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The Dallas Cowboys continue to fall in NFL power rankings

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The Dallas Cowboys continue to fall in NFL power rankings


There is always further to fall than you think. History has taught us this painful lesson many times, unfortunately. Just when we think that there is no way that the Dallas Cowboys could outdo themselves in the embarrassment department, America’s Team shows up true to form.

This week the Cowboys are coming off of a 34-6 drubbing in their home building against the hated Philadelphia Eagles. Under normal circumstances this would upset many of us, but everything around has been so on fire that we have grown used to the new status quo temperature and are no longer phased when it feels a little warm.

It will not shock you to learn that the rest of the NFL finds the Cowboys to be quite bad, but just how bad do people think they are? The time has come for our latest power rankings and gathering of where outlets across the internet have the Cowboys.

You can view last week’s rankings right here.

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1 – Detroit Lions (LW: 1)

You have to find ways to steal a game or two if you are going to lift the Lombardi at the very end of the season. Detroit did that on Sunday night by winning a game that they were supposed to lose. They are such an impressive team to watch.

2 – Kansas City Chiefs (LW: 2)

Talk about stealing games… my goodness. This is the weakest Chiefs team we have seen (from an organization that has won three Super Bowls since 2019!) and they are undefeated through their first nine games. It must be so nice.

3 – Buffalo Bills (LW: 3)

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They seem to be floating among the contending teams in the NFL at large. Up next for them is a chance to give Kansas City their first loss, although the Bills have made way too big of a deal of regular season games against the Chiefs before. Hopefully Buffalo recognizes this is the battle and not the war and even then not the most important battle (relatively speaking).

4 – Baltimore Ravens (LW: 4)

Another team who stole one! Although I don’t know that Baltimore stole their win as much as they just fought a little bit harder. They remain an elite team that is so fun to watch as well.

5 – Philadelphia Eagles (LW: 7)

It wasn’t even annoying that they beat the Cowboys by a score of 34-6 at AT&T Stadium. That is where we are at.

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6 – Washington Commanders (LW: 5)

Sunday was a tough loss, but this is clearly a very good team that is going to be playing in the middle of January. Their game against Philly on Thursday night will be highly entertaining.

7 – Minnesota Vikings (LW: 6)

It never feels right to drop a team after they win, but Minnesota barely held on against a struggling Jaguars team. Kevin O’Connell is so impressive, but it feels fair to say that the Vikings are losing some steam a bit.

8 – San Francisco 49ers (LW: 8)

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Do you mean to tell me that they did not look like juggernauts in the first game that they played after they played the Cowboys?

Shocked! I am shocked!

9 – Green Bay Packers (LW: 9)

Welcome back from the bye.

10 – Arizona Cardinals (LW: 11)

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I’ve been absorbing Cardinals stock for weeks now and am very happy about it.

Could they seriously win the NFC West?! These are my Cardinals and I am proud of them!

11 – Pittsburgh Steelers (LW: 12)

This whole thing still feels a little like the clock will hit midnight and it will fall apart. But for now Mike Tomlin, Russell Wilson, Mike Williams and everyone else are having the time of their lives.

12 – Houston Texans (LW: 10)

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It feels fair to say they are on a serious fraud watch, but given that they play the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium next Monday night that will stabilize soon enough.

13 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers (LW: 16)

It would be good for the NFL at large if this team made its way into the playoffs. They are tough and Baker Mayfield specifically is a huge reason for that.

14 – Atlanta Falcons (LW: 13)

You cannot lose to the New Orleans Saints. The drop should be more, but I digress.

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15 – Los Angeles Chargers (LW: 17)

Kudos on the win. But my goodness they are so irrelevant in the bigger picture. Maybe playing on Sunday night this week will help with that.

16 – Cincinnati Bengals (LW: 18)

Sometimes a season has a very good team who just caught some poor breaks at the most inopportune times and it all snowballs against them. It feels safe to say that this is the Bengals this year.

17 – Los Angeles Rams (LW: 14)

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They are so up and down these days.

18 – Denver Broncos (LW: 20)

Are we not talking about Bo Nix enough? I know they lost, but wow what an outing at Arrowhead. I’m not ready to crown Sean Payton’s era in Denver as a success but there is no question that this was a step forward, even if they did lose.

19 – Seattle Seahawks (LW: 15)

Another team back from their bye week.

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20 – New England Patriots (LW: 24)

They had nine sacks against the Bears. What. How.

21 – Carolina Panthers (LW: 29)

You can’t help but feel happy for Bryce Young what with everything he has been through. They are going to really enjoy that bye week.

22 – Tennessee Titans (LW: 22)

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Another team who is simply existing right now.

23 – Indianapolis Colts (LW: 23)

Their season feels lost in a different way than Dallas’.

Either way, they are not very good at all.

24 – New Orleans Saints (LW: 31)

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They finally got their first win since blowing the doors off of the Cowboys way back when.

25 – Cleveland Browns (LW: 25)

Maybe the bye week helped out here. Who knows.

26 – Miami Dolphins (LW: 32)

Monday night was certainly impressive, but I maintain that Mike McDaniel is not taking enough national criticism for his team being so flat overall. That says a lot about Miami and its significance, really insignificance, in the national conversation.

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27 – Jacksonville Jaguars (LW: 26)

Floating in the wind.

28 – New York Jets (LW: 19)

They are so unbelievably bad and chaotic. We know that life.

29 – Dallas Cowboys (LW: 27)

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See what I mean?

30 – Chicago Bears (LW: 21)

It is a bummer to see Matt Eberflus go out like this. We had such good times together.

31 – Las Vegas Raiders (LW: 28)

Blah.

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32 – New York Giants (LW: 30)

Imagine if they beat the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.


NFL.com: 24 (LW: 23)

Only a drop of one spot. Interesting.

One day, someone will write the book on how the Cowboys went from winning 16 straight home games to losing five straight at AT&T Stadium — and trailing by 20 or more points in each defeat. It might not be a record, but it sure feels like one. Granted, we all kind of knew what was coming, with a rising Eagles team meeting a down-and-out Cowboys club without its quarterback, Dak Prescott — now for the rest of the season, per Jerry Jones. The roof has metaphorically caved in over the past month, with four straight losses, and Dallas has a Monday night meeting with the Texans and a road trip to face the Commanders on deck. That losing streak could certainly continue. Micah Parsons returned to the lineup and had two drive-stopping sacks in the second quarter, but the Eagles’ offense eventually got cooking, CeeDee Lamb dropped a would-be TD because the curtains weren’t closed and Dallas turned the ball over five times, so it was all for naught.

ESPN: 23 (LW: 22)

This still feels a bit too high, if we are being honest.

They also had a non-quarterback MVP and this one is easy.

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Non-QB MVP: Kicker Brandon Aubrey

When a kicker is under consideration for a team’s MVP, that tells you what type of situation the squad is in. That’s no knock on Aubrey, who has been tremendous. But who else could you pick from a defense that struggles stopping people and an offense that can’t score? Aubrey has made 22 of 24 field goal attempts on the season and is 9-of-10 from 50 yards or more (his only other miss came on a block). Five of his makes have been from 55 yards or longer, including a 65-yarder. — Todd Archer

USA Today: 29 (LW: 26)

Get comfortable down this low.

It’s rare when a team gets rid of the same player a year too early and a year too late. But these are the Cowboys, who never should’ve re-signed washed-up RB Ezekiel Elliott, now averaging 3.2 yards per carry … when he’s actually active.

Yahoo: 24 (LW: 23)

Again, feels kind of high!

Will the Cowboys win another game? Maybe against the Giants on Thanksgiving … maybe. Presumably, we’re going to see Trey Lance soon after Cooper Rush’s awful start, not that Lance will fix anything.

CBS Sports: 25 (LW: 25)

I repeat, too high!

They are done. Their quarterback is out for the year, and the backups aren’t any good. See ya.

The Athletic: 25 (LW: 23)

This is a popular range, it seems. Also please note that this was likely written before Tuesday’s news that Dak Prescott will in fact be having season-ending surgery.

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Dak Prescott is 31 years old, and he could be about to have season-ending surgery to repair a hamstring that is torn off the bone. It wasn’t going great when Prescott was healthy. He’s 27th in EPA per dropback (minus-.05), which is not what the Cowboys were expecting when they made him the highest-paid player in the NFL in the offseason at $60 million annually. Cooper Rush, Dallas’ primary backup since 2021, passed for 45 yards on Sunday, and Trey Lance had 21 yards and one interception on six passes as the Cowboys dropped their fourth straight.

Sports Illustrated: 26 (LW: 24)

Maybe everybody just thinks that other teams stink more than Dallas.

I understand that Mike McCarthy and Cooper Rush had a rapport and that Rush has a good record as a spot starter for Dak Prescott. I also understand that it’s okay to label Trey Lance a project not worth reclamation at this moment in time. I realize I can’t have it both ways, supporting Shane Steichen for benching Anthony Richardson and chiding McCarthy for not playing Lance. But if you were McCarthy and could read the room, getting Lance some easy completions, running a few empty draws, moving the football in a fun way with a quarterback you could attach some modicum of positivity to … isn’t that infinitely better?


Dallas Cowboys Movement Week To Week

Every week (per suggestions from you wonderful BTBers) we will update this graph to note how the Cowboys moved in power rankings according to each of the outlets that we curate.

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Game Day Guide: Stars at Wild | Dallas Stars

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Game Day Guide: Stars at Wild | Dallas Stars


First Shift 🏒

For the past four regular seasons, the Stars have the best road record in the NHL.

Through 164 games, Dallas tops the league with a .655 points percentage away from home. It also leads in goals per game at 3.40 and in GAA at 2.70. That spans two different head coaches and several different players, but there is a culture that the team hopes to tap into Wednesday when the best-of-seven playoff series moves to Minnesota for Game 3.

“You have to be able to play on the road,” said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. “Since my time here, our guys feel really comfortable.”

The Stars were tied for second in road points percentage this season at .683, so an actual improvement over their previous average. They were third in GAA at 2.73 and sixth in scoring at 3.41, so the league has improved. That said, the new coaching staff has also embraced a sound road strategy.

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Like Pete DeBoer before him, Gulutzan doesn’t worry too much about matching lines – at home or on the road. The road matching can create some real gymnastics, as the home team gets second change. But the fact that a team chooses not to chase that part of the game.

“That’s why you program your guys to play in those situations and not yank them off every time something happens,” Gulutzan said. “That way they have the confidence to play in all of those situations.”

The Stars coach did make some tweaks after a disappointing team performance in Game 1. Arttu Hyry jumped in for Adam Erne and played center on a line with Jamie Benn and Sam Steel. The right-handed Hyry was a solid complement to lefties Steel and Benn. That allowed Hryckowian to move up to the top line in place of Steel. The left-handed Hryckowian is good balance to right-handed center Johnston.

Again, when you have those options, you are comfortable with whatever line is on the ice.

“I like our combinations right now,” Gulutzan said. “One of the things you worry about is the hands of your centermen, and on each line we have a righty and a lefty that are more than capable. Plus, all of the guys know their systems and their jobs, and they’ve been doing it all year.”

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The Stars have had several injuries this season to key players, and that means everyone has played everywhere with everyone else. That’s big this time of year.

“I definitely think that helps,” said Colin Blackwell. “It just makes everything flow. If the coaches shuffle things up, you usually land with someone you have played with before.”

And that means playing on the road isn’t as difficult. The biggest challenge might be fact that Minnesota will be fired up by its home crowd and will be looking to make a point about grievances they perceived in Game 2.

“I don’t know if we need a bulletin board,” Gulutzan said when asked about the Wild making “bulletin board” statements Monday. “We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing and grind this thing to where we need it to go.”

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The Brandon Aubrey Deal | DZTV

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The Brandon Aubrey Deal | DZTV


The Dumb Zone hosts analyze the record-breaking contract extension for Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey, critiquing the team’s media narrative regarding the negotiations and debating the kicker’s value in a “fourth-down revolution” era.



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Johnston scores twice, Stars hold off Wild in Game 2 to even West 1st Round | NHL.com

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Johnston scores twice, Stars hold off Wild in Game 2 to even West 1st Round | NHL.com


Johnston gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 8:58 of the first period. His slap shot from above the right face-off circle deflected off Wild forward Danila Yurov and then bounced off the end boards and in off Wallstedt’s left arm.

“I’ve had a goal like that go in on me, too, that’s a tough bounce,” Oettinger said. “Like I said in Game 1, we got some bad bounces. We got a nice bounce there. We had one where I was behind the net, and the guy was shooting it in the net and our (defense) stopped it, so we got some good bounces. The way we played the last 40 minutes of the game, I think, didn’t give up much, had a ton of good chances offensively. The power play, we got looks and our (penalty kill) was great. If we kind of build off the game that we played the last 40 minutes, I think we should feel very good for the next few games.”

Faber tied it 1-1 at 11:33. He took a pass from Hughes, skated around Robertson in the left circle and cut to the slot, where his wrist shot ramped up and in off Oettinger.

Duchene put the Stars back up 2-1 with a power-play goal at 4:02 of the second period. Mikko Rantanen gained the offensive zone along the right boards and sent a backhand pass to Duchene, who snapped the puck between Wallstedt’s pads from in front.

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Robertson made it 3-1 at 7:09 of the third period when he tipped Lundkvist’s wrist shot from the blue line past the right pad of Wallstedt.

“I think we got to do a better job, I mean, the odd-man’s, right? I thought we played a really good game. Probably their best game, you know, meaningful game. And, yeah, we didn’t get fazed by it. Was really good by us. Just got to be smarter in some areas, and we get to go back home and in front of our crowd,” Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno said. “They want (penalties). I mean, they’re looking to play 5-on-4. I mean, that’s their game. They can’t hang with us 5-on-5. We got to just be smarter, and myself included. But it’s a heated game out there. You’re gonna have emotional swings and learn from it. We got a split series.”



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