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Are you ready for another week of the NFL Power Rankings shovers that of I Energizer. Happy holidays to you and yours from our studios.
In Los Angeles. My name is Andrews.
Ciciliano, the man on the other side of the screen, the man who makes the Power Rankings. You can see him by the way, just scan the QR code right there. Happy holidays to Eric at home. And you know what's happy? Eric? When you have four of the top seven and five of the top nine losing, your life must be miserable.
It is.
I didn't well, I guess it made it easier. I didn't move anyone down or up because I didn't know what to do with any of these teams.
Are they for real? Are they contenders?
What are they?
We'll have to find out.
I guess, Oh, man, I don't know.
NFL dot Com slash Power Rankings organ scanned the QR code where for the second consecutive week you're going to see the forty nine ers here as the number one team.
They punched the Eagles in the mouth. They then came back.
I had a little bit of a challenge early from the Seahawks, but they are the number one. And then you have the Ravens at number two, who needed over time to beat the Rams, but they are just fine. And then it kind of gets interesting. You got the Cowboys at three, the Eagles at four. That game was over in five minutes against Philadelphia on Sunday night, the Dolphin. I mean, everyone's hurting they lost it home to the Titans, but they don't move.
I mean there's a dilemma because what do you do because the.
Chiefs lost and they're still complaining and they're at six, and then the Lions lost like they should have lost to the Bears last time, and they're at seven, and then the fighting Joe Flacco's move up to eight. I mean, hey, where do we begin eric other than saying I think clearly the forty nine ers.
Are one, and then it's kind of just thrown against the wall.
Yeah, the group of halves right now feels like one or maybe a very small group of teams, and the forty nine ers are definitely charter members of that right now.
I mean, forget the three game losing streak. They've been great. They were great before it everything sees to me clicking.
The interesting thing about Sunday Andrew is that it really wasn't consistent. They didn't get in the offensive flow till late. But when you have Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk and at George Kittle ripping off big plays the way they did. They got more than half their yard Sunday on eight plays. So it's a little bit hot and cold, but they find a way and they get pretty good health on defense. They were worried about Travaria's ward our grave. Both those guys seem to like
they're okay long term. So the winners keep on winning.
And they get Arizona this week.
That game is in Arizona, then the Christmas night home game against the Ravens.
But the forty nine Ers are the one seed.
In the NFC, and they have the head to head, which is the most important thing, against both the Cowboys and the Eagles. They stomped on both of those teams, so they have a clear path to number one. With San Francisco still number one in our power rankings.
The Ravens are number two.
They needed over time, I mean again They've had some battles at home. They weren't able to win that game against the Browns a couple of weeks ago. That was a huge game at home. This one kind of felt the same. But this one, Eric they pulled out and with the Dolphins losing, get to them at a second, I mean, Baltimore's got that clear path to number one.
Yeah, it seems pretty clear right now, at least the way the Dolphins play. Weren't able to put the Titans away, suffered a huge setback. So this is Baltimore's game. You're right, it did take some effort there, but a lot of good things did come out of this game. I think Lamar Jackson in the downfield passing game to Obj to Isaiah likely to Jay Flowers who had the touchdown and the crucial two point conversion. They don't get that they don't win the game because the Rams did kick a field.
Goal to tie it right after that.
So you know, also the huge special teams play in overtime, typical Ravens play. They find the guy, the fifty third man on the roster, if you will, goes and wins it for him.
You know.
Defensively, a little bit of concern. Kyle Hamilton gets banged up, it sounds like they avoided a mere injury with him though, so and look, Marlon Humphrey back struggle a little bit in this game.
But to me, Andrew, if.
You remember his first game back after missing the first four contests of the season, he struggled but then was good after that, so I assume this is just an acclamation period.
The schedule though for the Ravens is brutal Karin Jacksonville on Sunday night, although the Jaguars aren't any good at home, they're two and four at home. Then they have to go to San Francisco as mentioned on Christmas.
Night, then Miami.
That game is in essence week seventeen for the number one overall seed, and then the Steelers at home Week eighteen. Who knows what the Steelers are fighting for, but the Ravens will likely have to win that game to hold on to number one. But they do have that clear path and they stay at number two. The Cowboys are up one. They are number three, and they are our
team of the week presented by Truest. They got a good win, Eric congratulations to the Dallas Cowboys or a hitting a good win, a really really good win, and if they had not been stomped by the forty nine ers in Santa Clara a month ago, six weeks ago, whatever that was on that Sunday night, I guess you kind of might make an argument they have a claim at.
Number one, right.
I mean, that game is probably the difference right there. Arizona losing to them earlier in the season too, But still, I think you look at the momentum they've made and the progress they've had since, you know, really the last two months or so, and since that.
San Francisco game. Dak Prescott's been terrific.
I don't know that the other night was his finest performance, but outplay. Jalen Hurts had everything going in the first half, and how about a little clapper Mike McCarthy for a guy was on the operating table days before the game. Oh, she showed a lot of life play calling, got a TD reversed, and made a tough call on a couple of long field goals that worked out.
So he was flipping aces all night.
The first half was brilliant and it was a statement performance overall by Dallas.
Dak is looking at an MVP here potentially he's playing lights out. They're working everyone into the offense. Tony Coller Recodowbdell was able to come back from injury. He showed great burst here as well. And you spoke of the appendix injury. Did you see they had Matt will Let's Go the offensive lineman standing near McCarthy the entire game. Honestly, he was there to protect Yeah, McCarthy if there was any sideline trapnel coming at the coach where he would
have to get out of the way. Only a couple of days off the operating table, Matt will Let's Go was there.
The block form.
Hey, we'll do that down to the seier ball. I'll be your protection when you roam around on the sideline.
Steel because that's what I need. Obviously, I have to roll with security. I'm going to be in Alabama, so I need those two state troopers a la Nick Saban whenever I walk out onto the field with the big wide brim hats.
Yeah, no, I approve.
Let's do then Cowboys in Buffalo this Sunday, by the way, it's going to be cold, like maybe in the high thirties, So we'll see how the Cowboys deal with that. After beating the Eagles, who are now down one. Let's talk about them. They are now number four in your power rankings, and they could have some weather as well.
They have to go to Seattle, cold, rainy Monday night. Here.
This is just another trip, another stop on a gauntlet of a schedule. But the Eagles have been beaten badly by the Niners, beaten badly by the Cowboys and consecutive weeks.
Right, there's no shame in losing to these top five type teams or top ten teams, right, but it's the way they lost. And speaking of cold, I mean that defense has gone through the ringer recently. And ten straight possessions between the San Francisco game and what we saw Sunday night were they allowed a touchdown nine of excuse me, a score and nine of them were touchdowns. Now, the scoop and score did get them back in the game, and you felt like with Jalen Hurts and those guys,
you have a chance. But Hurtz, DeVante Smith, AJ Brown, the big three, all of them put a fumble on the ground. Dallas recovered all three, you know, and where's DeAndre Swift on the last two games. It's kind of a curious one too. I mean, he's been getting that fifteen to twenty catch has really been a great spark for them, or fifteen to twenty touches, but the last two he's only had nineteen totals, So kind of curious about his usage and what they see going forward.
Eagles, it's not that they lost, you make a great point, It is how they lost. And there are people panicking in Philadelphia. I don't think that's an exaggeration because they go, oh, well, we got ten wins, but yeah, the teams you've lost to, or the teams are gonna have to beat to get to Vegas, and those teams have beaten you badly, all right, speaking of getting beaten. And they didn't get beaten badly, but it was a bad, bad, bad loss.
The Dolphins you don't have moving.
They're at five, and partly because everyone else in the top eight or nine lost. But I don't know how you reconcile this year. Eric Tyreek Hill should have won the MVP on Monday Night because without him they're nothing. The offensive lines banged up, you got key pieces on defense out, Like what do you make of the Dolphins? Now?
Yeah, before I was forced to kind of rewrite my comment for this week's power rankings late in the game, you know.
About three minutes left.
I felt a bit pretty good about what I wrote. I said exactly what you did. I said, Hill's capstone for his MVP case this year should be the tape with him on the field and the tape without no I mean, it's just a stark difference. And you could see the crowd and the team really energized when he came back out there, but they couldn't punch it in early. They only got those two gift touchdowns because the defensive
plays and special teams play. So I'm really worried about this offense, and then the defense, which had carried them all night, you know, had their early touchdown, the only
offensive TD until the final five minutes. But look, it was just those last two drives where they got soft and they got passive, and Tennessee moved down the field with will Levis and suddenly, and you made a great point earlier this morning we were talking offline the number of injuries that have piled up, not just Hill came back, Connor Williams the center, He's probably gone for a extended period and then the defense getting wrecked as well. So
it's just they've been put through the meat ringer. All of a sudden, we grind her, I should say all of a sudden.
I've heard it both ways.
Yeah, Jalen Phillips and Jerome Baker, both of them are out obviously on the defensive side. Phillips isn't coming back. The offensive line is all banked up. Waddle left the game. Tyreek Hill obviously left the game, and they did not look the same. I thought it was interesting afterwards, Tyreek Hill, I'm sorry. Tua said, well, they're trying to put a top over our offense defensively, That's what the Titans are doing.
I'm like, well, that's what you face every day. That's what Vic Fangio in practice.
You know. Kind of got to get used to it.
Here, and the Dolphins of a tough schedule, they get the Ravens, they get the Bills Week eighteen, fascinating, All right, the Chiefs, let's just get this out of the way right now.
Canarius Tonio's offside? Full stop? End of conversation. The fly came out him mentally.
There were far more egregious questionable calls, like a block in the back on the Tylan Wallace return. This was not one of them, guys, So quit your yappt. You have the Chiefs Eric at six, they're not moving.
Yeah, another example of a team that lost and I couldn't reward any of them by moving them up. There wasn't any really quality losses in that range, and you know the Chiefs are among that group. I just felt like, even though they were competitive in that game, so many missed opportunities. Another disappointing script where they fall behind by two scorers and expect a struggling offense to kind of bail them out of it. It's just not happening right
now for Mahomes and company. Yes, that was a brilliant play they pulled off. Yes, had Kadarius Tony had his foot about three quarters of a yard backward, they probably let it slide.
But I'm sorry, those are the rules.
And I thought it was a bad look that their frustration talking about Andy Reid and.
Mahomes boiled over.
So they did come back to their credit and say, look, okay, I think I understand what the big picture is here, but you know, deflecting on these kind of issues when really it's been a chronic problem drop passes. You know, Matt missconnections on offense for some time now, and they've got to find a way to fix it. And that defense isn't carrying as much of the load as it was at one point in the season.
I think was schreg or maybe it was Kyle Monday on gm IFF he made the point it seemed like there's a lot more coming out there from Mahomes. It wasn't just officiating. It was like, I've been babysitting this offense for three months now, can you guys get it together? Like Dad can't do this forever. Okay, you kids have to figure this out. It's not all Dad's fault. Like you guys have to take care of yourselves here right anyway,
Moving on, the lines are at seven. They don't move despite losing to the Bears, and losing handily to the Bears, and then you had the fight in Joe Flacco's the Cleveland Browns who are up to eight. They're up from ten to eight, but they lose Jed Will's and to Wan Jones.
I mean, yeah, having to work without your two offensive tackles not easy, but Joe's giving him a lift and I love how Brown's fans have embraced the one time enemy, the guy who beat him what eighteen out of twenty one starts in his career, All of a sudden, he's kind of the savior, even with a couple of mistakes per game.
You get it.
He was he was parked on his couch a few weeks ago. Bud.
He's come in, added a layer of professionalism, added that downfield passing, touch and just ability that they really didn't unlock much before. It wasn't a consistent part of their game. So, you know, getting his receivers involved, getting David and Najoku involved, it's been a much different looking offense.
And so you know, can they survive without these tackles.
Well, they have so far, and you know they benefit from other people's losses. They've moved up because of the defense and what Flako has been able to bring.
Yeah, I mean, Kevin Stefanski is scheming up wide open touchdowns opening drive last year games wide open touchdowns. The David Bell thing was just a coverage bust and a guy fell down, But the fact that David Bell was running untouched fifty yards for a touchdown, I mean, write that into your.
Sport and three too.
Yep.
Wow, all right, we're just getting rolling through the top eight. How about the team that went into Kansas City.
And beat the Chiefs. We're all the World Bills there yet to be revealed, but we'll do that next.
The Power Ranking Show, presented by Energy. Let's get back to the Power Rankings. They are presented by energizer. Eric at home asks you to scan the QR code on the left or go to NFL dot com to see the Jaguars down one to nine, followed by the Bills at ten, the Broncos at eleven. They're big mover, up five, the Texans at twelve, down three, the Bengals also up five, they're at thirteen, and then the Steelers, the Colts.
And the Green Bay Hackers. All right at home.
The Buffalo Bills. We said it last week. Just get him in. Find a way to get him in that game in Kansas City. After the article late in the week about Sean McDermott by tie Don, was a referendum on that staff and on that locker room and on that team. They voted across the board, yes, yes, yes, yeah, I mean it was a.
Rough week, no doubt about it coming. The Bills are already up against it in the football department. Then that story drops about something that happened four years ago, and then I'm not you know again, I'm not saying it was good nor bad. I'm just saying that occurred. And then there was the von Miller stuff still lingering, and you know, they went in and got off to an
early lead and held on for dear life. But we've seen those MVP flashes from Josh Allen, We've seen the defense at least make some plays, and yeah, I mean, there's still plenty of work left Andrew, but you've seen life in this team, and you know, in an upper middle class right now, that feels like it's bereft of that that challenger, that that team that can rise up and go up against the forty nine ers in the ravens of the world.
The Bills are that team in my opinion.
They're not perfect, they have lots of works, but they have the firepower on their best days to go toe to toe with teams like Philly and Kansas City. So they maybe eleventh in the AFC power rankings, but they're tenth in my overall power rankings, and that's reflective of what I think they can do down the stretch, but they still got to get in right now or not.
They are one of six teams in the AFC six at seven and six, and they have the best quarterback situation of any of them.
So just get them made.
Another one of those teams the Denver Broncos, who keep on winning and keep on moving up. Let's do future champions here, presented by fan duel odds to win the AFC West. The Chiefs are still the prohibitive favorite. Well, the Broncos are now right on their heels. They're only one back of the win column. They are plus nine hundred and they have a huge game as mentioned on NFL Network Saturday evening in Detroit, Eric, if they win that one, I mean look out.
Vance Joseph assistant coach of the year.
After people in Denver were calling for him to be fired this season, simply put, the most incredible in season turnaround of any unit. We saw the evidence, and not just the Miami game, right, it was other games prior to that and even after where you thought, I don't think this defense has a chance to be middle of the pack, right, But they've now now entered into arguably
a top ten or twelve group. They're playing like a top five group, at least they did on Sunday, Justin Herbert knocked out of the game, probably their best all around defensive performance, really clamped down. They took a part a Chargers offensive line that was, at least entering the season, one of their strengths. So yeah, this is a complete performance defensively. Offensively, you know, the early turnover kind of set him back, and there's still a lack of firepower.
But when you've got.
Russell Wilson throwing to Courtland Sudden, it ends up at some point inevitably in a touchdown.
They've been great this year. Ten hookups in.
The end zone, so you know, they've got a formula that seems to be working, even with moving parts and different things they have to navigate. And like you said, one game back of the Chiefs, what kind of odds would you have gotten at zero to four.
Unbelievable, Yeah, utterly ridiculous. Here you mentioned Courtland Sutton. He has those ten touchdowns they've been in ten different games. He has one touchdown touchdowns in ten different games, so he has meant that much week in week out, It's not like a guy who scored four times in one game but then has kind of been thrown them out. There no ten touchdowns in ten games. Another one of those seven and sixteen. I'm not ready to count the
Texans out yet. They are still twelve, but they dropped three spots they're dealing with now.
CJ.
Stroud a concussion protocol, No Dalton Schultz, no Tank Dell. Last week, man, they they ran into a buzzsaw and Zach Wilson in the rain in New York.
Yeah, it looked like Nico Collins, Okay, he's gonna step up and be the number one. He goes over a thousand yards in the game and then gets hurt too, So you're losing Dell and Collins and Schultz. You know, there was only so many options that that Stroud had to throw to, but it was also his worst game. He missed some throws too, so prior to the concussion, you can say, look, the Jets got in his head a little bit, made it tough on him, and all
of a sudden, this feel good story. You know, it's almost like they're getting ready to be graduated into offseason darling story. Because right now after this loss, it feels like they're up against it. They had no answers defensively for Zach Wilson, you know who we didn't even think might start this week given the hesitancy there. So, you know, other than the fumble, I mean, it was a tough night on that side of the ball.
And they have a lot of soul searching and a lot of healing to do in the next few days.
Look, they're not out of it.
They go to Tennessee, right, the Titans, Yes, the Titans one Monday night, right, but it's a shortat They got to come back home. They're not exactly the world beaters. They're feeling good about themselves. But Houston can still very much get in this. They are only the eighth seed. They're only you know, one spot out right now of making the postseason. Let's make some Hower moves. They are presented by Energizer. Yep, they did it again. Jake Browning
and the Bengals did it again. This time they beat the Colts and they are up five spots this week to thirteen. They're up seven spots in two weeks.
Yeah, the pride of fulsome right, I mean, he's come in and with almost no expectations. Remember all the consternation about who Burrows backup would be in August.
Well, Jake Browning's in right now.
He's the starter, and he's playing like the five star recruit he wasn't in high school, you know, the player that a lot of people felt was destined for NFL start him at that age. Well, it's finally come at age twenty seven for him. So you can't be happier for him. I mean, they're running his offense. Maybe not as much as the Joe Burrow offense, that is not as much of the shotgun stuff and everything Burrow does, but.
It's pretty close.
And he's done a good job. He found nine different receivers. They got the screen game going. That was a huge part of the win. And you know, this isn't somebody who's just forcing the ball to t Higgins and Jamar Chase and keeping his fingers crossed.
Now he looks confident delivering the ball.
And they pretty much demolished the Colts outside of that one turnover late in the second quarter. You know, from start to finish, they pretty much controlled that game.
Chase Brown's getting into it now, how about him? How about that rookie there he has been electric, had the long touchdown where he was the second fastest ball carrier this year behind DK Metcalf. I mean, that is ridiculous. And they had the edge this week certainly as they are at home yet again, and the Vikings were late in Vegas and then.
They got to fly on Friday.
So that is coming up Saturday on ANFL network.
Coming up next.
However, on the Power ranking show here presented by Energizer, we haven't revealed yet the NFC South champion.
We're a leader. We have to and plus the Rams where they were.
Week fifteen NFL Power Rankings presented by Energizer. The Vikings don't move. They're at seventeen. The Buccaneers are up five to eighteen after beating the Falcons, followed by the Seahawks, the Rams, Atlanta's at twenty one, New Orleans twenty two, the Bears, and then the Titans at twenty three and at twenty four.
The Buccaneers now go to lambeau Field. Eric, we are.
Contractually obligated to talk about the NFC South. Their highest team is eighteen.
And eighteen was a stretch. I mean I moved them up five spots.
That's a lot for a pretty narrow victory against another mediocre team in Atlanta.
But like you said, someone's gonna win that division.
You know, the Falcons kind of shot themselves in the foot, but give credit to the Bucks. Baker Mayfield was gretty beautiful touchdown pass to Odden to win it.
I mean, they battled in this game.
They got the two score lead and kind of played from ahead and then had to come back. You know, it's never pretty with them, but and they got away with a possible fumble there late with Rashad White. But White was better in the second half. You know, it's it's just one of those things. It's hard to find a ton of positives. But the defense did make a couple of plays that kind of set the tone early. They give up yards, but they find a way to make just enough place to kind of keep them in games.
Hey, the positive is the winner of that division is gonna host the playoff game, maybe even against the Countlers. All Right, the Rams lost in Baltimore. They lost in over time in the rain, but they don't move. You have them at number twenty. They are still very much in the playoff race here. Even though they are six and seven.
Thought about moving them up too, just like I thought, I'm up moving the Vikings down after their win. I mean, it's all subjective, I guess, but yeah, out of an old school game from Stafford, he was out there slinging a Cooper Cupp had his first big game in a while, the coup of that amazing sliding grab. I mean, there
were so many elements for a victory here. Kyen Williams great again, but defense giving up those those kind of unfettered big plays down the field, those coverage busts just can't happen, right, And so yeah, the coup a great defense not so good. Yeah, I'd like to see him tighten the screws a little bit on that side of the ball. But boy, Sean McVay has shown everybody he knows how to coach and scheme against good defenses, and he did it Sunday, and.
They were just a little bit short.
Absolutely, we're a little bit short on time.
Let's get the last full screen here and go twenty five down full screen TV term. The Jets are up two, they're twenty five. Then the Chargers Herbert's half of the year, The Giants, Danny DeVito, Tommy DeVito, They're both magic. Then the Raiders, the Cardinals, the Patriots, the Commanders, and the Carolina Panthers. Eric, you have fifteen seconds. Pick a team, say something nice.
I'm gonna say something nice about my hometown team, the Chicago Bears. Three out of four wins, look great, finished off freight what they couldn't do before. Had tip to them, Eberflus, Poles Fields. All three did themselves very well this week.
They are number twenty three and they face the Browns this week in Cleveland. So, Eric, at home, my name is Andrews Silano.
This is always We're gonna figure it out as we go, but you know what, I think we had fun along everybody.
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