49ers drop to 31st in power rankings, although an intriguing Bucs matchup awaits after the bye

Another week, another heart-breaking 49ers loss. I suppose plenty are not heart-broken in light of the improved draft position, but even the most pessimistic of fan has to be at least a little annoyed by the late blown game.

Whatever the case, the 49ers dropped to 2-8 and head into their bye week trying to figure out some of the problems that re-appeared after a strong win over the Oakland Raiders the week prior. I don’t think anybody took the win over the Raiders as a sign the 49ers were going to run off a long win streak, but there was some hope maybe the team would show themselves to be better than near the bottom of the barrel.

We’re back with my Week 11 NFL power rankings, and I dropped them down to 31st. You could make some arguments they are better than one or two teams ahead of them, but considering they’ve lost three games to the Giants and Cardinals, it’s hard to justify them being better than anybody but the Raiders. If the defense could spring a few more turnovers this might be different, but they are not, so they kind of are what they are for the time being.

The 49ers travel to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the bye week, which provides a chance to rebound. The Bucs defense is shaky at best, and the offense is wildly inconsistent under Ryan Fitzpatrick. This past week against Washington, the Bucs nearly doubled them up in both total yards and first downs, but only managed three points in the 16-3 loss. As we’ve seen with the 49ers, it came down to turnovers, with the Bucs committing four in their loss. The 49ers-Bucs Week 12 matchup could be a sort of irresistible force vs immovable object type of game.