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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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Dallas, TX

Victor Cruz agrees that playing the Cowboys comes with a bit of extra motiviation

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Victor Cruz agrees that playing the Cowboys comes with a bit of extra motiviation


Something I have come to realize is that if you are a Dallas Cowboys fan around the age of 40 (a little room for flexibility at the top) or younger, you have only gotten the bad in this. Your friends, family, co-workers, etc. all tease you and mock you when your team loses and for the majority of your life, for all of your adult life, that has been the case.

You get the treatment that fans of the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Yankees get in terms of meme-ability but without any sort of hardware to make crawling through the mud worth it. Consider that each of those teams are dealing with droughts of their own, the youngest of which was born when Dallas’ was already 14 years old.

It is for this reason that when CeeDee Lamb said following Monday night’s loss that teams are looking to “embarrass” the Cowboys that I found it interesting. I’m not here to act like playing the Cowboys “is so and so’s Super Bowl”, but I do put some stock into the idea that opposing teams smell blood in the water so to speak and know that a domination against America’s Team lives a little bit louder than most. Consider all the fanfare that the New Orleans Saints picked up earlier this season as a recent example.

These are just my two cents though so I was curious how someone who has actually been in those shoes/cleats feels about the whole thing. Thankfully I had an opportunity to talk to former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz earlier this week and asked him about the idea among other things.

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You can watch our conversation here:

Cruz’s Giants team won the Super Bowl 13 years ago when Dallas’ drought was already 16 years old (I’d imagine Jerry Jones bought them a brand new Mercedes for the occasion). They famously defeated the Cowboys in an NFC East title game in Week 17 at MetLife Stadium, the first of three in a row that Dallas would lose to each of their division rivals. I lived those three years like every one of you and still cannot believe that they actually happened in that exact way.

The Murphy’s Law of who the Cowboys are speaks for itself in that what can go wrong will and while Cruz didn’t exactly agree with that particular sentiment, he did note that playing the Cowboys comes with a little bit of extra motivation. He added that playing for the Giants brings with it a big stage in and of itself, an objectively true statement, and said the right things about how you want to embarrass anybody you play because it’s the NFL.

Whatever the case you can add Cruz to people who at least partially share the sentiment that CeeDee Lamb offered on Monday night. The whole thing is depressing and it is hard to know when it will end.

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Cruz and I discussed a variety of things, including his recent partnership with Captain Morgan and a particularly sweet new crewneck.

Starting November 22, limited quantities of the Captain Morgan Crewneck will drop on KidSuper.com. Miss the drop? You’re in luck – Captain Morgan is unlocking access for fans 21+ to score the coolest merch of the season. Head over to FollowTheCaptain.com, and while you’re there, dive into a world of hidden clues and surprises, because you never know what Captain Morgan has in store as we gear up for Super Bowl LIX.

Our thanks to Victor Cruz and Captain Morgan for the time.



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Stephen Jones doubles down on Dallas Cowboys failed trade

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Stephen Jones doubles down on Dallas Cowboys failed trade


When Brock Purdy took over as the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, Trey Lance was left without a spot. That led to a trade with the Dallas Cowboys, who sent a fourth-round pick to the 49ers for the former North Dakota State quarterback.

Adding Lance wasn’t a bad idea on the surface, since he was the No. 3 overall pick in 2021. The problem was that Dallas gave up a fourth-round pick when it appeared there were no serious contenders for Lance.

The trade doesn’t look any better given the fact that Lance is sitting on the bench while Cooper Rush starts in place of an injured Dak Prescott.

MORE: Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy comments on Giants’ release of QB Daniel Jones

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Despite this, Stephen Jones believes the team made the right move. While speaking on 105.3 The Fan, he even said they would do the trade again.

Ironically enough, the Cowboys said repeatedly that adding Lance had nothing to do with Dak Prescott. Now, Jones is admitting that was a factor in their decision.

Dallas also never truly gave Lance an opportunity. He was the inactive third quarterback all season in 2023, with Rush playing in garbage time games. Not only did they get no look at him during his first season with the franchise, but he’s now only played in spot duty.

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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance / Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

Lance has completed 4-of-6 attempts for 21 yards with one interception. He’s also picked up 17 yards on three attempts.

Such a low usage proves the coaching staff doesn’t believe Lance has the ability to be a starter. Even so, Jones would do the trade all over again.

— Enjoy free coverage of the Cowboys from Dallas Cowboys on SI 

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Game Day Guide: Stars at Lightning | Dallas Stars

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Game Day Guide: Stars at Lightning | Dallas Stars


First Shift 🏒

The Stars had the best road record in franchise history last season.

Looking back, it’s difficult to pin down exactly why.

Obviously, this is a good team and had the second-best overall record in the NHL, so the 26-10-5 mark away from home was a big part of that. But as they try to follow that up this season and are off to a 4-4-0 start on the road, there is no real magic formula they can return to.

“We just have to play our game, it doesn’t matter where we are playing,” said Duchene. “You guys always look at the home and road and think there’s something to it, but there’s nothing to it to us.”

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The Stars have an 8-2-0 record at home, including one “home” loss in Tampere, Finland. Last season, they sometimes struggled at home, including a 4-6 mark at American Airlines Center in the playoffs. So how is it they are having such a great start this year?

“It’s hard to say,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said when asked about the issues on the road. “It’s like our home record this year. It’s not like we’re doing anything different, we’re just winning games. When I look at our road games this year, we’ve played some really good teams.”

Among the road losses are Florida, Winnipeg and Washington – three of the top 10 teams in the league. That’s important as they head out on a three-game road trip with contests against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday and Carolina Hurricanes on Monday. Both are traditional Eastern Conference powers.

“It’s a great test,” DeBoer said. “In the next five games, we have Colorado, Winnipeg, Tampa and Carolina, top teams in the league. So those are great tests for us.”

That can be a huge portion of the midseason for the 12-6-0 Stars.

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“I think it can be a turning point,” said goalie Jake Oettinger. “We’ve had an up and down start. Our record is pretty good but I don’t think we’ve played our best yet. These are some great tests on the road.”

Did Oettinger have an explanation for posting an 18-6-2 road record last season?

“Personally, for me, you need to be able to weather storms and close out games,” Oettinger said. “Those are all things we can get better at this year.”

Doing it now would be ideal.

“I always think we have our best against some of those top teams,” said Duchene. “We love that challenge, because those are the teams we’re going to need to beat if we want to achieve our ultimate goal.”

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And as for finding specific reasons for wins away from home? Well, the reasons are pretty much the same no matter where you are.

“Hockey is hockey,” Duchene said. “We have a great game plan. I’ve talked about how well-coached we are. We know what the recipe is for ourselves and we make adjustments to whoever we’re playing. We’re well prepared and it’s up to us as players to execute.”



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