NFL Power Rankings Week 2: Tony Romo Carries Cowboys Into Top Ten

[Irving Cowboy]

NFL Power Rankings Week 2: Tony Romo Carries Cowboys Into Top Ten
by One.Cool.Customer

With Week 1 of the 2012 NFL season in the books, it's time to do what we'll do on Tuesdays for the next 16 weeks: review the NFL power rankings for the Cowboys and the other teams in the NFC East.

In power ranking parlance the 15th-ranked Cowboys beat the Giants, a team most pundits ranked in the top three. The win naturally opens up a lot of space on the Cowboys bandwagon, and the Cowboys predictably crack the top ten of the power rankings.

The Week 1 results are bound to shake up many pre-conceived notions about where teams stand, especially as these notions were largely based on last year's performance, not this year's. Was the Redskins' dismantling of the Saints a fluke or are the Skins for real this year; will the Giants get lucky again this year, or are they the team that is now 10-10 over their last 20 regular season games; after barely eking out a win against a QB whose passer rating was smaller than his shoe size, will we see another year of nothing but hot air coming out of Philadelphia?

We won't have the answers to these questions for quite a while, but the power rankings give us a first indication of where the popular opinion places each of the NFC East teams. The summary of this week's power rankings after the break.

We'll kick off this week's power rankings with an SBNation video with a rundown of the week 2 rankings.

Week 2 (previous rankings in parenthesis)

Peter King: 6th (n.a.). "I'm not sure the offensive line is going to hold up, but I know one thing about one of the 2011 weaknesses that killed last year's team: These Cowboys can cover."

Fox Sports: 6th (13th). "I'm always slow to jump on the Cowboys bandwagon each year, but they looked like the clear frontrunner in the NFC East -- quite possibly the best division in football. Tony Romo was consistent on offense and DeMarcus Ware's two sacks kicked off his DPOY campaign"

CBSsports.com: 6th (14th). "One thing that stood out about the Cowboys in beating the Giants: They are faster on both sides of the ball."

[Update] Drafttek.com: 7th (12th). Draftniks are going to love Drafttek's power rankings because Drafttek don't just rank teams, they also identify three players who might be under consideration by each team for the 2013 NFL Draft. Here's what they say about the Cowboys:

"Boys move from #12 to #7 after big opening day win on the road vs Super Bowl champs. Improved play in the secondary allows Dallas pass rush to inflict even more damage."

They have the Cowboys picking either FS T.J. McDonald from USC, TE Tyler Eifert from Notre Dame or OT Chris Faulk from LSU.

WEEI.com: 8th (14th). "Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne did a great job at shutting down the Giants’ dynamic receivers. The Cowboys could turn into the favorite in the NFC East if their defense can consistently perform like they did on opening night."

Walter Football: 8th (20th). Walter uses a favorite troll argument. When the Cowboys win, it can't have been a big game: "I need to see the Cowboys win when it counts before I can finally become a believer, but the defense finally matches the offense, thanks to the additions of Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne."

NFL.com's Brain Trust of Experts: 9th (14th). Comments are courtesy of Elliot Harrison: "For all the love Peyton Manning received this weekend -- and RG3, for that matter -- the Week 1 MVP has to be Tony Romo. What he managed to do with that offensive line, tossing touchdowns to Kevin Ogletree (of all people), on the road against the defending Super Bowl Champs, was inspiring."

reddit.com: 9th (15th). "For many, Romo has been the scapegoat for the Cowboy’s failures. While he’s not without blame, the true culprit, the defense, looked as if it may have finally turned a corner. Both units will need to maintain an impressive consistency to compete in a stacked NFC East."

ESPN: 10th (14th). "Opening win showed evidence they really may have fixed that defense. (Graziano)."

Pro Football Weekly: 10th (17th). "Is Ogletree this year’s Laurent Robinson? Dallas sure hopes so."

ProFootballTalk.com: 10th (13th). "Tony Romo returns to Seattle for the first time since the time he had popcorn right before a game-winning field goal try."

National Football Post: 12th (17th). "Tony Romo quieted plenty of critics (for at least one week) after his production in New York vs., the Giants."

SB Nation: 12th (15th). Something was wrong with Joel Thorman's cereal this morning. "Big time W for Big D in Week 1. The NFC East is so, so wide open. You can make an easy case for any of the four teams to take it, including the Cowboys."

His SBNation colleagues show him how it's done:

Jason Brewer for SB Nation Philly: 9th (n.a.). "If the 49ers had the best win of the weekend, Dallas probably had the second best. Beating the champs in their house on the night they got their rings? That's impressive."

Randy Fields for Revenge of the Birds: 8th (n.a.). "Some may say the Cowboys are ranked too high here, but Tony Romo played incredibly well behind a porous offensive line. The Cowboys rank 3rd in offense and 7th in defense. These Cowboys are going to make a run in the NFC East and started early by taking down the returning Superbowl champs. The defense was able to hurry Manning and limited the Giants success until the final four minutes of the game. (Trend = Up)"

Stat-based rankings
Teamrankings.com: 1st (16th). This site measures the relative strength of all teams using team performance, home/away status, margin of victory and other factors.

Sagarin NFL rankings: 5th. These are rankings based on W/L record, points differential and schedule strength. Cowboys enter these ratings ranked fifth.

Oddsshark: 7th (9th). Oddsshark use a multitude of stats to establish an offensive and defensive power ranking, which they then adjust for the remaining strength of schedule.

[Update] Football Outsiders: 9th (n.a.). FO have the Cowboys with the 7th-ranked offense, the 14th-ranked defense and the 20th ranked special teams.

[Update] Covers.com: 10th (14th). "The Cowboys came into the season with a boatload of questions about their offensive line, but Tony Romo mostly stayed upright against the powerful Giants pass rushers."

Today's summary of power rankings is brought to you by BTB member Jose Salas. Jose's cousin, Eliana, sent me a mail asking for a shout out to Jose ("Jose Salas .. 24/7 Blogging The Boys. He's been a fan of BTB for so long .. Please OCC?"). How can I refuse a damsel in distress?

 

[Irving Cowboy]

Cowboys crack Rick Gosselin’s top 10 but can’t beat out Saints in NFL rankings
By SportsDayDFW sports
3:43 pm on September 11, 2012

The ballot and comments from AP Pro 32 panel voter Rick Gosselin of Dallas Morning News for Week 2:

1. Houston Texans — Andre Johnson is healthy. The AFC is in trouble.

2. San Francisco 49ers — No one made a louder statement in the opening weekend than the 49ers going into Green Bay and spanking the Packers.

3. New England Patriots — Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower give the Patriots an infusion of youth and playmaking skill on defense.

4. Philadelphia Eagles — You know you’re good when your quarterback throws four interceptions and you still win.

5. Baltimore Ravens — Maybe the Ravens won’t need Pro Bowl pass rusher Terrell Suggs after all this season.

6. Green Bay Packers — The NFL taught the Packers a lesson last postseason — you need to attempt to play some defense to win a championship. The Pack didn’t learn.

7. Atlanta Falcons — Unusual scheduling has the Falcons opening the season with three consecutive games against the AFC West.

8. Denver Broncos — The Broncos have more than Peyton Manning. After one week, they lead the NFL in sacks.

9. New Orleans Saints — The NFL also taught the Saints a lesson last postseason — you need to attempt to play some defense to win a championship. The Saints didn’t learn, either.

10. Dallas Cowboys — If DeMarco Murray can continue to rush for 130 yards per game, the Cowboys are going to be a force in the NFC East.

11. Chicago Bears — The Bears have five takeaways after one week. The rest of the NFC North has one.

12. Detroit Lions — The Lions have a dynamic three-tackle rotation on defense in Nick Fairley, Ndamukong Suh and Corey Williams. All had sacks in the opener.

13. New York Giants — Glaring holes have been exposed at cornerback and left tackle for the defending Super Bowl champions.

14. Pittsburgh Steelers — Finally, the Steelers get to leave Denver. Pittsburgh has played its last two NFL games there and lost them both.

15. San Diego Chargers — The Chargers would rather not leave Oakland. Like Pittsburgh, San Diego closed and opened consecutive seasons in the same city — Oakland — but won both games.

16. New York Jets — If Mark Sanchez continues to throw three touchdowns every week, he won’t have to worry about his job security.

17. Washington Redskins — The Redskins look like a contender after one week — and the NFC East is once again the best division in football.

18. Cincinnati Bengals — The Bengals need to do a better job of protecting quarterback Andy Dalton. They can be a playoff team — but not if Dalton is sacked four times each week.

19. Oakland Raiders — How many undrafted rookie free-agent wide receivers start on opening day and catch a TD pass? Count Rod Streater among them.

20. Arizona Cardinals — The Cardinals needed two quarterbacks to beat Seattle last week. They may need three or four to beat the Patriots this week.

21. Minnesota Vikings — Adrian Peterson is officially back. Christian Ponder better start polishing up his handoffs.

22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers — RB Doug Martin could wind up being one of the steals of the draft late in the first round.

23. Carolina Panthers — The Panthers need to get the running game revved back up if they are to contend for a wild-card playoff spot.

24. Kansas City Chiefs — The Chiefs get Pro Bowl pass rusher Tamba Hali back this week from suspension. They could also use Buck Buchanan, Curley Culp and Willie Lanier to fix this defense.

25. Tennessee Titans — The Titans get WR Kenny Britt back this week from suspension. That alone will make Jake Locker a better quarterback in Week 2.

26. Buffalo Bills — At this pace, the Bills will allow 768 points this season.

27. Seattle Seahawks — The Seahawks need to incorporate more moving pockets and rollouts to create some space for rookie QB Russell Wilson.

28. St. Louis Rams — The losing streak is now at eight and counting.

29. Jacksonville Jaguars — Blaine Gabbert looks like a different quarterback from a year ago. His 260 passing yards in the opener were a career high.

30. Indianapolis Colts — Peyton Manning passed for 300 yards in his NFL debut. So did Andrew Luck. It worked out well for Manning in Indianapolis and should work out well for Luck as well.

31. Cleveland Browns — The Browns will suffer growing pains with five rookies in the starting lineup.

32. Miami Dolphins — The Dolphins got their national exposure during the summer on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.” There won’t be much exposure this fall.

 

[LAZARUS_LOGAN]

4. Philadelphia Eagles — You know you’re good when your quarterback throws four interceptions and you still win.

WRONG. You can still win the game when your QB throws 4 INTs, but 2 TDs, and the opposing QB---that so happens to be a rookie, also throws 4 INTs.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

I'd be down with drafting Tyler Eifert. We could finally have that lethal 2-TE offense that we've been craving to get.

 

[ZeroClub]

For me, it is too early to know where the Eagles are. But 4 is too high. For now.

In week 1, Panthers looked similar to last year' team. Defense looked quite weak. Newton is a remarkable specimen. No one has ever looked better throwing an incomplete pass.

The Seahawks are stronger than Goose thinks.