San Francisco stayed unbeaten and kept the top spot in the Week 7 Power Rankings after finishing off Washington with a late sack on Jayden Daniels. What looked like another routine win turned into a tense finish, but Kyle Shanahan's team still walked away with its undefeated status intact.
That is why the search for NFL undefeated teams points straight to San Francisco right now. The 49ers were dominant early and looked in control before the fourth quarter turned messy, and the final defensive play was enough to stop Washington's comeback bid. The result kept San Francisco at No. 1 and left the rest of the league still trying to catch the team everyone is chasing.
The way the game unraveled matters almost as much as the final score. San Francisco had built a lead that should have been safe, then let Washington make it close enough to create doubt. That is the difference between a clean win and a warning sign: the 49ers did not lose their grip, but they gave it a brief shake.
Week 7 also brought movement just below the top. The Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings each climbed three spots, with Buffalo up to No. 3 and Minnesota at No. 4. The Vikings rose even while they were on a bye, which says plenty about how the rankings are shifting around teams that keep winning or keep looking more complete than the ones ahead of them.
Elsewhere, Kansas City beat the Chargers despite red-zone problems and a Patrick Mahomes interception, while Buffalo won again behind a timely turnover and late James Cook heroics. The Jaguars lost a high-scoring game to the Texans at Wembley Stadium after erasing a 10-point deficit, only to fall on a last-second defeat. Caleb Williams also returned to action and looked like he had never suffered a hamstring injury, while Tampa Bay suffered its fifth loss in six games after a fourth-quarter collapse.
For now, though, the story at the top is simple. San Francisco is still undefeated, still No. 1, and still the team every other contender has to run down before the next rankings update arrives.
