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It's another week. It's the half waypoint of the season, if you will, which I know is kind of weird because it's like eighteen weeks and everyone places in metagames at this point. Well, we're gonna call it the halfway point of the season, and we welcome you to another edition of the NFL Power Ranking Show, presented to you by Energizer. I thought about Eric at home doing mid
season awards. I don't know that seems cliche. Can we just give you a trophy for doing the lord's work and taking the slings and arrows from everyone on social media and putting these rankings together every week.
It comes with the territory. I can accept that award from you. I'm fine with that, all right.
A laurel and a hearty handshake to you. Scan the QR code on the screen right now, go to NFL dot com, and when you do, you will see the brand new Power Rankings rankings that have the Philadelphia Eagles yet again. No big change here. They beat the Cowboys Dallas and game situational Football bad. Philadelphia is still number one.
The Ravens are number two. Then the Chiefs are moving up, the Jaguar are moving up, the Lions are movement up, The Dolphins, who haven't beaten anyone any good, are moving down, followed by the Niners off a bye, and the Cowboys, who now face Tommy DeVito. Philadelphia fought and scratched and clawed with a banged up quarterback, and even though Dallas got to the six yard line, the Eagles hang on. The Eagles win. The Eagles are still your number one team, Eric.
They have a great path to the number one seed at this point. Obviously was a big one Sunday, no doubt about it. Did they have to hang on for dear life? Absolutely? Did the Cowboys outplay them for stretches of this game, Yes, but as you pointed out, Jalen Hurts banged up, led four big TV drives in the pocket, making plays downfield, really attacked and I thought did a great job of that. You know, this buy comes at a good time. They lose Goddard, Hurtz gets a little
time to rest up. Maybe they can find some answers in that. Secondary did consider flipping them down at number two, but ultimately kept them because of the large nature of that victory and the importance of it had to stick with them at number one. They did finish it off. They have a skill for finishing off games that can't be overlooked.
I don't think Andrew no, because they have that skill and the Cowboys do not. They don't get to Dallas a little bit later. But this is what the Cowboys lack. It's what Nick Sirianni and the Eagles have. They fought through the injury to the quarterback, to the injury to Dallas Godder, they fought through the banged up secondary. Those guys were dropping like flies, and they hung on and they won. And their next five after the bye are brutal. They get five games against teams that you could argue
eric are worthy of being in conference championship games. And maybe somebody takes over at number one. Maybe it is the Lions. Their schedule looks better. But until somebody can beat the Eagles other than the Jets, they're number one.
Yeah, we got to keep them in that spot. Right, things may change, right they, like you said, they play Kansas City. Maybe the Bills find a way to come back in the game after that. San Francisco is still left on the schedule. They have plenty to play for
after last year. So yeah, but for now, I think you have to keep them in that top spot by virtue of the record and by virtue of the fact that you know they when it comes time to finish off games, they have a unique skill and a knowledge of how to do so.
They have a very particular set of skills. All Right. The show would be boring, however, without a little bit
of conflict and disagreement. So may I offer you our team of the week, which is presented by Truest, And may I offer you the Baltimore Ravens, And may I offer you this Eric, they're the best team in football after they once again dismantled somebody that we thought was good at home and once again somebody from the NFC, first the Lions, now the Seahawks, whom the Ravens held to six count them six first downs.
Pretty impressive stuff. Incredible really, how their defense is really matured. You know, a little bit of a step back in Arizona. Not a terrible game out there. The score looked a little closer the week before. But those two victories that you mentioned over you know, top tier teams. Really. I think those were the statement games that shows you they're better than the team that lost it at home to Gardner Minshew and the Colts. They're better than the team
that gave away a game against the Steelers. So I think this is an extremely dangerous team if they had just a little bit of a better body of work in terms of the earlier season losses. I was going to put them at number one. Couldn't quite pull the trigger. But are they, you know, in the running Absolutely? I think next week, you know, we wouldn't be shocking to
see them in that spot. This is a team that I think the other thirty one teams rightfully are scared of the matchup problems they present and that virgeoning defense. And they found Keaton Mitchell on Sunday too, another playmaker to add to a team that has quite a few of them.
Undrafted rookie running back out of East Carolina and son of Ravens Super Bowl champion the dB from that old two thousand team, Anthony Mitchell. So cool story and a big test now for the Ravens coming up on Sunday. It's Round two against the Browns. When last they met, it was in Cleveland. It was the game where Deshaun Watson thought he could go and they couldn't go, and then dtr had to start and it was ugly and
the Ravens won in a laugh. For it was also the first game in which the Browns defense looked beatable and looked human, and there was about a quarter and a half there where the Ravens gashed them. This one will be interesting because Deshaun is back. They looked a lot better this week. We'll show where the Browns are on the countdown coming up in a little bit. But this is round two in the AFC North. And if the playoffs were to start today, woof, I'm glad they don't.
I would have missed Christmas in New Year's But if they were to start today, all four teams from the AFC North would be in, which is Bonkers Chiefs would be in as winners of the the AFC West. They went to Germany. Now they get a buye. They beat the Dolphins, held on for dear life after getting up to the twenty one to nothing lead at halftime. But this defense is good enough. Eric where they will be I think in the conversation for number one in a few weeks.
I agree, yeah, and I started thinking about a little bit historically too. You know what Steve Spagnolo has done with this group, and it's really been since Opening night. You know, they only allowed to let the Lions two offensive or you know, thirteen off twelve of our fourteen offensive points in that game. Ever since then, they've been tremendous on that side of the ball. Played a huge
role in the win over Miami. Got old friend Tyreek Hill de fumble, the big play, the turning point before halftime that was the winning margin, right, And I argue, this might be the best defense we've seen in the
Reed Mahomespagnolo era. And you know that's exactly what they read and need right now, when Travis Kelsey has held to his lowest yardage total in five years, when Patrick Holmes is having to drag these guys down the field, when receivers look more like number threes the number twos and number ones, and you know, Kitts seem to get
that separation that we're used to seeing them again. But you know, right now, the defense is kind of carrying a I don't say outsize load, but a bigger part of the load than I think we've seen them carry in Kansas City for a while.
Yes, Spags dialed it up. Spags former coach of the Frankfurt Galaxy. Back with the Chiefs in the building there in Frankfurt. Life kind of comes full circle. But back as a Super Bowl champion. I thought it was kind of cool. I got a little ahead of myself. The Chiefs and the Jaguars would both be in as division leaders, the Chiefs in the West, the Jaguars in the South.
I don't know that we've talked enough about this game this week as you and I sit here and taping this early in the week, But by the time we get to Sunday, we'll be talking about the Jaguars and the forty nine Ers. Jacksonville has won five consecutive games. I think people are overlooking how big it was for them to go into Pittsburgh and punch the Steelers in the mouth a week ago. You have them as your number four team, Eric, which is different than just a
good team at a bad division. You're talking championship level here.
Right, And I kept saying, boy, am I sure about this? Am I ready to put them at number four for further until further notice? They're at this point the defense has taking the ball away. You know, they've had five wins in five stadiums, so they're kind of this intrepid bunch right now. And you know, going into different countries and in short weeks and dealing with injuries and so they've really had a lot on their plates and starting out one and two, and we've seen growth in Trevor Lawrence.
I don't think Calvin Ridley has hit his full ceiling yet. You know, they're still kind of geling up front of the offensive line, but Travis CTN has been terrific. They have a group that can make this whole thing work offensively. So yeah, the multiplicity they offer, I mean, I still think we're gonna get more to Treyvon Walker in the second half of the season. This is about when he started to play better last year. So there's upward mobility
with this team. There's really unfulfilled potential and yet you know, we still want to see them improve it against the top teams like the forty nine ers this weekend and it is a big one them coming off of bye and pretty angry after three losses.
Yeah, what kind of forty nine or team are we going to get this week. They ad Chase Young. Brock Purty still very much the quarterback. Kyle says, no way, We're not going to bench Brock party. But they have lost three games in a row. When last week saw them, they were losing to the Bengals and Nick Bosa was hugging Joey Burrow or joe Burrow, Joey whatever after the game. It's a great game, man. You just kind of bleeped up our bye week. So what do the Niners look like?
That game is in Jacksonville, you know, yep, a little bit different. Not the kind of game we're used to on a Sunday Niners Jaguars in Jacksonville. The Lions are five. They are up to Lions here well rested to face the Chargers on Sunday. The Dolphins are down three to They are on a buye. They still haven't beaten anyone. The Niners hold firm through thereby at seven, and then we get the Dallas Cowboys. I don't want to say anything as a gimme, but they're gonna win. They're gonna
beat Tommy DeVito and the Giants this week. They're gonna make it twelve in a row at home at AT and T Stadium, but you drop them only two after once again going back to our conversation about that game in Philadelphia, approving yep, that they are going to mismanage end of game situations. Why do you think the Cowboys are still worthy of the A bloc on this show, Eric.
Yeah, I still think they have some heavyweight power. Obviously, we've seen them beat up on, you know, teams run by Tommy DeVito and whatnot. I mean the lower rung teams. They've taken care of, cleaned the clocks of a lot out of those clubs. Did have the Arizona Hiccup early in the season. But on the flip side, they played pretty well against the Chargers in a Sunday night game when you know, the game sort of was cheetering back and forth a little bit. They were the more composed team.
I don't know what that says. The Chargers have certainly shown moments of, you know, less than spectacular execution, but still I'm willing to give this team a pass. Now. Granted you can write it off and say, oh, it's just a yard here, half a foot here, you know, three fumbles. Somehow we didn't come up with one of them, right, But is this a chronic issue? That's what you have
to ask. And you know, the other factor, like we talk about with the Dolphins all the time, I want to see them beat a truly good team, right, not just a Chargers level team, but somebody in that a bloc level like you said, we mean I fight it out for a couple of weeks. Giants, Panthers, you know, they have some some easier games before we get to the meet of the schedule.
Again, they really don't have a big challenge until after Thanksgiving when no, that is Thanksgiving. No, that's after Thanksgiving, Thursday, November thirtieth y after Thanksgiving, and that's a Thursday against Seattle. The Commanders on Thanksgiving is a test? How much of a test? I'm not sure. I don't know if RG three is walking in that door for that, you know, classic Thanksgiving moment from over a decade ago. But sure
that's a test. But the next ones not really the Giants in the Carolina Panthers, their next two games weeks ten and eleven have combined for only three victories and Daniel Jones is out for the year, and it's gonna be Tommy DeVito and Matt Barkley and Jacob Eason as the three quarterbacks that Brian Dayball gets to close his eyes and shoes from that game Sunday Sunday Sunday at at and T Stadium. All right, guys, we're just getting rolling. H we having fun yet we are okay? Top eight done?
Where are the Bengals? Where are the Browns? Where are the Houston Texans? With MVPCJ Stroud that's next. It is your midway point of the season. This is your NFL Power Ranking Show presented by Energizer. The Bengals and the Browns are nine to ten, rounding out Eric at Holmes Top ten and Top thirty two available right now on
NFL dot Com. And then the Bills and the Seahawks both down two, The Saints, the Steelers, the Texans all up one, and the Chargers, after winning in New York on a Monday night, are up two to number sixteen. The team at nine is making power Moves, the Bengals and their Power Moves, presented by Energizer Eric at Home. They have won four in a row. They handled the Bills on Sunday night and since week eleven. He checks his notes or since Week five, they are up eleven,
which is as much as any team has moved. They look like the team we thought they would be Midsummer.
Let the record show I wasn't gonna ever break them out of the top twenty. They needed one more loss, right, I saw other people around the power rankings universe sort of lose faith. Not me. Right, he got to keep in the top twenty. So I felt like at some point this run would come. I didn't know would come this quickly, and you know, flourish this fast and this well against good teams. I mean, right now you can argue the Bills are in a little bit of a
tail spin. But still they had their number and they controlled the game and played from ahead. I mean they played in a position of power. I felt like in that game. And you know, it's been impressive to see Joe Burrow do his thing, of course, but we're kind of used to that. The defense rebounding, I think from a tough start to the season was a big development. And then t Higgins, you know, he'd been kind of lost in the weeds I think for a couple of weeks.
To see him, especially with Jamar Chase, have a tough game dealing with a back injury. Higgins steps up. That's what makes him so dangerous, those twin weapons on the outside. They got the tight ends involved to Andrew. This is an exciting development for a team that's kind of ignored that position from time to time.
And they gave up the touchdown of the opening drive to Josh Allen the lu and Romo's defense clamp down and they won that game. Yeah, there were a couple of times where the Bills got across midfield and came up with nothing, the drives stalled where they gave it away. But give Lou credit again. The Bengals keep on winning and now they get the Texans get to them at a second coming up at home, trying to make it five in a row in Cincinnati. Brief aside, you mentioned
the other power rankings here. Do like you have a text chain with like the guy from the Athletic or the guy from the Ringer or the guy from Yahoo as my dad calls it Yahoo, Like, do you guys all talk and compare notes?
Well, my old colleague at Yahoo and I will sometimes go back and forth in tech stat rash ranking stuff like that. Is it's a good natured fun though, you know.
Of course, it's all in good fun until people get really angry about the power rankings that have the Browns at ten. They won, they shut out the Cardinals, held them to fifty eight yards. The Bills are down two to eleven. They were beaten by the Angles, and if you look at the playoff standings right now, they're out of the picture. And right now that is this tough second half of the season Eric for Buffalo.
I mean, it's it's tough to figure out where exactly this team is going to land, you know. I mean, obviously the last few weeks have really been you know, a frustrating, even the win over the Bucks. You know, it's a game they theoretically could have lost on the last play. So we've seen the offense take a hit. I'm sure Josh allen shoulder injury has something to do
with that. The deep passes weren't there. You know, teams have obviously played a lot of too deep against them, forcing them to be kind of under control, take checkdowns things like that, you know. And after that, like you said, the early drive was so successful, they went into stall mode. After that, it's been too hot and cold Offensively, We're used to this team consistently moving the ball. Haven't seen that in the last month or so. So yeah, they've
got offensive problems. They've lost a ton of heavyweights on defense as well the injury. You know, they're figuring things out. Maybe the Rasul Douglas move eventually helps them there. But I mean, this is this is even a big game coming against Denver, a team that's played much better than last week plus or the month plus. So yeah, they have a lot of things to figure out. I thought eleven might have been really generous, and I'm sure other people agree with that.
Yeah, it's Denver on a Monday night, and then the Jets and then at Philadelphia. They still have Kansas City, Dallas and the Chargers after that, and you can't forget about the Week eighteen game yet again against the Dolphins. So the Bills are eleven, the Seahawks, the Saints, the Steelers twelve through fourteen, and then at fifteen let's get to the Houston Texans. Time for Future Champions presented by
fan Duel. Well the Texans make the playoffs. Fan Duel odds plus two fifty for Yes, minus three to twenty five for No. The Texans are in the conversation Eric, right now, they're four and four in the tenth spot in the AFC. But that four and four is only one game back in the lost column from the seventh seed and a wild card for CJ. Stroud, who is your rookie of the year. You could also put him a joke before in the MVP conversation, except I'm not really joking.
I'm with you. I look, if you sit back and look, it hasn't been a tremendous, you know, earth shattering year for quarterbacks around the NFL. Touchdown pass are down, you know, a massive yardage totals are down. So you see DJ Straudrow for four hundred and seventy yards in a game. First of all, he's a rookie, right, This guy has
had about eight games under his belt. It's unbelievable to see how far he's come in such a short amount of time and how Bobby Slowick's offense fits him perfectly, the trust level he has, and he could have easily had over five hundred on Sunday. They were still meat on that bone, believe it or not. And to come against the great block secondary too, I mean it was very impressive. He just carved up that zone defense. So a lot of positive things, such an exciting young nucleus.
To me, they're winners whether they make the postseason or not. But if they can beat Cincy, now that talk becomes a lot more real. It also stings that they lost the Caroline at which I think could end up being pretty painful loss when the look back at the end of the season.
And through all of this, just remember, they can't run the ball. CJ. Strout has thrown for four seventy to five and they can't run the football. Chargers ran the ball, got off to Neckler involved, Joshua Kelly involved Monday night in their victory in New York, and what do you know, they're back in the conversation now. Also at four and four, Eric, you have the Chargers at sixteen.
Considering the opponent, the part of the season, you know, the location. I thought that was easily their best performance of the season defensively, but justin Herbert in the passing game, can't really get much going all night. So yeah, it's just a little bit frustrating, but the final score is a pretty good sav for them. I think they're at least showing that they can play very well in certain circumstances defensively, which helps their cause.
Eight sacks on Monday night Now a big test on Sunday afternoon against the Lions. At so far, the eight sacks one of the better performances by any individual player or unit in week number nine, but not as nice as what Josh Dobbs did in Atlanta. He's the pastronaut coming up. Where are the Vikings and Josh Dobbs in the power rankings? That's next, But wait, there's more more numbers in the brand new Power Rankings NFL Power Rankings presented by energizer Josh Dobbs, and the Fight and Vikings
are up two to seventeen. The Jets are plummeting five after what they put on TV on Monday Night. The Colts up four, interesting, Falcons down three. A lot of big movers here in this part of the rankings. Bucketeers down one, Titans and Broncos go nowhere. The Packers move up to after beating Brett Rippin and the Rams right before we got to air here for this one, Carson Wentz signed with the Rams all right at home. The Vikings, Josh Dobbs loved the story. Didn't know anyone's name. Let
him do a victory. He's the past or not. They get the Saints this week seventeen means they're in the playoff conversation. Man, Yeah, they're right there.
Right. You think about that Chiefs game earlier in the season, right, we didn't expect them to win it at the time, but had they pulled that off, right, I mean, you know their record even more affirm it as it is. You put you lose Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson out for a long spell. Christian Darris saw too. Then you lose your supposed starting quarterback and kg Osborne and Cam Akers in the game and somehow pull it off with Dobbs at quarterback. Pretty unbelievable stuff. I love the way that
Brian Flores defense pressures. I love the way that that Addison has stepped up as kind of the pseudo number one. Hockinson had a big game Sunday and Dobbs, I mean, after some early mistakes, he took the safety, had a couple of fumbles, he rallied the team with his legs. He fell back to you know, his default instincts as a quarterback and made it a terrifically fun game against the Falcons team that is desperate to win games right now,
so really big stuff. And they get this game against the Saints with a chance to keep I guess adding to their playoff resume it. So it seems like a weird thing to say at this point, but I guess it's where we're at.
But it's a cool thing to say, and it's where we're at in the NFC and the AFC for that matter, when it comes to the wild card picture. Josh Dobbs starts again for the Vikings, Zach Wilson again for the Jets, as Trevor Simmon is not coming up off the practice squad, so so as Robert Salah. The Colts are going to Gardner Minshew, Baby, he's taken his van to Germany. We're excited for another game football made in Germany and Frankfurt. They're facing the Patriots ninth. They're at Eastern time on
NFL Network, coming up on Sunday. They are up for for you this week, Eric, Yeah, that's more.
Of a function of some other teams falling in that they deserve to move up a little bit. But I didn't think it was their most impressive performance either, so really hinged on the defense bouncing back after a terrible game last week. Five hundred plus yards against the Saints. So good stuff, even though it came against Bryce Young. Let's remind everybody Bryce Young was coming off a pretty good game last week, so they did good work there.
The two pick sixes were the difference. So I have a feeling Gardner Minshew is gonna be popular in Germany. I don't know. I think he's just gonna be a big hit over there. Like gard Raymond, Austrian guy. Sure he'll do fine, but awesome. I'm saying Gardner's gonna be a hit over in Germany. That's why.
Please please wear George Gardner Minshew to Germany. Please big over there, these please please. Rest of the rankings have the Raiders up one, the Commander's up one, the Rams down six, followed by the Bears, the Patriots, the Giants, the Panthers, and the Arizona Cardinals. Quick thought here in our final twenty seconds, how about Antonio Pears are the Raiders?
Hey gotta love it right? I love that first bump. Jeff Saturday got a bump too. The Colts last year, So we'll see how long it holds together, Andrew. But great for a Raiders team that's just been so stressed out lately.
Who Jeff Saturday and the Colts beat in his first game, they beat the Raiders. Now Antonio Pierce and the Raiders beat his old team, the Giant, And how cool is that? Now they get the Jets. It's a New York, New York kind of thing in Vegas for the Raiders. See how that works for Eric. I'm Andrew. That was Week nine. Enjoy Week ten, everybody.
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