NFL power rankings, Week 10: 49ers are struggggggglin

The San Francisco 49ers returned to action this past Sunday, and it was not pretty. They lost 13-10 to the St. Louis Rams, and find themselves having to figure out where exactly things stand with the offense. There is a lot of football left to be played, but if the 49ers do not turn things around on the offensive side of the ball, the season will continue to go south.

With that in mind, I've got my latest and greatest set of power rankings. I'm sure plenty will disagree with most of what I put together, so feel free to fire away in the comments.

I've dropped the 49ers down to No. 17 at this point. I do think they have it in them to bounce back from their current two-game losing streak, but they also are wildly inconsistent. If they do not get things figured out soon, they will continue sliding down. They face a Saints squad that notched its first road win of the season, and is likely playing with some confidence.

The Arizona Cardinals find themselves holding the best record in the league, and are adding notches to their belt each week. They may eventually come back to earth, but for now, they are winning football games. Sometimes it is not overly pretty, but if they keep winning, I don't think they will really care. Style points don't matter in the NFL so long as you advance to the playoffs.

The New England Patriots put together a big win over the Denver Broncos, which was enough for me to move the Patriots to the No. 2 spot, and Denver down two spots to No. 3. After those three, we have a mix of 5- and 6-win teams that could make the claim for the top of that group. I did make one adjustment with the Detroit Lions. I had them at No. 4, but given how some teams around them are playing, I dropped them a couple spots even though they did not play on Sunday. Consider it just a basic adjustment.

The Dallas Cowboys are officially a tough team to rank at this point. They are 6-3, with some quality wins, but they are also without Tony Romo right now. With power rankings, some people mix in how they think things will develop, while others are looking at teams exactly how they are now. For me, Dallas is somewhere in the middle because Tony Romo is likely returning from his back injury, so we can't really assess them solely on how they performed this past week.