Cleveland Browns slide in latest NFL power rankings after losing to Titans

As the regular season winds down, week-to-week movement in most Power Rankings becomes less and less dramatic, especially for teams that have been dwelling at the bottom for the better part of the season, like the Cleveland Browns.

Nonetheless, a game like last Sunday’s 31-29 flop against the Titans, previously considered almost unanimously as the NFL’s worst team, will still sink your club in most cases.

The Browns lost positions on five of the eight weekly NFL Power Rankings we check out regularly, while they stayed put in one. Surprisingly, two media outlets saw enough out of Cleveland despite the loss to promote the team on their rankings. This, most likely, could be explained at least in part because fifth-round rookie Shedeur Sanders has been named the team’s starting quarterback for the rest of the way after his finest performance to date.

Sports Illustrated had the Browns climbing to 27th, up one rung from the previous week, while Yahoo!Sports also elevated them one position, to 26th, on theirs.

Meanwhile, FoxSports saw fit to keep them at the same spot they held last week, 29th, while the Browns lost one position in each of the following Power Rankings: ESPN (to 28th), NFL.com (29th), and ProFootballTalk (27th). CBSSports decked the Browns with a two-position demotion, to 31st, while USA TODAY Sports was tough on Cleveland this week, pushing them downwards to 28th, a five spot downgrade.

Elsewhere in the AFC North, two of the three Browns’ in-division rivals saw their stock generally plunge as a result of their own Week 14 misfortunes. The Ravens were beaten by the Steelers, while the Bengals couldn’t keep up with the Bills. As a result, only Pittsburgh came out of the weekend looking good.

The Steelers surged in all eight Power Rankings consulted, including a seven spot leap for ESPN that now places them 14th, tied with Sports Illustrated, NFL.com and ProFootballTalk as their highest standing.

The Ravens’ largest drop was a three-rung loss in CBSSports’ and USA TODAY Sports’ lists, meaning that they are not positioned better than 16th, which is where they appear in NFL.com’s rankings. Not too long ago, they were the best-positioned team in the AFC North.

Finally, the Bengals have leapfrogged Baltimore on one list, surprisingly: they jumped two spots on USA TODAY Sports’ to 18th, one place above the Ravens and one behind the Steelers according to that outlet. Nonetheless, they are placed in the 22nd-23rd range on five out of the eight rankings consulted, as the third best team out of the four.

Among Cleveland’s four remaining games, there’s a pending showdown against Cincinnati, which means the Browns could potentially still end the season out of the AFC North cellar if they can finish the season on a roll. But for that to happen they need to learn how to finish games, a lesson that obviously hasn’t been learned yet by this club, judging by the mess in the final minutes of the loss against Tennessee.