers this week, it might be over.

Meanwhile, USA Today is looking for bad things to say about the Bengals, but they can't find any:

We're still looking for a weakness. They have yet to score fewer than 24 points or allow more than 24 points.

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