Emerging victorious in last week's battle at New England has landed the San Francisco 49ers back atop the TSN.ca NFL Power Rankings.
San Francisco had been number one for a couple of weeks, then number two the last two weeks, so they've been lurking around top spot for much of the second half of the season.
When the Niners roared out to a 31-3 lead in New England, it looked like they would easily take over top spot in the rankings, but New England's second-half surge, which tied the game before San Francisco took the lead for good, made it much closer. However, a seven-point win on the road against the previous No.1-ranked team earns the Niners a return to the top.
Back-to-back games with 50 points contributed to the Seattle Seahawks vaulting from 12 to seven this week, the highest ranking of the season for Seattle.
Five wins in the last six games, including an eventually easy win over Philadelphia last week, lifted the Cincinnati Bengals from 14 to nine and the Minnesota Petersons are up from 16 to 11 on the strength of a superhuman running back.
Fading in the AFC North, both the Baltimore Ravens (nine to 16) and Pittsburgh Steelers (10 to 15) have to find a way to reverse their current losing slides. Baltimore has lost three straight while Pittsburgh has dropped four of five.
Finally, the New York Jets sink from 25 to 29 after losing to Tennessee and announcing that Greg McElroy will start at quarterback this week.
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.