NFL Power Rankings Week 10: Cowboys Move Ahead Of Eagles

With the Cowboys' win over the Seahawks, in power ranking parlance, the 18th-ranked team beat the 27th-ranked team. Is that enough to move the Cowboys up the power rankings? It barely is, as the Cowboys show a modest gain of about three spots to fifteenth.

The Eagles - whom eight of the twenty rankings we review here still have ranked above the Cowboys - barely drop below the Cowboys to sixteenth. The Giants have reason to celebrate as they crack the consensus top ten for the first time this season, coming in at an average of around seventh. The Redskins finally ride their four-game losing streak further down the power rankings and find themselves in the 24th spot.

The summary of this week's power rankings after the break.

Week 10 (previous rankings in parenthesis)

CBSsports.com: 15th (20h). "It wasn't pretty against Seattle, but they found a way. They need more from their passing game moving forward."

ProFootballTalk.com: 15th (20th). "No team manhandles bad teams and struggles against good teams like the Cowboys."

WEEI.com: 15th (21st). "Who would’ve known Felix Jones going down was a blessing in disguise for the Cowboys? DeMarco Murray has added a much-needed spark to the run game. Now, the Cowboys need to improve in the red zone and in the fourth quarter if they want to have a shot at a playoff berth. Tony Romo and the offense have scored just 10 touchdowns this year in the red zone."

ESPN: 15th (21st). "Three of the Cowboys' next four opponents have losing records. If they are going to make a run, now is the time."

Fox Sports: 16th (18th). Brian Billick likes DeMarco Murray: "DeMarco Murray appears to be the real deal. His field vision is what is most impressive, he rarely carries the ball into the wrong hole and sees the cutback lanes as well as anyone. The Cowboys would do well to follow the Bears' lead: play good defense, run the ball and don't turn it over. Keep Romo to 30-35 throws and the Cowboys can stay in a lot of games."

Walter Football: 16th (19th). No comments this week, as the site only provides comments for the top ten and bottom ten teams.

National Football Post: 16th (20th). "The Cowboys are hanging around at 4-4, but will this team compete for a playoff spot?"

Pro Football Weekly: 16th (21st). "DeMarco Murray looking like an absolute Draft Day steal."

SB Nation: 16th (21st). "The Cowboys say this is the time to start separating from the pack. Games against the Bills, Redskins, Dolphins and Cardinals will help."

Sporting News: 16st (21st). "The Cowboys should keep riding Murray with a favorable schedule over the next month. It includes games against Buffalo, at Washington, against Miami and at Arizona."

Covers.com: 17th (19th). "The Cowboys could conceivably be favored in each of their next five games. They must make a move before a difficult last three."

NFL.com's Brain Trust of Experts: 17th (20th). Steve Wyche and Charles Davis have the Cowboys at 15th, the rest of the panel has them lower.

Drafttek.com: 18th (19th). The Draft Gurus are the strong, silent types and don't provide any comments. They move the Cowboys up a spot but surprisingly keep don't move the Eagles at all and even keep them above Dallas.

Advanced NFL Stats: 6th (6th). The Cowboys stay put as the offense moves up to seventh (+1) and the defense drops to twelfth (-1).

WhatIFsports: 7th (8th). These guys simulate every possible match-up in the NFL 100 times, and use the winning percentages from those nearly 50,000 games to evaluate every team, with updated rosters and depth charts.

Sagarin NFL rankings: 15th (15th). These are rankings based on W/L record, points differential and schedule strength. Cowboys move up a spot as the Ravens tumble into the 9th spot after their heinous Monday Night loss to the Jaguars

Football Outsiders: 16th (16th). FO have the Cowboys with the 11th-ranked offense (+4), the 12-ranked defense (-4) and the 23rd ranked special teams (+3).

Teamrankings.com: 17th (18th). This site measures the relative strength of all teams using team performance, home/away status, margin of victory and other factors.

Beatgraphs: 18th (11th). Beatgraphs is based on head-to-head matchups and calculates a series of Team A beat Team B beat Team C scenarios to arrive at a ranking where if Team A has beaten Team B, Team A will be ranked above B. Worth checking out for the crazy graphs these guys produce.

Below is how the NFC East fared in this week's power rankings, with next week's opponent, the Bills, added for good measure:

CBSSports.com	15	20	19	18	3	4	22	22	12
Pro Football Talk	15	20	20	19	3	6	25	24	14
ESPN	15	21	16	16	6	9	22	22	14
WEEI	15	21	16	14	8	10	22	22	14
Foxsports	16	18	17	15	5	11	25	24	14
Walter Football	16	19	14	6	5	11	29	27	12
NFP	16	20	15	8	2	5	26	24	13
Pro Football Weekly	16	21	15	17	5	7	23	23	13
SBNation	16	21	20	18	8	10	22	22	12
Sportingnews	16	21	17	14	5	7	26	26	14
Covers.com	17	19	18	16	11	5	27	25	14
NFL.com	17	20	15	15	4	9	25	25	13
Drafttek	18	19	16	16	8	11	23	23	12
Avg. Opinion-based	16.0	20.0	16.8	14.8	5.6	8.1	24.4	23.8	13.2
AdvancedNFLStats.com	6	6	4	3	9	9	19	17	10
Whatifsports	7	8	13	14	12	12	29	26	14
Sagarin Ratings	15	15	14	11	16	20	24	23	10
Football Outsiders	16	16	14	13	6	7	24	25	10
Team Rankings	17	18	18	11	9	20	28	25	14
Aikman Ratings	17	21	15	14	9	8	23	23	10
Beatgraphs	18	11	21	15	15	22	20	19	10
Avg. Stat-based	13.7	13.6	14.1	11.6	10.9	14	23.9	22.6	11.1
Total Average	15.2	17.8	15.9	13.7	7.5	10.2	24.2	23.4	12.5

The missing rankings will be updated as they become available