NFL Power Rankings Summary (Week 9): How Far Will The Cowboys Drop?

There is great humor to be found in the weekly power rankings - if you only look closely enough.

• The people most outraged at the Cowboys' loss to the Lions? The same people who thought the Cowboys weren't any good to begin with.
  
• After the Giants beat the Eagles 15-7 on Sunday, one stat-based ranking has the Giants dropping a spot and the Eagles rising by twelve spots. I don't care who you are, but that's funny right there.
• One of the power rankings surveyed further down this post has the Eagles, Giants, Redskins and Vikings ranked in sequence: 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th. I chuckled.
  
• Cowboys fans tend to be overly critical of their team after a loss. Notice how the writers here at BTB rank the Cowboys 14th, one of the lowest ranks of all 22 power rankings collected below? That's funny and sad at the same time.
• There is a possibility that I am easily amused.

Major Media Networks & Affiliates

Week 9 Rankings (previous rankings in parenthesis)

CBSSports (Kirwan): 11th (9th): "The Cowboys should have won the Lions game after being ahead with one minute to play, buy they couldn't stop the Detroit passing game. Dallas still has enough to win the NFC East with its passing game and the return of RB DeMarco Murray."

CBSSports.com (Prisco): 11th (10th): "They are still in first place, but that Lions loss had to sting. The Dez Bryant situation bears watching."

Foxsports: 11th (10th): "When you play the Lions, you have to either stop Calvin Johnson or Reggie Bush to have a chance. The Cowboys did neither, surrendering a franchise-worst 623 yards."

Peter King: 13th (10th): "Dallasites will say no, no, no. But until proven otherwise, I say: Same Old Cowboys."

ESPN: 13th (10th): "While Dez Bryant let off steam, Jason Witten had the real cause for frustration. Witten was targeted twice in Sunday's loss. Facing the Vikings defense next could solve some problems."

NFL.com: 13th (12th). "Just so everyone feels better about Sunday's collapse in Detroit, know that defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin was planning on making an adjustment once Calvin Johnson surpassed 700 receiving yards."

Blogs & Other Media

Drafttek: 12th (10th). "Grasping defeat from the jaws of victory, Dallas continues its 16-1/2 season reign of .500 football (132-132 to-date since 1997). Romo threw no interceptions and the Cowboy defense forced 4 turnovers to allow Detroit to become only the 2nd team in 56 tries to win a game with a -4 turnover differential."

ProFootballTalk: 12th (10th): "So how much worse would the defense have been if Rob Ryan hadn’t been fired?"

Newsday.com: 12th (11th). "Dez Bryant = Terrell Owens 2.0."

Shutdown Corner: 13th (11th): "Since 2011, teams that are plus-four in turnover margin, as Dallas was at Detroit, are 54-2. What Dallas did on Sunday is the clear definition of screwing up a win."

SB Nation blogs

Big Blue View (Giants): 12th (10th). "It would have been a signature win for Tony Romo and Co. How will this Dez Bryant issue affect the team heading into next week?"

Blogging The Boys (Your favorite blog): 14th (10th). "The story seems so familiar as the team winds up at .500 again after a last minute loss under circumstances that are depressing and almost impossible to believe. Giving up a game where they were +4 in turnovers raises all the old questions about whether this team can ever break through and become a winner. (Tom)"

SB Nation: 14th (10th): "Halfway through the season, halfway to 8-8, halfway between great and terrible, halfway to getting blown out at home by the Panthers or Niners in the Wild Card round, halfway to bringing in Lovie Smith to fix the defense while squandering Romo's last few seasons with whatever idiotic OC Lovie will favor. Same as it ever was."

Bleeding Green Nation (Eagles): 14th (13th). "Lost in hilarious fashion to the Lions. One of the few teams in the NFL history to lose despite winning the turnover differential with +4. Best team in the NFC East by default."

Statistics, Computer & Vegas rankings

Sagarin NFL rankings: 8th (7th). These are rankings based on W/L record, points differential and schedule strength.

Pro Football Reference: 9th (9th). PFRs Simple Rating System (SRS) takes only two factors into account: strength of schedule and adjusted margin of victory.

Covers.com: 10th (8th). "The good news for the Cowboys defense? They've notched 19 takeaways - third most in the NFL. The bad news? They've allowed 400-plus passing yards four times already."

Teamrankings.com: 10th (9th). This site measures the relative strength of all teams using team performance, home/away status, margin of victory and other factors.

ColdHardFootballFacts: 12th (8th). This indicator ranks teams based on their average ranking across a range of CHFF's Quality Stats.

WhatIfSports.com: 12th (9th). 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.

Oddsshark: 12th (9th). Oddsshark use a multitude of stats to establish an offensive and defensive power ranking, which they then adjust for the strength of schedule.

BeatGraphs.com: 13th (9th). 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.

The table below summarizes the power rankings for the four NFC East teams plus the Cowboys' Week 9 opponent. We will update the remaining power rankings when they are published.

	Wk 9	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 8	Wk9	Wk 8	Week 9
CBSSports.com	11	10	20	17	23	28	26	25	30
Foxsports	11	10	26	21	25	29	20	24	30
Drafttek	12	10	24	20	28	29	26	26	30
Pro Football Talk	12	10	21	18	24	29	28	25	30
Newsday	12	11	22	20	20	29	17	17	30
ESPN	13	10	29	19	29	29	24	23	30
Shutdown Corner	13	11	27	24	28	29	29	27	30
NFL.com	13	12	24	19	27	29	28	27	30
SBNation	14	10	29	19	27	28	22	22	30
WEEI	- -	11	- -	20	- -	27	- -	22	- -
Avg.Opinion-based	12.3	10.5	24.6	19.7	25.6	28.6	24.4	23.8	30.0
Sagarin	8	7	24	20	26	28	25	24	29
Pro Football Reference	9	9	24	19	28	30	23	24	29
Covers.com	10	8	21	17	18	25	22	20	31
Team Rankings	10	9	28	20	27	29	21	18	30
Cold Hard Football Facts	12	8	20	20	31	31	26	21	30
Whatifsports	12	9	15	27	28	24	21	23	25
Oddsshark	12	9	29	29	27	30	19	16	28
Beatgraphs	13	9	23	17	29	30	25	25	32
Massey Peabody	- -	5	- -	24	- -	22	- -	21	- -
Football Outsiders	- -	9	- -	20	- -	31	- -	29	- -
Avg. Stat-based	10.7	8.2	23.0	21.3	26.7	28.0	22.7	22.1	29.2
Total	11.5	9.3	23.8	20.5	26.1	28.3	23.6	22.9	29.6

More from Blogging The Boys:

• Predicting The Remaining Games For The Cowboys
• Brian Waters Done For Season Reports Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones
• DeMarcus Ware: How Do You Manage The Injuries?
• NFL Power Rankings (Week 9): Chiefs, Broncos, Saints On Top; Patriots And Seahawks Slip
• What Is Wrong With The Cowboys' Defense?