Power Rankings: Time to play out one seriously long string

Season over.

That's a phrase I like to use a lot. The real end of the NFL regular season isn't for a couple of months, but the phrase applies to a third of the league's teams right now.

(By the way, did you see I went 11-2 against the spread in my expert picks?)

The rest of the season is inconsequential for Dennis Green's Cardinals -- and 10 other teams. (AP)

Take a look at the bottom 11 teams of our CBS SportsLine.com Power Rankings. Do any of them have a chance to make the playoffs?

No, so it's season over before the World Series starts.

Sure, they can play out the string, hoping to win a game here and there, but the reality is that it's time to start looking ahead to free-agency next March and getting those scouts primed for the draft.

(By the way, did you see I went 11-2 against the spread in my expert picks?)

Nobody is worse than the Oakland Raiders. They remain the only winless team in the league, a bona fide mess. At one point during Sunday's loss to the Broncos, NBC announcer John Madden, a former Raiders coach, said the losing was killing owner Al Davis.

Probably not the proper words, considering Davis appears frail and was using a walker to get around when Madden was inducted into the Hall of Fame in August. You could tell Madden wanted those words back as soon as he said them.

But even in his current state, Davis is a competitor, one who lives by the "Just Win, Baby" mantra. So this can't be sitting well with him. Not only are the Raiders losing, they're doing it in embarrassing style. When right tackle Langston Walker went down with a head injury, it forced Chad Slaughter in at that position. He proceeded to get penalized four times for false starts.

Last time I checked, head coach Art Shell and line coach Jackie Slater were Hall of Fame tackles. Not only that, but the Raiders have a third line assistant, former tackle Irv Eatman.

And Slaughter can't stay in his stance?

That's inexcusable.

(By the way, did you see I went 11-2 against the spread in my expert picks?)

The polar opposite of the Raiders are the Chicago Bears, who somehow found a way to win a game they had no business winning Monday night at Arizona. They won without getting an offensive touchdown, getting two defensive scores and a punt return to win 24-23.

That's the sign of a good team. Somehow, when their MVP-candidate quarterback turns into a scatter-armed, brainless passer, they find a way to pull out a victory. Of course, it had to happen against Arizona. Admit it, when Neil Rackers missed that last-minute field goal, you thought to yourself, "Of course. It's Arizona."

That's why the Cardinals, a team I thought would push for a division title, are one of those teams at the bottom of these rankings that are going nowhere, planning for 2007.

Season over.

(By the way, did you see I went 11-2 against the spread in my expert picks?)

The rankings for Oct. 17: