#4: How far did the Cowboys fall? Where do the Ravens belong? - podcast episode cover

#4: How far did the Cowboys fall? Where do the Ravens belong?

Sep 26, 202325 min
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Episode description

The NFL Power Rankings Podcast with Andrew Siciliano and Eric Edholm begins reacting to the Miami Dolphins dominating performance over the Denver Broncos and Eric shares why he thinks the pieces are there for the Dolphins to be a complete team. After the Dallas Cowboys fell to the Arizona Cardinals Andrew asks Eric to explain why he still has the Cowboys ranked as 6th. With all the injuries facing Baltimore and their loss to the Indianapolis Colts in OT, where do the Ravens belong? Later, Eric explains why he has the Packers ranked eight spots higher after they beat the Saints. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1

NFL Power Rankings is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2

Hello, friends, and welcome to get another edition of the NFL Power Ranking Show.

Speaker 3

We are presented by Energizer.

Speaker 2

We are here every Tuesday on the NFL Channel and always in podcast formed you take us anywhere. Eric at Holme is on one side of the screen. My name is Andrew Siciliano. We are live from Chicago and our studios in Los Angeles, and I have a confession to make here, Eric, So I looked at Week three and we could just pull back the curtain when we did the show last week and we're looking at all these great Week three games. I didn't think the schedule was

any good, Really, I didn't. I mean, there's the Falcons and the Lions. That game really wasn't even that good. But the rest of the schedule you're like, eh, And then what do you know? We had another one of those crazy you have to see it to believe a kind of weeks, and even Taylor Swift showed up and dropped f bombs from a suite at Arrowhead.

Speaker 4

You never know what's gonna happen, Andrew, That's why we watched the games, obviously it was there.

Speaker 5

There were some great fourth quarter comebacks.

Speaker 4

There were some blowouts too, but plenty of compelling action and a hard week for me. I'll be honest, a lot of these teams are hard to separate right in the middle anyway.

Speaker 5

But we'll try our best, all right.

Speaker 2

We're catting down our top thirty two Taylor Swift songs. Where do new Romantics fall in the list? As Travis Kelce and Taylor are now America's number one couple. The new rankings would you can find a NFL dot com or if you scan that funny looking QR thing on your screen, have the Dolphins up for to number one, and then the Niners, the Chiefs, the Eagles, and the Buffalo Bills. There at number five, six through eight, America's team plummeting.

Speaker 3

Only two on man, We'll get to that later.

Speaker 2

The Cowboys are six, the Lions are seven, and the Ravens here are number eight. The team that we trust team of the week was out of my truest bank. Here the team of the week eric at home the Miami Dolphins. All they did was set thirteen records, score seventy points, pull down the Broncos pants and laugh at them.

Speaker 3

You think they're the best team in football.

Speaker 4

Well, certainly, scoring seventy points, something we haven't seen since the nineteen sixties is a pretty good thing. I mean, obviously we had seen a lot of evidence of how dangerous this team could be on the road, you know, averaging thirty points and four hundred and sixty some odd yards per game. They come home, they absolutely demolished the Broncos. You know, Devin h Chane played. You know, I had two touches against New England. You had two hundred and

thirty three yards and four touchdowns total against Denver. So just another addition to speed to this this team like it really needs it, right. And then defensively we saw some improvement. Three turnovers. They're getting better. Vic Fanji will have this group whipped into shape. And I don't even know if they need them. Dofense is just that special right now an.

Speaker 5

Here, right?

Speaker 2

They go to Buffalo this week. Well we'll get to the Bills a little bit later. They had a great performance in Washington. Sack and Sam Howell nine times you mentioned the defense.

Speaker 3

I understand why.

Speaker 2

You put the Dolphins number one. For Pete's sake. They scored seventy points. But do you think they are a complete team, Like, are you buying the defense or is this just a I mean, come on, it's week four, they scored seventy they got to be number one.

Speaker 5

I think it's a little both, right.

Speaker 4

Obviously, anytime you see this kind of offensive output, you just say to yourself, do they need defense?

Speaker 5

Well, of course they do.

Speaker 4

There's gonna be some team that kind of cracks that code, slows to in company down a little bit, and that's going to put the onus on the defense. But you know, you see, obviously Christian Wilkins is a centerpiece there. They might get Jalen Ramsey later in the season. Andrew Vangyinkle's really running around and making plays with his hair on fire, and he's got a lot of beautiful hair.

Speaker 5

We don't want to see it burn.

Speaker 4

But I'm telling you, I think this defense is a lot deeper and more talented than we've seen in recent years. Savian Howard could still close people down, So I.

Speaker 5

Think the pieces are there.

Speaker 4

And you know, Vic Fangio can let you march down the field, He'll just clamp down once you get close to the end zone.

Speaker 5

And that's I think a formula for winning for mine.

Speaker 3

Weekn agree on one thing. They are the most fun team to watch.

Speaker 2

They are a must see viewing experience, a must buy ticket if they're coming to town. Hey, kids, come on down to the stadium. I want you to be able to tell your kids that one day you saw the team that scored seventy points. Come down and see the number one team in Eric at Holmes New Power Rankings, the Miami Dolphins. The Niners were number one. They followed

the number two. The Chiefs were number two. Eric, despite now Taylor Swift being their biggest fan, despite all the magic that she brought not only to Arrowhead but the Sunday Night coming up this week and met Life Stadium, you somehow dropped the Chiefs.

Speaker 3

I get it. Someone's got to go down to number three.

Speaker 5

Apologies to the Eagles, Chiefs and other teams at the top. The Dolphins were just that good.

Speaker 4

However, Kansas City obviously he made right against the Bears, right. I mean, they took their frustrations out from the early season on them. It was a great day to be against City Chiefs fan. Defensively, guys like Trent mcdovey and Chris Jones came up big.

Speaker 5

Offense started a little slowly, but no worries. Obviously. They poured it on and like any good wing man, Andrew.

Speaker 4

We see Patrick Mahomes hooking his boy up getting Kelsey the touchdown in the third quarter.

Speaker 5

That was tremendous, made for great TV. The kids loved it. They stuck with it even though it was a blowout. And look, I get it. They whipped on a team that had a miserable week last week.

Speaker 4

And then again you look at the next two games on their schedule and those teams have castles that are crumbling too. See what I did there? Andrews did about a Swift song every now and then.

Speaker 3

So you did, did you see? And I didn't notice it at the time. We just showed it. When Kelsey came out of the tunnel, he did the Archer. Did you see that?

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, yep, see, I didn't realize that at the time. I mean, that is Brandon Cook's thing. He is the Archer. And when Taylor Swift came to La years ago, like they did a whole Brandon Cook's like archer Instagram thing.

Speaker 3

The Rams did.

Speaker 2

Like the marketing possibilities for this are just endless amazing.

Speaker 5

I had it explained to me.

Speaker 4

That's why I know about it, just so everyone knows I am uncool. But you know, I did have someone tell me what that meant.

Speaker 2

So we should also point out that the whole Taylor Swift thing really, you know, it just makes us avoid the fact that the Chiefs two offensive tackle positions are still a mess, but they found a way to win without them. They are number three, down one. The Eagles are down one somehow to number four. Let's do Future Champions presented by Fan Duel. Eagles won on Monday and either one of only three remaining undefeated teams in the National Football League. They are still the favorite in the

NFC East. And look, I said this to our friend Steve why John Game Day Final and NFL Network after the Eagles beat the Buccaneers in a score of GOAMBI, We've never seen that before twenty five to eleven. Eric is that I feel like everyone's nitpicking them.

Speaker 3

Who cares? They won?

Speaker 2

Yes, Hurts turned it over twice. We don't expect to see that, but they limited the Bucks to three second half drives. Like Nick Sirianni almost had to defend the fact that in the second half.

Speaker 3

All they did was run the ball. If you can't stop it, then keep running it.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I think we would have had a different reaction had some of those field goals been touchdowns.

Speaker 5

Right, they did bog down a little bit. Credit to the Bucks played pretty.

Speaker 4

Good red zone defense, but yeah, I do feel like there is a little bit of piling on at this point in nitpicking. And you know, look, we complained about the you know, Hurts and aj Brown not being on the same page.

Speaker 5

Last week. They figured that out, right.

Speaker 4

I understand the red zone offense is kind of the you know, concerned dujure, but let's understand that it really hasn't been the problem. It was six for eight before that game, so you know, they're doing good things.

Speaker 5

It's starting to come together. It's hard to complain.

Speaker 4

And guess what that defensive line that everybody raved about on August last year, they put it in a twenty twenty two type performance. I thought up front, I mean, Jalen Carter's the real deal and he's playing twenty five snaps a game. They have the horses to just throw waves at you. That's what makes them good, and that's what puts some so high on this list.

Speaker 2

The two best defensive tackles in the NFL when it comes to pressures overall pressures through three weeks, Aaron Donald and Jalen Carter, the second of whom is a rookie who did force a fumble, knocking the ball out of Rashad White's hands on Monday Night, one of the two Buccaneers turnovers. They had not turned the ball over in their first two games. It's interesting for me this week the Eagles get the Commanders. It is a short week.

Washington was embarrassed Sunday by Buffalo. However, it was Ron Rivera, who I believe ran the ball eighty five times last year, to hand the Eagles in primetime their first loss of the year after opening the season eight to zero. All right, let's get to the Cowboys, America's team. I gave you last week, Eric because you didn't have them number one.

Speaker 3

I tweeted.

Speaker 2

It was all ingest that you hate America and you hate America's team because you didn't have the Cowboys number one. Now they are six, they are down only two. Explain to me how they drop only two when they go on the road as a double digit favorite to the team. Last week you had as the worst team in organized football and lose by double digits.

Speaker 5

Are we gonna do this every week?

Speaker 4

You're just gonna take the Cowboys and scrutinize every position I take on them.

Speaker 2

And I don't know, I like the Cowboys, but you do realize because you do watch the screaming head shows right that that night, like you know, the old like local news thing. If it bleeds, it leads, if it's the Cowboys, it leads all twelve months of the.

Speaker 5

Year, especially after that game.

Speaker 4

I mean, it was everything pointed towards them winning that game and winning a hand only obviously, but a lot of people I don't think watched how good the Cardinals could be, and they threw a Reid option at the at the Cowboy that they didn't.

Speaker 5

Know what to do with.

Speaker 4

Josh Dobbs was giving them all kinds of problems, not just running it, throwing it too. If this defense wants to be known as one of the best units in recent years, which is what the talk was after two weeks, it can't let things like this happen. I understand Trayvon Diggs got hurt and is out for the season. He was not the reason they lost, right, I think only Stefan Gilmour and a couple of guys really sort of showed up for that game. The secondary is a mess,

the assignment football upfront was a mess. And look, I mean, you could say the offense struggled because they missed three offensive linemen, but you know, twelve flagstone against him in the first halfhandrews.

Speaker 5

I mean, that's that's ridiculous, you know. I just I think they're discipline coming into that game.

Speaker 4

Spoke of a team that thought they were gonna win and didn't, and this should serve as a pretty good reminder they got work to do.

Speaker 2

Yeah, funny, funny how offenses stall when you miss three offensive lineman. Now that said, Rondelle Moore is still running okay, and Josh Dobbs is still throwing two wide open rookies thirty yards downfield, So those issues weren't affected, you would

have to say, by the three missing offensive linemen. I think the screaming head shows and of course this show, which is the only show you should watch, I think we have something to talk about next week when Bill Belichick's defense goes in there and makes this game Sunday at four to twenty five Eastern Time, far closer than anyone thought it would be. So the Cowboys are six,

the Lions are seven. They moved up one big win over the Falcons what we thought was the game of the week but turned out to be kind of a snoozer. Jared Gobb work on the celebration. And then you have the Baltimore Ravens who were down one. They lost in overtime to the Indianapolis Colt. We both agree it should have been pass interference and the raven should have kept the ball in overtime. That aside, I think it's amazing that they're even in these games.

Speaker 3

Can see half of their starters.

Speaker 2

Are out, I mean their left tackle, their center, their number one corner, their number one safety, their top two running backs, and they're number one wide.

Speaker 4

Receiver Eric and yet they were still expected to win this game, and still had ample chances to do so. But you know, Lamar loses a fumble in the first half, Kenyan Drake loses a bad one, doesn't see the guy coming behind him. You know, so many plays you'd want back. Gardner Minshew fumbles at the ball, rolls around for about seven seconds. They can't get their hands on it. You know, there were just so many plays like that, and the fair catch on the free kick after the safety right

at the end of regulation. You know, John Harbaugh is known for extremely well coached teams, prepared teams. They looked a little caught off guard there. The special teams went in the favor of the Colts. So this is a tough.

Speaker 5

One for me.

Speaker 4

I didn't know whether I should really penalize them and drop him much farther or think this was sort of a one week blip. I suspect with the injuries, it tends towards the ladder because last week the offense did look like it was making some strides here. I don't know, you tell me where does this team belong?

Speaker 2

The thing with the fair catch there, it was a fascinating explanation. I don't know if if it's an excuse, it's an explaination for Harbaugh. He said that before the play they thought they were under two minutes and then the scoreboard clock operator changed it to more than two minutes remaining, which makes sense that you might be confused, But at the same time, wouldn't you know whether or not they had called the two minute warning like it's a TV timeout, like you know, whether or not we

had the two minute warning. I know this, and you asked me where I think they should be. I think they're a little bit lower here. But I always think he's the best head coach in the NFL at any given moment because he fights through these injuries.

Speaker 3

I know this.

Speaker 2

The game coming up in Cleveland on Sunday between the Ravels and the Browns is musty TV.

Speaker 3

And look what we did there?

Speaker 2

Where are the Browns and the new Power rankings coming up next on the NFL Power Ranking Show presented by Energizer, The best defense in football gets that team where.

Speaker 3

We'll tell you.

Speaker 2

But wait, there's Mueller. We showed you the top eight nine through sixteen. Now the NFL Power Rankings presented by Energizer. The clean Brown's up four after holding the Titans to under one hundred yards of offense. Green Bay is up eight to ten, followed by Cincinnati, Seattle Jacksonville, which is down four to thirteen. The Saints are down four to fourteen, and then you have the Chargers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. My name is Andrews Siciliano. Eric ed Holm is with us.

Let's get to the Cleveland Browns. The three best defensive performances by any team in any game this year are the Browns in weeks one, two, and three.

Speaker 5

Eric, That's absurd, legit, absolutely legit.

Speaker 4

You know there was some question maybe after Week one, Okay, how good is this team?

Speaker 5

How much are they really improved on that side of the ball.

Speaker 4

I think we've seen enough evidence to this point to say they targeted certain positions this offseason and made sure we are not going to have a problem in defensive tackle this year. We're not going to have a problem linebacker in the addition of Jim Schwartz obviously bringing back the wide nine rusher one of my all time favorites, Miles Garrett was unbelievable Sunday, But it was a full team effort. And oh, by the way, I mean, Deshaun Watson probably played his best game as a Brown.

Speaker 5

Still not perfect, still got work to do there too, but hard.

Speaker 4

Not to like how they responded after the tough losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and you know they're trending up, no doubt about it.

Speaker 2

He absolutely played his best game as a Brown at sosolutely and guess what, Miles Garrett on one of his sacks in the fourth quarter on Ryan Tannehill was clearly held by Andre Dillard, who he terrorized the entire game in the end zone. Should have been a safety. Tandel got out of the end zone, he sacked him on the two. Garrett had three and a half sacks. And again it's the Browns and the Ravens coming up this Sunday in Cleveland. The Browns are nine, the Packers are ten.

After rallying from down double digits in the fourth quarter, they are making power moves here presented to you by Energizer. They are up eight. Eric, That is huge. They are a top ten team now in your eyes.

Speaker 4

Yeah, for a team that was railing for three quarters. Right, I understand the optics here. It's a little bit surprised and they move up this much. Maybe I underrated him a little bit last week or penalized him too much for losing in Atlanta, the game where Jordan Love had the opportunity to sort of make a start of a legend for himself.

Speaker 5

It didn't happen there, but it happened Sunday.

Speaker 4

I thought he was tremendous, right, even with some misthrows, some drop throws, you know, the offensive penalties, right, he used his legs, he threw the ball vertically through it with touch, really trusted guys like Dobbs in the end zone there and read after a couple of misconnections.

Speaker 5

Just high level stuff, right.

Speaker 4

This is what he's been learning since, you know, subbing behind Aaron Rodgers, only getting the one start. He's put in the time and it's starting to pay off now. But for Shan Gary too, coming off the ACL really hadn't used them much the first couple of weeks. He got in there, got his three sacks. It was really

emotional after the game. This team has something special going on, even if they were help by you know, the Saints quarterback getting hurt and a little bit of you know, a little bit of luck there.

Speaker 2

Yeah, the luck the missed field goal there at the end where Jameis Winston off the bench for the injured Derek car And by the way, I think the Saints win this game if Car doesn't get hurt. Okay, but Jamis Winston put them in position at the end to steal that victory and get out of Green Bay at three and zero. It didn't happen. Now, the Saints get the Bucks. Maybe we have Jamis against his old team this week, and the Packers are at home on TNF against the Lions, the team that for all intents and

purposes knocked them out of the postseason. And Aaron Rodgers' career ended in Green Bay Week eighteen last year, so that one should be fun. The Jaguars, meantime, are look at the screen number thirteen. They are down four if they're losing at home to C. J. Stroud and the Texans. Now the Jaguars go to London, you still have them though, beneath the make the playoff bar here, Eric.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I mean, this is a Jaguar team that's obviously in a division with a lot of questions right now. Maybe the Colts and Texans are better. We certainly don't know exactly how it's gonna all go out, but this is the team you figure should win it, not lose it home to a team like the Texans in rebuild mode. So special teams, breakdowns, third down offense, a secondary that was under siege. I mean, they have issues in all three phases right now. Arguably even if it's only one game.

The third down stuff has been lingering all season long. I'm sorry, but with Trevor Lawrence, etn Ridley, Evan Ingram Kirk, all these guys, they should be not be having these issues. I just think that's going to be the focus of practice this week is, Hey, if we're going to go over to London and try to put on a show, let's do so with the scoring opportunities right in front of us, and let's capitalize.

Speaker 5

Not sub thirty percent. That's not playoff quality right there.

Speaker 2

Jaguars actually doing two games back to back weeks in London, a London residency, if you will. They get the Bills in week five before coming back home. Trevor Lawrence, if you listen to the PFF, guys has had more quote unquote big time throws dropped than any other quarterback. He actually is playing well, but they got to score more points here. It hasn't happened. And Doug Peterson says, yes, maybe they are feeling the pressure of offseason expectations. They

are number thirteen. Let's look at the Chargers here, they are number fifteen. They are up one after surviving a nail bier in Minnesota. I'm telling you and Eric and you're not talking about this off the air after Brandon Staley went for it inside his own twenty five and didn't get it right. The Chargers only survived because Kirk Cousins didn't think a spike in the football and because TJ. Hopkinson could not hang on to this when Cousins hit him in the chest.

Speaker 5

Yeah, it felt like.

Speaker 4

They had four passes clang off receivers hands in the last two minutes. It was absolutely insane. Now, the risk itself, some people are gonna love it. They're gonna say this is modern football, this is analytics. They say you should go for it. And other people are gonna say, what do you think even if you are up four and they don't have any timeouts? Way, I guess you'd say the

defense bailed them out. Look, the bottom line is that they have a special combo with Justin Herbert and Keenan Allen, and everyone's begging them not.

Speaker 5

To screw this up. We want to see this team have their moment in the sun.

Speaker 4

They've got the talent, but obviously they put themselves in these sort of unbinding situations where you know, they don't know what to do. They don't know how to win games most of the time, and in this case, let's face it, they got a little lucky because of what you said Minnesota's breakdown. So yeah, I mean it's hard to even celebrate this win. You've got the questioning of the of the play call. You've also got Mike Williams

going down with an ACL injury. So even in a good news week, bad news.

Speaker 2

Yeah, he is out for the year and the Chargers now come home to get the Raiders. Jimmy Garoppolo's status up in the air for that game. Listen, if TJ. Hockinson holds onto that ball, we're sitting here. We're sitting here wondering when is Kellen Moore named head coach. I'm being serious, and I like Brandon Staley, I truly truly do. But the Vikings were in position to win that game because he went forward on the twenty four yard line and they didn't get it. They got lucky and they survived,

all right. Comeing up, I mentioned I think the Patriots get the Cowboys a game coming up this Sunday in Dallas. Where are the Patriots after surviving a Hail Mary at MetLife? That's coming up on the NFL Power Ranking show.

Speaker 3

Bruise Eni Energizer.

Speaker 2

You're watching the NFL Power Ranking show for head of I Energizer. Let's get some more numbers on the screen. Falcons, Patriots, Jets, Buccaneers seventeen through twenty, with the Patriots moving up seven. After that, tennessee Washington, Houston and the Rams of Los Angeles. How about those New England Patriots, the second biggest mover here, Eric, They're up seven.

Speaker 5

This deserves a little bit of an astross.

Speaker 4

I had my drawthers, I leave like five or six places plank and then put them below that. But editors tell me I can't do that. They move up because a lot of teams move down. But give them credit. I mean Ezekiel Elliott coming into this, this big game next weekend is has sort of been a big piece of what they're doing offensively. I just don't think they trust their deep passing game right now. Unfortunately, that leaves them with such a small margin of air. Andrew, the

special teams have to be great. The defense has to do its job like it did on Sunday. So their formula for winning is basically that every single time outs, which makes me very nervous about him.

Speaker 5

But they win the game.

Speaker 4

They've been competitive in all three could be three and oh technically that's why they sit at eighteen.

Speaker 5

Kind of reluctantly, I would.

Speaker 2

Say, yeah, Randall Cobb almost caught that hell Mary, although I think there was a hand on his back. I think he would have been down with a one yard line. The Texans are tied to the biggest move. Houston goes into Jacksonville beats the Jaguars. They are up eight to twenty three.

Speaker 5

Eric three phase victory. Unbelievable.

Speaker 2

C J.

Speaker 4

Stroud looked like he was in command, like we saw from him most of the time at Ohio State. That was the biggest development. Tanked Dell the rookie receiver. Those two have found a terrific connection together. And look give credit to the defense too and Lake Cashman coming up with some big plays.

Speaker 5

The special teams.

Speaker 4

Blockfield goal and a full back returning a kickoff for a touchdown.

Speaker 5

They were prepared. They came in and there and they took him to the woodshed. Give him to tat tip.

Speaker 4

This is a great job so far by Demiko Ryans, even if this is their first win.

Speaker 3

Yeah. The CJ.

Speaker 2

Stroud pre draft slander in retrospect now looks kind of silly and hats off to Andrew Beck the best up back return for a touchdown ever in NFL kickoff history, all one hundred and four years. All right, let's get some more numbers on the screen. Here, twenty five on down the Arizona Cardinals in Minnesota, Vikings, the Raiders, the Colts, and the Giants are twenty five through twenty nine. The Panthers, the Broncos, and yes, the Bears are thirty through thirty two.

The Cardinals up seven after punching the Dallas Cowboys eric in the mouth.

Speaker 5

Yeah, unbelievable stuff.

Speaker 4

Jonathan Gannon has had his team prepared every single week. Let's give him credit for that. And Drew Petsig is probably one of the least known offensive coordinators in this league. But his creativity, his play designs, what he's doing with Joshua Dobbs, I give him a ton of credit for that. Competitive, tough, smart, prepared. What else do you want? This isn't a very talented team, but they're executing at a very high level. That's why I bump them up.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I love the Cardinals, I truly do. I love the way they're playing. They go to San Francisco this week. I fear it could get ugly, but whatever, they will always have their win over the Cowboys. And then you have the Bears, you know, the team of the planes in your backyard as the worst team in football.

Speaker 3

We all agree they.

Speaker 2

Are ston They are soon to star in that brand new show Worst Week ever.

Speaker 5

This is going to be a good week for US. Week four.

Speaker 2

For Eric at home, I'm Andrew Siciliano. This is the NFL Power Ranking Show. Everyone enjoy the.

Speaker 3

Games this week.

Speaker 1

NFL Power Rankings is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your PODCAS guests

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