Week 6 NFL power rankings: Lions remain a top-10 team despite loss

We’ve all seen this before. The Detroit Lions finally win over all of their critics, resulting in some wild optimism from unlikely sources. Then the Lions promptly (and literally) drop the ball and everyone immediately abandons ship because “Same Old Lions.”

But, surprisingly, that’s not what happened this week. Yes, the Lions did drop an egg on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, but for whatever reason, NFL analysts are sticking behind Detroit. Despite the loss, the Lions still rank in the top 10 of nearly every Power Ranking that we tracked this week. Take a look:

SB Nation (“hope rankings”): 8th (down 2)
ESPN: 14th (down 5)
Washington Post: 9th (down 3)
Bleacher Report (Simms): 8th (down 3)
Yahoo! Sports: 9th (down 2)
USA Today: 10th (down 8)
CBS: 10th (down 4)
NFL.com: 6th

It’s interesting that one of the publications that had the Lions the highest last week (USA Today at No. 2) have them near the lowest at 10th this week. Only ESPN has the Lions ranked worse, at 14th overall.

On Sunday, the Lions will finally face a team that most analysts just view as average. The Saints are riding a two-game win streak, but there’s little hype behind them after last week’s bye. The Saints sit firmly outside of the top 10, but only drop into the 20s in two of eight rankings this week.

SB Nation (“hope rankings”): 15th
ESPN: 22nd
Washington Post: 23rd
Bleacher Report (Simms): 18th
Yahoo! Sports: 19th
USA Today: 17th
CBS: 17th
NFL.com: 15th