NFL Power Rankings, Week 12: Biggest risers and fallers after Week 11

22. Chicago Bears

Oof.

Ooooof.

Sorry, Bears fans. That one was tough. But raise your hand if you laughed at the Denver Broncos last week? If you laughed at the Broncos, well, karma has a way of doing its thing, doesn’t it?

To be real for you Bears fans, I feel your pain. There’s no analysis you can provide. You did everything to win the game. Caleb Williams and the offense got you in position to beat the Green Bay Packers in chicago, and you should be back at .500 today. I get you, I feel you. As a Denver Broncos fan – I can empathize and sympathize. It’s brutal.

What can you do except pick up the pieces and hope you can get a different result next week? There was undoubtedly a lot of good to take from that game, especially with Caleb Williams struggling a bit lately. He’s been getting buried by some of the analysts out there and this was a good response game for him against a good Packers defense.

But it wasn’t quite enough. I am sorry, Bears fans. Maybe you’ll take it out on the Vikings this coming week.

21. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

I wish that I was still talking about the Buccaneers in a different light. Injuries suck, don’t they?

The Bucs have been ravaged by injuries this year and we’re obviously sorry to see it. When they’re at full strength, this Bucs team can probably hang with anyone. In fact, we saw them take the Chiefs to overtime not too long ago despite the fact that they were missing both Chris Godwin and Mike Evans.

This team just has too many guys down in order to be a viable threat in the NFC South, right?

Well, maybe not. The Bucs are going to get a little healthier coming off of their bye week. They need to come out of the bye asking more out of their running backs, both in terms of the ground game as well as in the passing game. Those guys can help pick up the slack and create opportunities for the receivers that are left in the mix.

And maybe we see Evans come back at some point here soon and make an impact…