NFL Power Rankings Week 13: Broncos nosedive, Commanders streaking

12. Seattle Seahawks

Two weeks ago, the Seattle Seahawks were in first place in the NFC West and riding a four-game winning streak. Now, things look bleak as they’ve dropped two in a row by a combined 11-points and are looking up at the 7-4 San Francisco 49ers.

Seattle is 6-5, so they’re not too far back but they did suffer one loss to the Niners already making it a tougher road for them to win the West. Even with this loss, they shouldn’t be too down on themselves. Geno Smith continues to play well but they just had a rough day on the ground — on both sides of the ball.

Las Vegas ran for 283 yards with Josh Jacobs gaining 229 — including an 86-yarder in overtime to secure the win. The Seahawks, on the other hand, had just 65 yards on 23 carries. They do have a couple of winnable games with the Rams and Panthers up next before the huge rematch with the Niners.

11. Washington Commanders

Taylor Heinicke has proven he deserves the Washington Commanders quarterback job. He led them to their third win in a row and sixth in their past seven games. As the starter, he’s now 5-1 making it even more confusing that they saw him every week in practice but still thought they needed Carson Wentz.

As cool and calm as he is, it was the defense that sealed things for Washington in Week 12. Up by a score of 19-13, Marcus Mariota had moved the Atlanta offense to the Commanders’ two-yard line. He then lost two yards before getting his pass batted in the air by Daron Payne.

The ball was taken away by Kyle Fuller and all Washington had to do was run out the final 58 seconds, which they did. Now at 7-4, they’re alive in the NFC East but the division is the best in football right now, so they’re still tied for last with the Giants.