Power Rankings Tuesday: Colts Drop after Big Loss

After a terrible game on Sunday against the Cowboys, the Colts will likely drop significantly in the power rankings this week.  The Colts fell to 10-5 on the season and are now locked in to the fourth overall seed in the AFC playoffs.  They will play the loser of next week's game between the Bengals and Steelers in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.  Let's take a look at where the Colts are at in this week's power rankings after getting blown out in a 42-7 loss.

ESPN ranks the Colts tenth, down three from last week:

Sunday was the worst game of Andrew Luck's career, by both traditional measures (career-low 109 passing yards) and Total QBR (career-worst 11.2). Can Indy be successful limping into the playoffs?

NFL.com's Elliot Harrison has the Colts ranked eleventh, down five spots from a week ago:

Have provided this advice to other coaches and will now give it to Chuck Pagano (free of charge!): Take the game film and chuck it, Chuck. Given the state of the running game and the middling defense, it's obvious Indy can ill afford any more injuries or Andrew Luck turnovers. Not in the playoffs, anyway, as the Titans unfortunately won't be on the schedule. Luck can still beat any team on any given day, yet it's hard to overlook that the Colts have appeared so underwhelming against teams with double-digit wins. OK, so they stomped the Bengals in Week 7. Since then, though, they've been blown off the field by Pittsburgh, New England and Dallas. Those three clubs beat Indianapolis by a combined score of 135-61. That is not a misprint.

CBS' Pat Kirwan ranks the Colts tenth, down one spot from last week:

Colts (9): How long can Andrew Luck carry this team? He needs help from an injury-riddled offensive line, and the defense has to play better or it could be one-and-done in the playoffs. Luck's turnovers are a product of him having to do too much and trying to make plays with pressure all around him.

CBS' Pete Prisco ranks the Colts ninth, down two spots from a week ago:

They might be a 4-12 team were it not for Andrew Luck, and even he's slowed down some the past month. Did they just feast on a bad division?

Shutdown Corner's Frank Schwab has the Colts ninth, down three spots:

They're 5-0 against the terrible AFC South and 5-5 against the rest of the NFL. The allure of Andrew Luck carrying the Colts beyond their talent level is the reason they've been overrated. But now even Luck is in a slump.

FOX Sports ranks the Colts ninth, a drop of two spots from last week:

The Colts will need some Andrew Luck magic to advance in the postseason, because they haven't matched up well against the league's elite quarterbacks and they have a nonexistent running game.

The Monday Morning Quarterback's Peter King has the Colts ranked tenth, down two spots from a week ago:

10. Indianapolis (10-5). All I could think of while watching that debacle in Dallas was this: Not Indy's year. Ryan Grigson needs another good draft.

SB Nation's Danny Kelly ranks the Colts ninth, down three spots from last week.  Bleeding Green Nation's Brandon Lee Gowton ranks the Colts seventh, down two spots:

7) Indianapolis Colts (LW: 5) - Big road loss to the Cowboys but it's not like they had a lot to play for. Indy wrapped up the AFC South last week.

Ultimately, in most of the power rankings the Colts remained in the top ten, but they did see a drop.  The Colts dropped an average of two spots in the power rankings, so it's not terrible.  At this point in the year, however, the power rankings really don't mean anything (not like they did earlier in the year either) and the goal at this point is the playoffs and winning in the playoffs.  The Colts have clinched a playoff spot already and the goal is making a run, so a top ten power ranking won't matter much.  But what it does do is give a representation of how the Colts are playing, and for that they saw another drop in the rankings this week.