It was a good week for the Houston Texans to sit on the sidelines, climbing back to No. 1 in the TSN.ca NFL Power Rankings, following the Chicago Bears' narrow home win against Carolina.
The Bears may have escaped with a victory, but fell to fourth nonetheless. They were overtaken by the New England Patriots, who rolled over the St. Louis Rams, 45-7, in London and the Bears fell below the unbeaten Atlanta Falcons, who had a convincing win in Philadelphia.
Winning three straight, and allowing a total of 36 points in those three wins, helped lift the Miami Dolphins from 16 to 12. Tampa Bay destroyed the Vikings, in Minnesota, to climb from 19 to 15, and sudden competence over the past couple weeks from the Oakland Raiders saw the jump from 26 to 17.
Conversely, the ongoing struggles of the San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles caused them both to fall four spots, to 19 and 20, respectively.
Getting shut down by Denver contributed to the New Orleans Saints sliding to 22 from 18 and the Arizona Cardinals, in free-fall since their 4-0 start, sunk from 23 to 28.
Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook.