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All right, let the real games begin.
We are after Thanksgiving, we are heading into week thirteen.
Here, welcome to another edition.
I hope you had a great holiday of NFL Power Rankings, presented by Energizer from our studio here in Los Angeles. My name is Andrew Siciliano. On the other side of the screen, the man who does the rankings. Rankings you can see right now by scanning the QR code on said screen. Between us in the land of Victors today, one day after the Bears vanquished the Minnesota Vikings. Eric at home, How is the parade this morning?
Pretty amazing?
Bears fans still debating about justin fields, but happy to get a victory.
Hey, look, I can't. I'm happy for that.
Evraflus finally getting a division victory, an NFC North victory in his second season there in Chicago. They want questions and answers. There were no answers last night for the Bears. I digress. The Bears are not on our first board that we're putting.
On the screen.
And there are your new Power Rankings with the Philadelphia Eagles still at number one, the Ravens at number two, followed by the forty nine Ers, the Chiefs, that Dallas Cowboys into the top five, and number five the Dolphins don't go anywhere. After a whole hum victory over Tim Boyle and the Jets on Black Friday, the Jaguars go up, the Lions plummet. We'll get to them at a second.
The Lions go from three down to eight. But there really is no surprise who is number one, Eric, because there is clearly one team that is better than the other, and that is the Philadelphia Eagles, who, again against a quality opponent, rallied from down double digits to win.
Yeah, most teams panic in that situation, Andrew. I mean, the Eagles have them right where they want them, it seems. But I would love to have a debate about this Eagles team if they were seven and three, you know, we could kind of stack their credentials against some of the other top teams something like that. That might be
a different discussion. But they always win. Right the Jets game, notwithstanding, they have found a way, a formula whatever you want to call it, to be out gained to be trailing it a halftime, trailing in the fourth quarter doesn't matter. They find a way. Jalen Hurts the big reason why. If aj Brown isn't there, DeVante Smith steps up. Swift has been an outstanding pickup for them too, for you know, quarters on the dollar, they got them pretty cheap. So
it goes back to the team building aspect. Building on what they did last year, they might be a better team in terms of finishing off games this year. They've been that good at it.
Yeah, quarters are the dollar more like changed than they found underneath the couch. I mean they gave way like a mid round pick in twenty five, I mean something way down the road.
They gave up nothing for DeAndre Swift.
There's great video during that game as well, and let's give credit to Jake Elliott for the fifty nine yard field goal to send it overtime where Brandon Graham is heard yelling at Dion Dawkins and the Bills O line. Hey, guys, we have Jalen Hurts. You're going to lose. We have this guy named Jalen Hurts and we're going to win.
And it almost feels that way.
Eric.
I mean, I don't know that his numbers are.
As gaudy as Dak Prescott and his three hundred yard streak that we've seen of late, but they have Jalen Hurts and you just feel like, yeah, oh yeah, they're good, They're fine.
Yeah.
I mean the rushing touchdowns obviously the last couple of weeks, you know, more than he has passing. I mean there are times when he's when he's taken sacks. His passing numbers aren't all that amazing. Brown's been a little bit off the last two games, so you know, teams are controlling them in some aspects, but when the chips are down, when they absolutely have it, have to have it rather.
You know that that touchdown passes a key as buying time, buying time floating to his left, just drifting it in. Those are the kind of plays you just really almost can't stop at this point.
Despite the fact that Josh Allen showed some of that magic. He's caught on Mike NFL films as well, yelling I'm bleeping back on the sideline like he felt good, it felt right until it didn't. He misses Gabe Davis, and you know the rest from there. Number two of the Ravens a whole home win on Sunday night. They hang on and they get Justin Herbert and the Chargers off the field at the end is seemingly everyone has been
able to do. And then sitting there at number three, the forty nine Ers, and here we have it, once again, the game of the year in Philadelphia, once again, the game of the year, of the week, your rematch of the NFC Championship game.
Eric, Where do we go?
I mean, there's fifty storylines here between the Niners and Vases, all.
Right, I mean, I guess obviously the rematch angle is gonna be played up. But my question is can the Eagles withstand another emotional setting, another high caliber opponent. I mean, obviously the six day span where they beat the Chiefs, they beat the Bills before that, prior to the buy, they beat the Cowboys. I mean, it's just like one hammer blow after the next. They've withstood them. You know,
they've taken all comers at this point. But another really tough team now, obviously, you know you can make of the debate. Forty nine Ers might be the more complete team. They did have the three game losing streak. We'll see how it all stecks up. This will settle a lot of debates for us. I think at this point, and if the Eagles can pull this off, Andrew, you know who's stopping him at this point.
I don't think anybody is. There's a scenario, by the way, that if the Bills had beaten the Eagles, let's say they had won that game in overtime more in regulation, than the Niners could potentially move up to number one by beating the Eagles. That's not going to happen. I mean number one in the NFC, not number one of the power rankings. But Eric, will you right now on the Tuesday, as we record this, heading into week thirteen, commit to the Niners being number one next week if they win Sunday.
It feels pretty likely at this point, right, I mean, no offense to Baltimore, they're on by I mean they might just get lapped in this situation. If that happens, you know, it's it's the more likely than not scenario. It takes something pretty crazy, I think in that circumstance for it to not happen.
Yeah, that is the right answer, because if you weren't ready to commit to that, you would probably have to take your phone number and your address out of the phone book. If phone books are still a thing, Let's get to the Chiefs. Something tells me, and the Chiefs are number four. Look, they went to Vegas and they fell behind fourteen to nothing, and then they did the job, but they actually scored in the second half. Why do I think they're going to have a tough time Sunday night at Lambeau.
Yeah, I mean, this is a Packers team that's hot. Obviously they they've improved their offense as well, and one game doesn't assume that the Chiefs have fixed their problems. I love the fact that you know, they had one sack, they didn't really turn the ball over, one drop pass. They got a lot more out of sky Moore and or she Rice than they have in recent games. I mean, it's been a good turn after what we saw the other night against the Eagles with all the drop passes.
But Green Bay team playing with confidence. I mean, obviously you know they can win at Lambeau. They had a huge comeback against the Saints early in the year, So yeah, I mean it's absolutely a possibility for a KC team that looks very good. But I don't think we can say that all their issues have been fixed.
You know what's amazing, and we could use this for any of the thirty two teams pretty much in the power rankings. Is what a difference a week makes. Like a week ago, Oh my god, the Chiefs are vulnerable. They have nothing offensively around Patrick Mahomes. No one on this team can catch a pass. This team isn't good enough to Ah yeah, they're fine.
It happens.
It's the one week car wash. Every single week I say to myself, well, I can't talk about that last week, Well I end up having to do it again. I mean, you never know. I mean, but you're right, one big win, one big loss can completely change the narrative for the team, and I think this season has spelled it out more than any recent one I can remember.
And listen, I'm not criticizing the media. It's what we as fans feel as well. One week you're feeling, hey, I should start looking up to Vegas. My team may make the super Bowl. And the next week, I mean, you're staring at your food all week, You're barely talking to your family and like I hate my life.
And oh hey we want to get on Sunday. Hey, now we're going to flip back to what we were like two weeks ago. Maybe I'm just only talking about myself. I truly do love my family. Moving on the Dallas Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys are now in your top five after and I'm going to say this with a little bit of sarcasm, beat up on a bad commander's team and ran up the score on a defense that traded away it's best two players and then fire their decordinator the next day.
Come on, hey, listen, Sometimes those coaching changes have a positive effect on a team that didn't happen last Thursday. Okay, fair to point out, but I think this Dallas team, if you look at it, especially with Dak's done over the last you know, six pack of games or so,
it might be the best stretch of his career. So, yes, this is a one week vote, and I had them leap frog the Miami Dolphins, who you know, I thought played okay the following day, but the score may have been a little bit misleading there, and I just felt like Dallas was a more dominant performance and had a bigger body of work in recent games. So it's a cumulative effect, but there's also a one week effect. Too that I thought they outplayed the Commanders more than the Dolphins outplayed the Jets.
Yeah. No, I totally get that.
Part of me, though, it wants to ask Ron Rivera, did you just did you just tell Jack Derio enjoyed the last month off? Like I know, we're all getting fired. You can go home now it's Thanksgiving? Do you really need to like, just oh the family right somewhere? Go spend it with some family. So the Cowboys move up too, with EH went over an team, but they you know, they look good and a lot of people watch. It was Thanksgiving the Jaguars, Eric and I realized there's only
so much movement in the top ten. Here they are our future champions, presented by FanDuel, and it looks as if now they're in the driver's seat in the AFC South.
They're minus one thousand.
To win the division, but they go up only with that impressive road win against a playoff team only one spot.
Eric, do you not like Trevor Lawrence's hair? Is it something like that? Yeah?
I don't like his hair. I even told him that in a video one time we did together. But that's okay, you know, that's fine. There was a little bit of a car crash. It was a little bit of a pile up ahead of them on the highway. There was only so many spaces they could move up. But yes, one of the more impressive games of the season. Obviously things got right in London outside of the San fran game.
They've been pretty darn good since then. But you know, again a second impressive performance after getting blasted at home by the forty nine ers. That to me says that they're growing. They're developing some tough skin there. And Trevor Lawrence, I didn't think he got off to the greatest start this season, but as time has gone on, I think he's grown with his confidence, making some plays with his legs,
you know, huge third down conversions and or penalties. Basically, he went out there and saw Tavere Thomas and said that's the guy I'm going to go after time and time again on Sunday, and to me, in his third year, that's a also a sign of growth. You take the what you go through in the week, the game plan, and you put a to action on Sunday. They did it repeatedly and it's great to see Lawrence and Calvin Ridley really forming that combination we thought they would early in the year.
Two things.
Number one that Picky through to Derek Stingley should have been holding Evan Ingram was hooked. They should have been as well lining up their slot right. The other thing is, well, I love what Trevor Lawrence said after the game. Hey, are you excited about this rivalry? You would CJ Shroud twice a year? He said, no, I honestly wish all the teams in our division were bad so it would be easier for us.
And he said it.
I kind of talk a cheek, but he meant it, and I give him smart credit for his open honesty. Let's get to the Lions. In our final minuted here of our first segment of the NFL Power Rankings Show presented by Energizer, they plummet. I mean they fell five spots down to number eight from number three because they keep turning the ball over.
What a mess.
Yeah, I kind of regret now not moving them down from three last week. I mean they held on for victory, had the great I'm back and I think everybody was sitting on the edge of their Thanksgiving seats on Thursday, I think, and the same thing would happen. It was never quite there. They did score late, but that defense has really kind of taking a step back here, and you know, outside of Aiden Hutchinson, they don't seem to have a lot of big playmakers right now. Jack Campbell
is overloaded as a rookie. The secondary has been picked apart a little bit. You know, no takeaways on Thursday for the first game since Week two. That's sort of been a part of their equation at least won every other game. So you know, Bears and Packers last two games have moved the ball against them, and you just say to yourself, this is not the time to also be having offensive line problems and Jared Goff turnover problems. They've all kind of consolidated over the last week or so.
And you know, this team that was everyone's darling not too long ago has now got some missions, got a face.
Yep, And they go on the road this week to face a banged up and desperate New Orleans team. We've revealed the top eight coming up next. Where are the Steelers now that they show at least a semblance of a professional football offense. We will tell you how.
About up Power rankings With thirteen.
The countdown continues on the NFL Power Rankings Show, presented to you by Energizer. The Pittsburgh Steelers are up four to nine after beating Jake Browning and the Bengals. Browns go down one to ten, followed by the Texans, the Bills, the Colts, the Seahawks at fourteen will call that the playoff line, and then the Broncos and the Vikings at fifteen and sixteen. Eric at Home of course, puts together all these power rankings the Team of the Week presented by two Cruis Bank Eric.
The pitts Erg Steelers.
They fire Matt Canada, they let Mike Sullivan call the plays, and what do you know, they eke out a victory against Jake Browning and the Bengals.
Yeah.
After rewatching that game, two things stood out. First of all, the first play of the game, Canny Pickkett Thros to Pat Fryarmuth down the seam. I almost, you know, had a heart attack watching it. I hadn't seen that route run all season long. I mean, that was the biggest development right there. Just sent a message right away, We're gonna throw the ball differently than we have before. Everything
to the perimeter, everything short. Instead, they get a huge game out of Friarmuth, you returned last week, had been out for a long time quietly, you know, a big part of that offense, even if he hadn't got off to a great start this season. So Sullivan, Pickett Friarmuth.
That helped.
Who knows what happens with the Deontay Johnson drama. You know they dealt with the picking stuff earlier in the year. But Mike Tomlin good coaching, right, negative point differential this season, three wins over five hundred compared to that to the Chargers positive points minus three in the in the wind department. So I just think they they found a good way
to win games. And again their yardage just our advantage, I should say, suggested to me that they they outplayed the Bengals by a significant amount.
No, and I'm with you here.
And they are ahead of the Browns where they lost to the week before. Cleveland's at ten, Houston's at eleven. And then you have the Buffalo Bills sitting here at number twelve. Buffalo is heading into a buy. They are six and six at number twelve. That kind of tells me you still think they're a playoff team potentially, even though they sit here in the ten spot to open up the week in the AFC.
It's funny, you know, they play the Eagles on Sunday, and we talked in the open about how impressive there the Eagles are at winning games, and you could argue that the Bills are just as impressive at not winning games. Right They dominate their opponents at times and ring up five hundred plus yards on Sunday, controlled the ball for forty plus minutes. Allen was great. They had some spectacular moments in the game, and yet they couldn't finish it off.
Little place here and there, a missfield goal, ten first half penalties, whatever you want to pull out. You know, obviously the end of the half execution they're in regulation right not you know, choosing to ice the kicker, waste the time out on that and then go straight to overtime with twenty seconds in a timeout. So you know, we mentioned the Gabe Davis play too. There's just so many little things that add up to them not winning games.
But when they're on, they're dangerous. So that's what kind of keeps them in that kind of low teen range right now.
Okay, I said it on Monday night on NFL Game Day Final with White after the Bears beat the Vikings. I think in the AFC it comes down to which quarterback is healthy at the end of the year.
Just get in with a healthy quarterback.
And if the Bills somehow get in, then yeah, you open the door for some Josh Allen magic in the postseason. Magic that we saw a lot of on Sunday in the RAN in Philadelphia, but in the end, not enough and Jalen Hurts had more. So you have the Bills at twelve. You have the colt sitting here at thirteen. They have a better record than the Bills. They are six and five. They're at Tennessee this week, or rather they're home for Tennessee. They're up three. They're in the playoffs right now.
Yep, they're in that last spot. And look, I mean, you know, we'll see what happens with Jonathan Taylor. He's dealing with the thumb injury in Rappaport reported that on Tuesday. And you know, but they have Zach Moss too, and both those guys sort of punished that defense on Sunday for the better part of four quarters. Gardner Minshew, he's still a wild card, right he had the I would say poor interception and some other plays that could have ended negatively. But you have a defense that takes the
ball away. That's ten turnovers and five games. Now, that's kind of a formula for them. Even if they give up some yards, they steal a possession or two almost every time out. So that plus the run game and an occasional sort of splash play from the passing game Michael Pittman and other strong outing, it's been a pretty decent formula. Since that three game losing streak, they've gotten back on track and they don't have the firepower of the Bills, but they're an interesting team all of a sudden.
Shane Stikeen deserves a lot of credit here. He deserves a lot of votes as well for Coach of the Year in a rookie effort. There without Anthony Richardson, with Jonathan Taylor missing all that time as well and everything that surrounded that injury at the start of the season, they're not there yet. But right now they are fighting for a playoff spot, and they're head of Seattle at fourteen and ahead of Denver at fifteen. Let's make some
power moves because that's what the Broncos are doing. Power Moves are presented by Energizer. Go back to the end of September, Eric, after the Broncos gave up seventy and ten touchdowns. Let's play that drinking game. Every time you mentioned seventy points, you got to take a shot here, of course, a shot of water, you know, for for fun, recreational please two hands for you know, you know, don't give it to kids here. I don't even know I'm
talking him talking circles. They were thirty one after week four, Eric, They've won five.
In a row.
I regret nothing, Andrew, that was where they were at the time. This is not a good football team. I remember I watched this team and thought, boy, I expected more from a Sean Payton coach team. And yet you know, we saw the seventy point outing, everyone calling for Vance
Joseph's head. He has turned that unit around completely. The fact that they have fifteen turnovers force fifteen takeaways in the last four games tells me that they are doing an outstanding job and have corrected whatever ills there were in September. So that, plus Russell Wilson great ball security using his Legs More, he's got that great connection with Sutton. The other receivers there have kind of developed two. You know, if Javonte Williams is healthy for the playoffs, they're another
frightening team if they get in for that matter. But still, I mean, the way they've climbed back into this thing has been shocking but impressive.
It is shocking there at six and five, and that's good. That's the same record the coltsav sitting there as the seventh seed. Right now, there is a log jam at six and five Indianapolis, Houston and Denver, and then Buffalo right behind them at six and six.
Give Sean Payton all the credit in the world.
And I have no idea how I got the team you up on the Broncos there, other than the fact that they were batterly and they were number thirty one through four weeks. Now they are good and they are fighting for a playoff spot as we turned the calendar to December. So two are the Vikings. As we sit here right now, Minnesota, Eric is the seven seed heading into the by after losing to the Bears. But as we sit here right now with Justin Jefferson coming back
after the bye. Kevin O'Connell is not committing to Josh Dobbs after the four interceptions on Monday night.
Yeah, you know. I had a friend in the league text me at halftime and said, when do they pull them from Nick Mallins, And I, you know, I thought, boy, I don't think they're going to do that. But now, all of a sudden, after four interceptions, arguably three of them were his fault, I would say, you know, you have to at least consider it. Mullins has been in the system for you know, multiple seasons, now parts of multiple seasons. Josh Dobb's been there less than a month.
Whatever he did in those first couple of games, you know, should count for something. But when you see a performance like this against the defense that hasn't dominated right the Bears have been if but not great, it opens the door. It absolutely does, especially with your star receiver coming back y it does.
And I love Josh Dobbs. I've said this repeatedly. It is the story of the year. If you believe in quarterback win loss record. He is now two to nine this year. A lot of that obviously, the Arizona Cardinals, they're not a good football team. It's something to consider here with Jefferson coming back after the.
Bike all right?
Coming up on the NFL Power Ranking Show presented by Energizer, Where are the Packers?
Because they're playing good football these days? Coming up.
NFL Power Ranking Show presented by Energizer.
The Saints are seventeen, they're down two.
Packers are up for Falcons are up for Bengals or number twenty, followed by the Chargers, the rams La back to back, the Raiders, and the Tampa Bay Bucket Airs. Eric head home, how about the Green Bay Packers? They are up for? What if I told you I thought they might beat the Chiefs on Sunday night. I think there's a chance.
It's going to be a competitive game. I think, right at least if the Packers carry over what they've done, and then Jordan Loves played great, Matt Lafleur looks like he's having fun again calling plays, and those young receivers have started to step up, and you know, with Aaron Jones out you have to and with the defense that look, if they don't get those takeaways against the Lions, maybe they lose. That is a little concerning against the Casey offense.
That's at least seemingly getting right right now. But yeah, can't count them out Green Bays in the thick of it.
All of a sudden, the Falcons, if the playoffs were to start right now at five and six.
Would host the Cowboys. I mean, that's the craziest bonkers, isn't it.
Every Falcons game feels exactly the same to me. Right, they use the run game, they get something out of it. Desmond Rudder makes a mistake, but then he brings them back, and that was what played out on Sunday, and look they win by two scores. Impressive. You beat the team that was ahead of you in the division. Now you're up on them. You know it's probably going to go this way on the stretch, but it does concern you that they kind of had to get those two turnovers
in the red zone in order to win. I mean, the Saints were going down scoring both times. One is a pick six, the other way one leads to another touchdown. So you know, Atlanta finds a way to do it, even if it doesn't sort of win us over every single week style wise.
I mean, the Falcons again are a division leader at five and six. Somebody has to win the NFC South at five and six, and they are the nineteen nineteenth team.
On your list.
And then we have the Rams who are up to and we're talking playoffs and I'm not kidding here in La.
They have a fascinating game this week at home against the Browns.
Yeah, and boy, the way that Rams offensive line played the other day against the Cardinals, still granted, but you know that all of a sudden is a really good matchup against the Browns team that suddenly isn't defending the run quite like they used to. Maybe again, this is only a one or a two week trend, but we'll see how it plays out. I mean, you know, Cooper cups playing banged up, Hiron Williams comes back from injury to perform extremely well. They all of a sudden, He's
sort of a lynchpin in their plans. And maybe they're one of those sort of sneaky teams like the Colts, that gets in and surprises people. You never know.
They are five and six, and a win over the Browns would be huge, getting them six and six and very much in the NFC conversation. The rest of the rankings, the Bears, the Titans, the Jets, and Giants, the Commanders at twenty nine, the Cardinals at thirty. You have the Patriots barely ahead of the Panthers. Here Carolina fired, Frank Reich,
Carolina is thirty two. I think you summed it up the best when you wrote this thing up on NFL dot Com, as you do every week here, that the gap between one the Eagles and thirty two the Carolina Panthers couldn't be any bigger. It's like you're looking across the Grand Canyon at home. Great job, as always, sir. Enjoy Week thirteen. Enjoy your NFC Championship Game rematch, Rarick at Home and Andrew Siciliato, So long, everybody.
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