Dallas Cowboys Week 11 Power Rankings: The Only Way Is Up

The Cowboys climbed a little closer to a .500 record with the win over the Eagles on Sunday, and that naturally helps them move up the power rankings a little bit.

It's not enough to pull level with the Giants, who find themselves tumbling out of the top ten, but it puts them within reach. The Eagles, with the Redskins in tow, are nearing the bottomless pit of these power rankings where the Cowboys' next opponents, the Browns, await them with open arms.

Did you know that there are only four teams with more losses in the league than the Eagles and Redskins? Now you do. On to this week's power rankings as that old Yazz tune cycles gently through my circuitry.

Week 11 (previous rankings in parenthesis)

WEII.com: 12th (12th). "Thanks to the Giants, the Cowboys are right back in the playoff race. Dallas has the talent to get into the postseason. Whether they can play smart football the rest of the way is the main question."

NFL.com's Brain Trust of Experts: 12th (17th). Comments by Elliot Harrison, who ranks the Cowboys 15th: "(No blurb. It jumped offside moments before you clicked on this article.)"

Newsday.com: 15th (15th). "A season-saving win at Philly? Could be. With the Giants slumping and a soft schedule for Dallas, the Cowboys might be back in the mix. "

ESPN: 15th (18th). "They won the battle of the disappointments Sunday in Philadelphia. Can they play well enough to push Giants? (Graziano)"

Pro Football Weekly: 15th (18th). "Now is the time to make a run: next four games are vs. losing teams."

reddit.com: 15th (17th). "The score looks dominant and the highlights are sexy, but everything in between was unimpressive. The Cowboys show once again that they play to the level of their opponents and fail to offer any evidence that the team is hitting its stride for the last half of the season."

Fox Sports: 16th (16th). "The Cowboys were penalized 13 times for 75 yards in Philly on Sunday, but were able to overcome it because they didn't turn the ball over. Tony Romo was held to a season low in passing yards, but that isn't necessarily a bad formula for the Cowboys offense."

Drafttek.com: 16th (17th). "Celebrate a record that's 1 game under .500 or finding a team that's more stupid and less disciplined than you are? At any rate, with the Giants' loss today, Dallas is still in the running for the NFC East division crown (as crazy as that sounds)!"

CBSsports.com: 16th (19th). "Their season looked dead in the fourth quarter, but they turned it around with two big plays, one on special teams and one on defense. Now what?"

SB Nation: 18th (22nd). "They're only a game and a half behind the Giants in the NFC East, but does anyone think they're catching New York?" Yes.

Pro Football Talk: 21st (23rd). "Don’t look now, but this team could still climb back into the NFC East race. Just in time for the Giants to win it late."

Beatgraphs.com: 11th (n.a.). Though technically not a power ranking, they are included here anyway. 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.

Sagarin NFL rankings: 12th (12th). These are rankings based on W/L record, points differential and schedule strength.

Covers.com: 12th (13th). "Looking for a candidate for a strong late season run? You've found one. Six of the Cowboys' final seven games come against opponents that currently sport losing records."

Teamrankings.com: 16th (14th). This site measures the relative strength of all teams using team performance, home/away status, margin of victory and other factors.

WhatIFsports: 19th (17th). 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.

Below is how the NFC East fared in this week's power rankings, with the Browns added free of charge.

	wk11	wk10	wk11	wk10	wk11	wk10	wk11	wk10	wk11
WEEI	12	12	23	20	10	10	22	22	30
NFL.com	12	17	19	20	8	5	30	23	31
Newsday	15	15	26	22	9	5	22	20	30
reddit.com	15	17	25	22	9	6	21	20	30
ESPN	15	18	24	21	10	5	21	19	30
ProFootballWeekly	15	18	23	22	11	7	24	23	30
Foxsports	16	16	22	22	14	9	20	20	26
Drafttek	16	17	25	22	11	9	22	22	30
CBSSports.com	16	19	22	20	12	9	26	25	30
SBNation	18	22	19	18	11	6	20	19	30
Pro Football Talk	21	23	27	24	11	6	24	24	30
Avg.Opinion-based	15.5	17.6	23.1	21.1	10.5	7.0	22.9	21.5	29.7
Sagarin Ratings	12	12	29	26	9	8	19	19	28
Covers.com	12	13	23	18	8	6	22	20	27
Team Rankings	16	14	30	25	15	8	26	24	28
Whatifsports	19	17	29	26	7	6	24	25	28
Avg. Stat-based	14.7	14.0	27.7	23.7	9.7	7.0	22.7	22.0	27.7
Total Average	15.3	16.6	24.4	21.8	10.3	7.0	22.8	21.6	29.2