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After knocking off the Dallas Cowboys, who had previously been No. 1 in most NFL power rankings, the New York Giants have moved back into the top 10 in our aggregated power rankings for Week 15.
After losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Giants had fallen to No. 11. The victory over Dallas moves them to No. 7 when you combine the rankings of each of the sites listed below.
SB Nation (No. 7) | LW: 11
The New York Giants couldn’t find much offense at all against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the offense didn’t have a big bounceback game against the Dallas Cowboys. But the defense looks like it can give just about any team a problem and has eight forced turnovers in the last three weeks.
Yahoo! Sports (No. 9) | LW: 10
Odell Beckham is turning the simple slant route into an art form. Cornerbacks can’t keep up and safeties are in a terrible spot. The next time you see a safety get smoked on a Beckham slant route and wonder why they didn’t take a better angle, remember Beckham running a slant-and-go and making Miami’s fantastic safety Reshad Jones look awful last year on an 84-yard touchdown. Good luck defending it.
NFL.com (No. 8) | LW: 10
It's not often that the ol' free agency spending spree works out. We saw the Eagles' "Dream Team" their way to .500. How about the 2000 Redskins? A playoff team in 1999, Washington added Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Jeff George, Mark Carrier and Andre Reed ... and finished third in the division and missed the postseason. Well, these Giants are bucking the trend, as their defensive overhaul has worked out swimmingly. Olivier Vernon wasn't getting sacks early on, but he has pressured the pocket all season. Janoris Jenkins delivered a dominant performance Sunday night. And what more can you say about Damon "Snacks" Harrison, who is a top run-stuffing DT. (Oh, do the Jets miss him ...) The only thing I wonder is if Vernon's agent sounded like this when he asked for that $52 million guaranteed.
ESPN (No. 5) | LW: 14
The Giants are 9-4 but currently have a minus-5 turnover differential this season. It's not easy to win when you don't win the turnover battle, but the Giants have found a way. The Giants take on the Lions, a team with the fourth-fewest giveaways (10), on Sunday.
Bleacher Report/Simms (No. 6) | LW: 11
Big Blue's offense can be an eyesore at times.
It doesn't need to be anything more than serviceable. This team will go as far as the defense takes it, and if Sunday night's rematch with the Cowboys is any indication, it can go far.
Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo received big-time contributions from his big-ticket, free-agent imports, Janoris Jenkins (interception, forced fumble) and Olivier Vernon. He also had no-name guys pitch in. Something tells me we'll see names like defensive end Romeo Okwara on the All-22 team. His play in Jason Pierre-Paul's place was stellar.
CBS Sports (No. 8) | LW: 8
The defense has made big strides since early in the season. The secondary is really playing well.
Pro Football Focus (No.7) | LW: NA
USA Today (No. 5) | LW: 9
Their one-dimensional offense is just one flaw. But Eli Manning won two rings in years that offered much stronger competition elsewhere in league.
FOX Sports (No. 8) | LW: 11
Are the Giants the team that beat the undeniable best team in the league on Sunday night? Or are they the team that struggled with the Browns for three quarters and fails to beat any opponent handily? They’re probably somewhere in-between the two, but as long as the defense keeps playing the way it has, they’ll be a team no one wants to play.
Washington Post (No. 6) | LW: 10
The defense was terrific Sunday night even without Jason Pierre-Paul and the Giants clearly have the formula for beating the Cowboys. But QB Eli Manning and the offense will have to be better than they were against Dallas. WR Odell Beckham Jr. had one moment of brilliance by turning a catch on a short slant pattern into the decisive TD. But he also had some drops and the Giants didn’t sustain much of anything on offense.