The NFL Power Rankings ever stop. But at least with the regular season under way, they're based on real, honest to goodness football.
After the New York Giants' embarrassing loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, the Giants just had to plummet in the various power rankings, right?
Let's take a look around the intergoogle and find out.
SB Nation:
New York Giants (0-1) 24th overall - (preseason: 24th)
Yahoo! Sports:
22nd (Last week -- 21st)
It's amazing how coaches spend 80 hours a week figuring out things like what an opponent's tendency is on defense in third-and-long situations, but not 30 seconds studying the proper way to manage a clock and win a game at the end.
Washington Post
New York Giants: 23rd (Last week -- 21st)
The Giants had to go way out of their way not to win on Sunday night at Dallas, from QB Eli Manning telling RB Rashad Jennings in the huddle not to score to calling that third-down pass play from the 1-yard line to Manning throwing the ball away instead of taking a sack to keep the clock running. It's the kind of squandered chance that you don't get over easily. But the Giants must move on.
Pro Football Talk
New York Giants: 24th (Last Week -- 23rd)
All the criticism of Eli and Coughlin gives G.M. Jerry Reese perfect cover for handing James Jones to the Packers.
NFL.com
New York Giants 22nd (Last Week -- 22nd)
Acronym fun: PI on DRC. OK, so that call was the definition of ticky-tack. Unfortunately, given the arm around the waist, it was highly difficult for the ref to tell if Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was pulling on Terrance Williams at full game speed.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, allow me to explain why the Giants stay at No. 22 after a loss. This team might not be strong enough to compete for the NFC East crown, but Sunday night in Dallas, Tom Coughlin's group did more than enough to win. The key to this team actually making a playoff run: Rashad Jennings staying healthy all season.
Final Thoughts
So the Giants aren't very well regarded. We knew that was going to happen. But despite the embarrassing loss to a division rival on the road, nobody but Giants fans are hitting the panic button just yet and dropping them into the bottom five.
The blurb from NFL.com summed it up best. That game was ugly and the Giants lost. There was no way they were going to move up without a win, and maybe even with a win they might have just stayed put. However, the Giants did enough to win, and actually spent most of the game beating a team that most of the mainstream media believed were going to blow them out.
It seems that the rankings still don't quite know what to make of the Giants. Personally, I believe that we will find out a lot about the Giants based on how they play against the Atlanta Falcons this Sunday.