NFL Power Rankings Roundup: Bengals ranked among worst teams

Another week, another loss, and another drop in the NFL power rankings for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Following Monday’s frustrating loss to the New York Giants, the Bengals fell in every power ranking heading into Week 11. The biggest drop they took was at USA Today Sports. They dropped the Bengals further than any team this week, ranking Cincinnati at No. 27, down 11 spots from last week.

They also wonder if the losses continue, if this will be the end of the road for Marvin Lewis.

Inability to beat NFC East teams probably means they'll miss playoffs for first time since 2010 and could mean curtains for Marvin Lewis.

ESPN dropped the Bengals down to No. 18 this week while offering some sympathy for what’s been a tough schedule.

In fairness to the Bengals, they've lost to the Steelers, Broncos, Cowboys, Patriots and Giants, who are a combined 32-14 this season. But at 3-5-1 overall, their playoff hopes are looking slim. The Bengals face a must-win at home against the Bills in Week 11.

CBS bumped Cincinnati down to No. 23 while stating the obvious about changes coming if results don’t improve...

At 3-5-1, they sure aren't as good as expected. They need to get it going -- or there could be changes coming.

NFL.com dropped the Bengals down to No. 23 as well and made us re-live what was a painful fourth quarter on Monday.

After an ugly endgame scenario, the Bengals are 3-5-1, still searching for answers. The close road loss at New York isn't as much of a concern as the team's overall inability to make plays in the final five minutes of just about any game this season. Taking sacks on consecutive plays on the final drive felt like London game 2.0 for one Andy Dalton. Then there was Vontaze Burfict getting caught inside -- the wrong side of "inside" -- on Rashad Jennings' first-down run on third-and-5. Making a sixth postseason in a row must start with beating the rested Bills.

SB Nation was one of the friendlier rankings with Cincinnati coming in at No. 14, a four-spot drop from last week. Yahoo Sports wasn’t as friendly while dropping the Bengals to the No. 25 spot.

That should about do it for the Bengals this season. The defense is too soft to turn things around.

The good news for Cincinnati is their next opponent isn’t exactly doing too well either. The Buffalo Bills have lost three straight games, though two of them were to the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, both of whom are in the top three in all but one ranking this week (Seattle is No. 6 at CBS).

I would go as far as to say the Bills, who came in this week with an average ranking of 19.3, are a better team than the New York Giants, but this game is at least in Cincinnati. If the Bengals can’t win this game, they have no business even contending for a playoff spot, let alone winning one.

In all, Cincinnati came in with an average ranking of 21.7, putting them dangerously close to the bottom-10 line (23-32), which means the Bengals could be considered one of the worst teams this season in the NFL.

Elsewhere, the AFC North dumpster fire continued thanks to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns also losing in Week 10. Cleveland still has an average ranking of 31.8, as Yahoo is the only site that doesn’t have the Browns as the worst NFL team, which they are.

The 4-5 Steelers, coming off a last-second loss to the Dallas Cowboys, got an average ranking of 15 this week. As bad as they’ve been, the AFC as a whole isn’t impressive, so maybe they have a chance if they make it to the playoffs healthy.

As for the Ravens, who now lead the division at 5-4, they got an average ranking of 14.3. That’s pretty sad when a division winner may not even be one of the NFL’s 14 best teams (only 12 make the playoffs), but it’s looking like no one in the AFC North is anything better than average right now.