NFL power rankings, Week 14: New York Giants tumble out of top 10

Sunday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers shook the faith of New York Giants’ fans following six straight victories — many against lightweight competition. The loss also caused the Giants to tumble out of the top 10 in the aggregated Week 14 NFL power rankings.

The Giants are No. 11 overall when you average the rankings of the 10 sites we are using this week. The Giants were No. 7 overall a week ago. This week, our rankings show a high of No. 8 (CBS) and a low of No. 14 (ESPN).

SB Nation (No. 11) | LW: 5

A six-game winning streak went out the window for the New York Giants too, and there’s reason to question how much the schedule played a factor in their hot streak too.

NFL.com (No. 10) | LW: 5

Not much the Giants could do Sunday. Stop the Steelers' offense? Not exactly. Jump-start their own offense. No dice. While New York owns the better record, there was little question left on the field as to who the better team was on Sunday. Thus, Big Blue plummets to the 10th spot in these here rankings. Many commenters called into question the No. 5 ranking last week, imploring me to drop this team based on a creampuff sked. While I think we still will hear from Eli Manning, Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard this December, the readers saw it right with the Giants. Let's see how they handle the Week 14 Cowboys, a whole different animal than the Week 1 Cowboys.

ESPN (No. 14) | LW: 10

The 24 points allowed by the Giants in Week 13 were their most allowed in two months. The defense will keep them in games, but QB Eli Manning and his team can't have so many empty possessions, especially against the 11-1 Cowboys on Sunday night.

CBS Sports (No. 8) | LW: 4

Eli Manning had a rough go of it at Pittsburgh. But now they have a tough turnaround against the Cowboys.

Yahoo! Sports (No. 10) | LW: 10

Victor Cruz was not happy immediately after getting no targets in a loss to the Steelers, though he backtracked a bit on Monday. Cruz isn’t what he once was, but he’s probably right – it’s a little strange he was ignored completely on Sunday.

Washington Post (No. 10) | LW: 4

If Peyton Manning has any pointers this week for facing the Dallas defense, brother Eli probably shouldn’t listen.

USA Today (No. 10) | LW: 9

Deion Sanders offered wise advice Sunday night, Odell. If you pan one officiating crew, you're panning all of them. Expect repercussions.

Pro Football Focus (No. 12) | LW: NA

FOX Sports (No. 11) | LW: 5

The Giants simply aren’t as good as their record indicates, and Sunday’s loss proved that. For the second straight week, one of their top receivers went catch-less – first Sterling Shepard and now Victor Cruz. That shows they’re becoming reliant on Odell Beckham Jr., and it’s not exactly working. They need to get more creative and spread the ball around. That begins with Ben McAdoo and Eli Manning.

Bleacher Report/Simms (No. 11) | LW: 5

Big Blue got fat off the chewy center that was its midseason schedule.

Now it has to digest the tough stuff. Six straight wins masked all of New York’s early-season offensive struggles. A team like the Steelers, though, represented a step up in competition and a true test for the offensive line.

That line failed in Week 13. Left tackle Ereck Flowers held in the end zone for a safety, while backup and interior linemen couldn’t push Pittsburgh off the ball in the run game (Rashad Jennings had 19 rushing yards).

Eli Manning tossed two interceptions. Big Ben Roethlisberger and Le’Veon Bell capitalized.