NFL Power Rankings Summary (Week 5): Cowboys Drop, Giants & Eagles Too

Here's a look at the Dallas Cowboys and NFC East power rankings heading into Week 5 of the 2013 NFL season.

As a trial run, we're including comments from our division rivals' SBN blogs and the upcoming opponent's SBN blog.

Major Media Networks & Affiliates

Week 5 (previous rankings in parenthesis)

CBSSports.com (Prisco): 13th (9th): "What happened to the pass defense against the Chargers? Philip Rivers carved them up. Now here comes Peyton Manning to town."

Peter King: 13th (12th): "Eighteen tackles for Sean Lee, on the road. Not bad."

CBSSports (Kirwan): 16th (11th): "Just when I was ready to believe in the Cowboys they looked like earlier versions of the Dallas experience. I said last week that when DeMarco Murray gets 20 carries, the team is 10-0. He got 14 carries in the loss to San Diego."

Foxsports: 17th (11th): "Every time I want to buy into the Cowboys they go out and completely disappoint me. It's like a bad horror movie: I run up the stairs when I should just run right out the front door! "

NFL.com: 18th (12th). "Hate to say it, but coaching failed the Cowboys on Sunday in San Diego. First, the Cowboys failed to adjust on defense; Bruce Carter and Sean Lee were consistently left to cover Antonio Gates, who caught 10 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown. Jason Garrett's decision to attempt a 56-yard field goal on grass (rather than punt or go for it on fourth down) midway through the second quarter was an equally significant mistake, as Dan Bailey's miss gave the Chargers premium field position and, ultimately, a field goal of their own. Those three points loomed large at the end, when the Cowboys were scrambling for two scores instead of just pushing for one. "

ESPN: 18th (15th): "Dez Bryant caught six of nine targets for 81 yards and two touchdowns, his seventh career game with multiple TD catches. What's weird is the Cowboys are 1-6 in those seven games."

Blogs & Other Media

Shutdown Corner: 14th (14th): "Seven wins probably are probably good enough to win the NFC East, and the Cowboys might not get more than that."

Drafttek: 16th (12th). "Defense didn't look quite as dominating, offense not nearly as controlling . . . and in the words of Denny Green, "The Cowboys are who we thought they are!", basically a .500 team and we were willing to let them off the hook. However, .500 may win the NFC LEast!"

SB Nation: 18th (15th): "I got hate mail last week when I suggested that the Cowboys were bound for their best 8-8 season under Jason Garrett. I misspoke. I meant 7-9 season. But save your hate mail, that's good enough for a division title and a home playoff game this year."

Newsday.com: 18th (15th). "Cowboys return to where they’ve been most comfortable the last several years – a .500 record."

ProFootballTalk: 21st (14th): "How in the hell are we in first place in the NFC East?"

SB Nation blogs

Big Blue View (Giants): 15th (14th). "A quick glance at the box score shows the Cowboys played pretty well despite losing to the Chargers. Still, they're leading the NFC East."

Mile High Report (Broncos):15th (10th). "Tony Romo did what he does best and that's lose. The Cowboys face Denver next week in a showdown in Dallas. The media will be all over it I'm sure, because we all know how great the NFC East is and Dallas in particular. Out of all of the NFC East teams, Dallas could pose the biggest challenge though, so it will be important for the Broncos to remain focused and not full of themselves."

Blogging The Boys (That's us): 17th (9th). "Dallas had a 21-10 lead in the second quarter but surrendered the game's final 20 points. The Cowboys' shiny new defense has only held one opposing quarterback below a 95.0 passer rating in four games; you can't win a lot of games that way. And with the league's highest rated passer coming to Dallas next week, Monte Kiffin and his staff had better think of something, or Peyton Manning will engineer his fifth straight blowout."

Bleeding Green Nation (Eagles): 18th (15th). "Dallas had a chance to take to prove they are the best team in the NFC East... but they didn't. They just proved they are the least worst."

Statistics, Computer & Vegas rankings

Massey-Peabody: 7th (8th). These guys generate their predictions by working up from play-by-play data to calculate a performance figure for rushing, passing, scoring and play success.

Covers.com: 10th (6th). "After laying another egg last week off a blowout win, the Cowboys are now 1-5 ATS since the start off the 2011 campaign immediately following a win by more than a TD."

BeatGraphs.com: 12th (10th). BeatGraphs provide rankings that cannot be defeated by a chain of A beat B beat C scenarios. In the end, when all ambiguity is removed, if A has beaten B, A will be ranked above B.

WhatIfSports.com: 13th (7th). 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: 14th (7th). These are rankings based on W/L record, points differential and schedule strength.

Oddsshark: 14th (10th). Oddsshark use a multitude of stats to establish an offensive and defensive power ranking, which they then adjust for the strength of schedule.

Pro Football Reference: 14th (- -). PFRs Simple Rating System (SRS) takes only two factors into account: strength of schedule and adjusted margin of victory.

Football Outsiders: 16th (14th). FO have the Cowboys with the 10th-ranked offense, the 20th-ranked defense and the 16th-ranked special teams.

Teamrankings.com: 21st (17th). This site measures the relative strength of all teams using team performance, home/away status, margin of victory and other factors.

The table below summarizes the power rankings for the four NFC East teams, as well as the Cowboys' next opponent, the Denver Broncos. We will update the remaining power rankings when they are published.

Weeks	wk5	wk4	wk5	wk4	wk5	wk4	wk5	wk4	wk5
CBSSports.com	13	9	25	20	30	29	26	30	1
Shutdown Corner	14	14	25	20	30	25	26	26	1
Drafttek	16	12	26	23	29	29	25	28	1
Foxsports	17	11	22	20	28	29	27	28	1
NFL.com	18	12	23	20	31	28	25	26	1
SBNation	18	15	25	19	28	27	27	23	1
Newsday	18	15	23	20	29	26	22	21	1
ESPN	18	15	27	23	30	29	25	27	1
Pro Football Talk	21	14	23	19	29	27	27	29	1
WEEI	- -	15	- -	18	- -	26	- -	23	- -
Avg.Opinion-based	17.0	13.2	24.3	20.2	29.3	27.5	25.5	26.1	1.0
Massey Peabody	7	8	24	24	20	19	18	22	1
Covers.com	10	6	20	17	26	22	21	21	1
Beatgraphs	12	10	21	29	24	30	29	32	11
Whatifsports	13	7	26	15	29	27	28	25	1
Sagarin	14	7	27	23	29	14	23	25	1
Oddsshark	14	10	31	31	24	19	11	9	2
Pro Football Reference	14	- -	24	- -	28	- -	27	- -	1
Football Outsiders	16	14	26	15	31	31	28	30	1
Team Rankings	21	17	27	30	28	28	29	31	4
Avg. Stat-based	13.4	9.8	25.1	23.0	26.5	23.7	23.7	24.3	2.5
Total	15.2	11.7	24.7	21.4	27.9	25.8	24.6	25.3	1.7

More from Blogging The Boys:

• Dallas Cowboys News & Notes: NFL Analysts Still Favor Cowboys To Win NFC East
• NFL Power Rankings: Week 5 - Impressive Broncos & Saints Soar, Giants & Steelers Done
• Is Offense The Cowboys' Weak Link?
• Cowboys @ Chargers: Loss Features A Herd Of Goats
• Are The Dallas Cowboys On Track For Yet Another Eight-Win Season?