NFL Week 10 Power Rankings: AFC looking stronger than NFC

We are over halfway through the NFL season, and there seems to be a clear upper and lower class in the NFL. The playoff contenders have drawn a line between themselves and those who are already looking towards the 2021 NFL draft in early November.

Chaos at the top

The matchup of the week was the Seattle Seahawks paying a visit to upstate New York to face off against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. Seattle looked like the clear favorites in the NFC coming into the game, but always had some weaknesses on defense.

Those weaknesses were exposed on Sunday. Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw for 415 yards and three touchdowns on 38 pass attempts, decimating Seattle’s defensive backfield in a 44-34 victory. Seattle falls to 6-2 on the year, and it truly looks like the NFC is a much weaker conference than the AFC.

Meanwhile, three other contenders in the AFC, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs all pulled out victories despite not playing their best games. The Chiefs got some trouble from an explosive Carolina Panthers offense that finally got star running back Christian McCaffrey back in the lineup. Kansas City would not lose a shootout, though, winning 33-31.

Lamar Jackson struggled early in the Ravens game against the Indianapolis Colts but turned things around in the second half. Baltimore’s defense stepped up as well, scoring a touchdown and shutting down the Colts for a 24-10 win.

Pittsburgh should have been able to walk into a win this week against a Dallas Cowboys team playing their fourth quarterback of the year. Instead, their offense was lackluster and could never find rhythm against a terrible Cowboys defense. A late Eric Ebron touchdown made the difference, though, and the Steelers got to 8-0 after a close 24-19 victory.

In the NFC, the New Orleans Saints smashed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a Sunday night NFC South showdown. Neither the Bucs’ offense nor their defense showed up in a 38-3 game that was over in the first quarter.

The Green Bay Packers also got to 6-2 after beating up on a shorthanded San Francisco 49ers team on Thursday night, throwing their hat in the ring as the potential top seed in the NFC playoffs this season.