Let me first say that NFL rankings are absolutely meaningless. I know that, so I'm not upset about this. Mostly, I'm just amused. Yes, the Raiders are playing much better this year than they have during most of the last decade, but I'm not buying King's rankings. What else is new?

9. Oakland (5-4). No team has had a better bye week in a long, long time. The Raiders were a half-game behind first-place Kansas City in the AFC West entering Sunday's games. Kansas City lost. Oakland has the tiebreaker edge because of last week's head-to-head win over the Chiefs. So now the Raiders and Chiefs are both 5-4, and the Raiders are in first because of that tiebreaker edge.

10. Philadelphia (5-3). Big game tonight, Mike Vick.

11. New Orleans (6-3). Bye week. Interesting two-game stretch in five days now -- Seattle at home, then at Dallas on Thanksgiving. Winnable, certainly, both of them. But that Dallas game is a lot more interesting and more challenging now.

I have no real problem with the other teams ranked ahead of us. Although, the Giants, Steelers, and Ravens just got their asses handed to them pretty badly, so I don't buy that they're necessarily better teams. If this truly is a weekly assessment of  teams, I'm not sure they've earned that much respect. I do agree, however, that there are no great teams this year. They all can be beat. The next two months should be very interesting.