Speaker 1: NFL Power Rankings is a production of the NFL in
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Speaker 2: Embrace the Chaos.
Speaker 3: There's been nothing but that over the course of the
Speaker 3: first few weeks of the NFL season. Welcome to Power Rankings.
Speaker 3: Mike am joined by Eric at Home and if you
Speaker 3: haven't seen the complete list of rankings, all you have
Speaker 3: to do is head to NFL dot com. And Eric,
Speaker 3: I love the fact that I get to read your
Speaker 3: column before it actually hits, and I think you made
Speaker 3: a great and accurate assessment of quite a few teams.
Speaker 3: More specifically something you said at the intro, which was
Speaker 3: expect the unexpected. I think a quarterway through the season,
Speaker 3: we've got a pretty good handle on how these teams
Speaker 3: might be playing the rest.
Speaker 4: Of the way. Yeah, we didn't have as much wild
Speaker 4: movement in Week four as we sorry week five as
Speaker 4: we did in Week four, but there was still quite
Speaker 4: a bit of movement. And I think if you take
Speaker 4: back a look back at what we had in Week
Speaker 4: one or even the preseason edition, there's been a lot
Speaker 4: of change. Obviously, especially on the NFC side, where Minnesota, Washington,
Speaker 4: Tampa Bay some teams have outperformed expectations are certainly in
Speaker 4: the case of the Commanders. But yeah, we'll see how
Speaker 4: long this can hold up too. I mean, Vikings set
Speaker 4: a four and a record not too long ago finished
Speaker 4: eight and eight, so that could certainly happen to this
Speaker 4: club if Sam Donald doesn't keep it up.
Speaker 3: So I watched the games now on Sunday a little
Speaker 3: bit differently. I think to myself, where's Eric going to
Speaker 3: have this team when the matchup is done? And there
Speaker 3: was one team in particular, I was like, maybe there's
Speaker 3: going to be a change.
Speaker 2: I didn't think there was really.
Speaker 3: Going to be a change at the top, but there was.
Speaker 3: Use name check Sam Donald and the Minnesota Vikings. We
Speaker 3: got a new number one. The Vikings still undefeated. They
Speaker 3: move into the number one spot on the power rankings.
Speaker 3: Kansas City drops one. They've been sitting there all season long.
Speaker 3: They did get a win, but it was a close
Speaker 3: one and there's obviously some injury concerns now with ever
Speaker 3: Street Rice at that wide receiver spot.
Speaker 2: The Detroit Lions.
Speaker 3: On Monday night, Jared Goff was perfect number four the Bills.
Speaker 2: A little surprise for me.
Speaker 3: Just one spot decline for Buffalo after a loss against
Speaker 3: the Ravens. We'll discuss that the Texans a comeback win
Speaker 3: against the Jags.
Speaker 2: They are at number five.
Speaker 3: This Ravens team that we saw on Sunday, this is
Speaker 3: the one that I think we expected to see all season.
Speaker 2: They move up two spots into the sixth position.
Speaker 3: The Commanders, Hello, moving up nine spots, and I gotta
Speaker 3: be honest, it makes sense the way that Jaden Daniels
Speaker 3: and this team is playing. And then the Tampa Bay
Speaker 3: Bucks start three to one for the fourth time in
Speaker 3: the last five seasons. They check in at number eight.
Speaker 3: But Eric, let's start with the number one team, the
Speaker 3: Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 2: Here. Break it down for me.
Speaker 3: Why you felt confident enough in what you've seen through
Speaker 3: these first four games to have them number one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, part of it had to do what's going on
Speaker 4: in Kansas City. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Speaker 4: But obviously we had a little bit of a Alabama
Speaker 4: Georgia thing going on up there in Green Bay, where
Speaker 4: you know, Minnesota came out twenty eight to nothing lead,
Speaker 4: looked like the dominant team, absolutely getting after Jordan Love
Speaker 4: defensively and seeing Sam Donald continue to throw passes like this.
Speaker 4: He's been spot on this year did have the one intercession,
Speaker 4: but Mike I saw Kevin O'Connell trust Sam Donald when
Speaker 4: the lead was starting to shrink away to throw the
Speaker 4: football and throw them to a victory. They had Aaron
Speaker 4: Jones back in his old house, right, You could easily
Speaker 4: hand off to the guy who made a ton of
Speaker 4: lamboat leaves in his career. None on Sunday, But instead
Speaker 4: they realize they have to remain aggressive. Jordan Love was
Speaker 4: starting to get hot after some early shaky moments, and
Speaker 4: I think the Vikings played it right. Coaching has been
Speaker 4: a huge part of what they've done this season. It's
Speaker 4: not to besmirch any other staff like Andy Reid or
Speaker 4: John Harbor, anybody like that, but what I've seen from
Speaker 4: Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores this season has been wildly impressive.
Speaker 4: In another big game for them on the road against
Speaker 4: a division opponent, making place like this to seal a victory.
Speaker 3: I want to put some context eric around how good
Speaker 3: this the Minnesota Vikings team has been. They've trailed for
Speaker 3: just three minutes and twenty six seconds through four games.
Speaker 2: That's the fewest in the NFL.
Speaker 3: Only team under twenty seven minutes that is wild, and
Speaker 3: that speaks to what you're talking about, a balance attack.
Speaker 3: The defense has been great and by the way they
Speaker 3: hit the road. Now they're going to London against the Jets.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about Gangreen coming up that matchup exclusively on
Speaker 3: NFL Network this coming weekend, so you want to make
Speaker 3: sure that you're tuning in for that. The Chiefs, all right,
Speaker 3: I got to imagine if they're completely healthy, this is
Speaker 3: a harder decision to drop them once.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right. I mean, I've been kind of stubborn
Speaker 4: about it. You look at other people's power rankings, they'd
Speaker 4: moved on from the Chiefs even with the four to
Speaker 4: zho record, you know, just saying, hey, look, Mahomes hasn't
Speaker 4: been as great, you know, but I really think it
Speaker 4: has been enough of a good team to this point
Speaker 4: prior to the Rashi Rice injury that I would have
Speaker 4: kept them probably number one, or at least had a
Speaker 4: real tough debate in my head. But once the news
Speaker 4: came out on Rice, still some you know, lack of
Speaker 4: clarity on whether he's going to be out the entire
Speaker 4: season or what the deal is. But I'm assuming this
Speaker 4: is going to be another serious injury in line with
Speaker 4: losing Hollywood Brown in the preseason, losing Isaiah Pacheco a
Speaker 4: couple of weeks ago, you know, making some changes on
Speaker 4: the offensive line. I was very glad to see Travis
Speaker 4: Kelcey step up on Sunday. It was gonna happen at
Speaker 4: some point. And Kareem hunt is first game back since
Speaker 4: twenty eighteen in Kansas City, was a big part of
Speaker 4: finishing that one off. They had a bench Carson Steel
Speaker 4: early in the game after the fumble. There's still some
Speaker 4: uncertainty there. We're kind of back to where we were
Speaker 4: last year with all the questions about Mahomes weapons and
Speaker 4: how is he gonna get this done? We know he can,
Speaker 4: but you know, is he going.
Speaker 3: To Here's the best part about this from Kansas City perspective,
Speaker 3: there's lulls in the season and they're still winning football games,
Speaker 3: so they still have some time. I saw a report
Speaker 3: from Ian Rappaport saying the team exploring some possibilities of
Speaker 3: acquiring another wide receiver if the rice injury is as
Speaker 3: significant as we assume that it is. Number three the
Speaker 3: Detroit Allons I gotta tell you on Monday, and I
Speaker 3: don't know if we saw the biting of the ankles
Speaker 3: and the whole deal. But this team is tough, they
Speaker 3: are gritty. They were able to sustain a lead and
Speaker 3: hold on to it. I think there's a lot to
Speaker 3: love about the Lions.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, did they have their hands full defensively with Gino
Speaker 4: Smith and the Seahawks, No doubt, right. I mean, they
Speaker 4: had to hold off a team that had I think
Speaker 4: thirty eight first downs twenty seven them in the second half.
Speaker 4: Just an incredible job by Seattle to keep making this
Speaker 4: a game. But when you have the offensive efficiency that
Speaker 4: the Lions did Monday night, kind of regaining some of
Speaker 4: their mojo a little bit. Big performance from Tim Patrick,
Speaker 4: you know, he's now kind of entering the mix a
Speaker 4: little bit. Jamison Williams a couple of really important plays.
Speaker 4: The run duo there was awesome. And then Jared Goff
Speaker 4: one of his eighteen for eighteen completions there on the
Speaker 4: night you throw in the touchdown catch you had I'm
Speaker 4: on Saint Brown and Lions were perfect as a team
Speaker 4: nineteen for nineteen. So you're gonna win a lot of
Speaker 4: football games when you don't have a pass hit the turf.
Speaker 4: But it took every single minute. Did love the way
Speaker 4: they closed out the game, right. They could have been
Speaker 4: a little tighter there, allowing the safety at the end.
Speaker 4: But man, this is I said in the column I
Speaker 4: lived in Saint Louis during the Greatest Show on Turf years.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of similarities between the two teams. Highly explosive,
Speaker 4: a little volatile, always interesting. And I'm gonna keep watching
Speaker 4: these guys because there's so much fun and they seem
Speaker 4: to be kind of getting back on track a little
Speaker 4: bit offensively.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they are fun and look, it was the most
Speaker 3: memorable play of the game with im and Ross Saint Brown,
Speaker 3: who had never thrown a pass in his college or
Speaker 3: NFL career. He's now one for one with the touchdown pass.
Speaker 3: He's probably telling Jared, Yo, your job is pretty easy.
Speaker 3: Look at some of my stats and my percentages. And Goff,
Speaker 3: by the way, his second career reception in his first
Speaker 3: career touchdown I saw. Obviously, we had the postgame show
Speaker 3: on NFL Network and we had played some of Jared
Speaker 3: Goff's comments after the game. He said it was his
Speaker 3: first touchdown that he could remember since he was like
Speaker 3: seven years old, which is just wild to me. Moving
Speaker 3: on to number four. Here the Bills, they dropped two
Speaker 3: spots Eric Ause, I'm watching that game against Baltimore and
Speaker 3: seeing how they lost. I actually thought there was a
Speaker 3: world where you drop them more than just two spots.
Speaker 3: Why the amount of respect that you've given them to
Speaker 3: still keep them where they are?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the first three games of this season
Speaker 4: they had been really good, I thought, and especially the
Speaker 4: last two, and so they had flexed their muscles a
Speaker 4: little bit. And this is a twenty one to ten
Speaker 4: game where the Ravens kind of kept the door open
Speaker 4: with some of their mistake I think had that trick play,
Speaker 4: the one where Allen fumbled and you know the one
Speaker 4: that Joe Brady says after the game he regrets, had
Speaker 4: that play gone a little differently, or if they've been
Speaker 4: able to make something happen on that drive, we'd have
Speaker 4: a different final score and a different story. Not making
Speaker 4: excuses they didn't play well defensively, they had their issues
Speaker 4: with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. Offensively, we know they
Speaker 4: were drop passes, there were missed kind of connections there.
Speaker 4: And it was the first time in forty three games
Speaker 4: that they lost in regular season games. That they lost
Speaker 4: by more than ten points, so it does speak to
Speaker 4: the fact that they are highly competitive. Josh Allen keeps
Speaker 4: them in almost every game. Sunday was obviously an exception
Speaker 4: to that. Does it look a little strange that I
Speaker 4: have the Ravens below them? Yes, but this is sort
Speaker 4: of the balancing act you have to do. Where the
Speaker 4: Ravens had two losses, one of them pretty bad to
Speaker 4: the Raiders, how do you kind of weigh those two
Speaker 4: teams head to head? Is only part of the equation.
Speaker 4: So that's kind of how I arrived there. Don't worry
Speaker 4: Ravens fans. I love your team. I never moved them
Speaker 4: out even and zero and two, so I stuck with
Speaker 4: you guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I'm with you there, and I think you
Speaker 3: actually slotted it the right way, because it's got to
Speaker 3: be the entire body of work. And to be fair here,
Speaker 3: Baltimore hasn't had and I don't think there's someone higher
Speaker 3: on the Ravens than me inside our building here an
Speaker 3: NFL network, the Ravens the whole season. They deserve to
Speaker 3: be at least right now behind the Buffalo Bills. By
Speaker 3: the way, I thought, Diggs, you know we're talking about
Speaker 3: Buffalo not having questions around personnel. I think it showed
Speaker 3: up how much they missed him in a game like this,
Speaker 3: and it hadn't creaked its ugly head through the first
Speaker 3: couple of weeks of the season.
Speaker 2: When name checked the Ravens, they.
Speaker 3: Or assuse me, they move up to the sixth spot
Speaker 3: here Derrick Henry, Derrick Henry, and last time I checked,
Speaker 3: the King.
Speaker 2: Is still really good.
Speaker 4: Unbelievable to make a statement that early in the game.
Speaker 4: It really kind of changes your defensive mindset, right, you
Speaker 4: have a thirty year old running back at that weight
Speaker 4: and that kind of power ripping off that long a touchdown.
Speaker 4: The last two weeks, obviously last three really we've seen.
Speaker 4: You know, this guy is entirely capable of being a
Speaker 4: huge part of the offense. Didn't happen in week one,
Speaker 4: but they found that right mix of getting Henry involved.
Speaker 4: And you know, it wasn't a huge throwing day for
Speaker 4: Lamar Jackson. They didn't need him to right. Everything was
Speaker 4: going so smoothly up front, so almost a near perfect
Speaker 4: offensive script. As I mentioned in the Buffalo part, there
Speaker 4: still want to see them cut down on those mistakes
Speaker 4: they could have taken this thing and blown it wide
Speaker 4: open earlier than this, but did kind of leave the
Speaker 4: door open a little bit. We know that was an
Speaker 4: issue in Dallas held on for victory. It was an
Speaker 4: issue against the Raiders. That's one thing they have to
Speaker 4: clean up. But the talent's there for a top ten team,
Speaker 4: no doubt. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look the way that they won this football game reminds
Speaker 3: us of what this Ravens team is in terms of
Speaker 3: team identity.
Speaker 2: Run the football almost two hundred.
Speaker 3: Yards for Dereck Henry one hundred and ninety nine of
Speaker 3: the exact, by the way, which is the most rushing
Speaker 3: yards by a Ravens player since Ray Rice back in
Speaker 3: twenty eleven. And then defensively, this is a good Buffalo
Speaker 3: offense and they looked good on that side of the football.
Speaker 3: And Eric's super excited for power moves as the Commanders
Speaker 3: move up nine spots to number seven.
Speaker 2: Jayden dan Niels has got this team rocking.
Speaker 4: He's been special, you know, and I thought he had
Speaker 4: a great chance beginning of the year to be offensive
Speaker 4: Rookie of the Year. And Cliff Kingsbury was a big
Speaker 4: reason why he goes back to Arizona exacts a little
Speaker 4: revenge against his former team, but you know, didn't make
Speaker 4: a big deal out of it because he's got this
Speaker 4: star quarterback and they are in simpatico right now, and
Speaker 4: it's been fun to watch the design of the offense.
Speaker 4: Some power, some spread, a little bit of this and
Speaker 4: a little bit of that. They're explosive offensively, they're hard
Speaker 4: to defend the run games there, and the defense is
Speaker 4: overachieving too. You can't say enough about the job that
Speaker 4: Dan Quinn, Adam Peters and the rest of the crew
Speaker 4: there have done and rebuilding this locker room and this
Speaker 4: roster as well.
Speaker 3: Jayden Daniels for context on what he's been able to
Speaker 3: accomplish last two games, for him, five touchdowns, three in
Speaker 3: the air and two on the ground.
Speaker 2: I'm going to repeat that five.
Speaker 3: Touchdowns, Eric six incompletions over the last two games.
Speaker 4: It is he's over eighty for said he leaves the league.
Speaker 4: It's nuts, it's crazy, it's.
Speaker 2: It is, it's wild.
Speaker 3: And I think you said something in your column once
Speaker 3: again on NFL dot Com analysis on all thirty two teams.
Speaker 3: Why not Washington win this division? Considering how Dallas and
Speaker 3: New York and Philadelphia are playing so just I can't
Speaker 3: believe I'm saying that the Washington Commanders might win the
Speaker 3: NFC East, another team that's on the move.
Speaker 2: Seven spots, Tampa Bay up to eight.
Speaker 3: I think the win that you witnessed, Eric made you
Speaker 3: even pause, because this is a significant jump, and I
Speaker 3: think you were a little on the fence about this
Speaker 3: team over the last few weeks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean two weeks ago didn't have him too
Speaker 4: much lower than this. The big drop after the Denver game,
Speaker 4: I think we realized, Look, Denver went on the road
Speaker 4: and won a tough game against the Jets. Maybe they're
Speaker 4: a little better opponent than I realized some other folks did.
Speaker 4: I don't know, this was I think we're going to
Speaker 4: look back at that Denver game and just say that
Speaker 4: was kind of their their hiccup, their mulligan, whatever you
Speaker 4: want to call it. Baker was back in command. The
Speaker 4: defense got after the Eagles. Shorthanded Eagles team, Granted, you
Speaker 4: know they were missing some star players, no doubt about it.
Speaker 4: But I loved what what the Mayfields, Yeah, what the Mayfield,
Speaker 4: the fighting Mayfields did against that Eagles defense that really
Speaker 4: kind of shut down the Saints the week before, made
Speaker 4: it tough for them to keeping them on the field
Speaker 4: for long drives and explosive plays, and it was a
Speaker 4: feel good game, a get right game for the Bucks,
Speaker 4: and they certainly made that big statement. And you know,
Speaker 4: they're my favorites for the NFC South. But there's another
Speaker 4: team I know you like, we're going to talk about
Speaker 4: later that could give them a little push. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, the division is still really competitive, but to your point,
Speaker 3: I think they have to be the favorite. And by
Speaker 3: the way, just I do think it's important to highlight
Speaker 3: this the lives that have been affected in the South
Speaker 3: because of the hurricane and the absolute debate was able
Speaker 3: to get a win like this. I mean, look, it's
Speaker 3: a small level of solace, but I think a lot
Speaker 3: of people need those distractions on the weekends and Sundays
Speaker 3: to think about what's happening in their actual lives. That
Speaker 3: it's not good right now. So our thoughts and prayers
Speaker 3: and good vibes that we were sending to everyone that
Speaker 3: was affected from that perspective. But hopefully if you're watching
Speaker 3: the show, we're making a little fun for you. In fact, Eric,
Speaker 3: there's one team and Tampa Bay fans can laugh all
Speaker 3: that they want because they were a Super Bowl contender
Speaker 3: and yet they.
Speaker 2: Are free falling. We will tell you who that team is.
Speaker 3: Come it up next on power rankings. Back here on
Speaker 3: power rankings presented by Energizer Erics. Teams nine through sixteen.
Speaker 3: The Green Bay Packers following the last still stay in
Speaker 3: the top ten. The Steelers, they were perfect on the season,
Speaker 3: but they lost to the Colts, so they dropped to
Speaker 3: the tenth position. Seattle, there were questions around how good
Speaker 3: this team was. They stay flat at number eleven. The
Speaker 3: Niners also flat. They get back into the win column.
Speaker 3: They're number twelve. The thirteenth ranked team the Philadelphia Eagles,
Speaker 3: who have a free fall. We'll talk about them dropping
Speaker 3: eight spots. The Saints are at fourteen, the Jets at fifteen,
Speaker 3: just ahead of that game in London, there's some tension
Speaker 3: brewing in New York.
Speaker 2: And the Colts at sixteen.
Speaker 3: Anthony Richardson banged up Joe Flacco, Jonathan Taylor, the keys
Speaker 3: to success against Pittsburgh all right at number eleven. Here,
Speaker 3: I think the conversation should start with the Seattle team. Eric,
Speaker 3: this is a squad that was perfect. We said, hey,
Speaker 3: who are they beating? How good are they? I know,
Speaker 3: the score might tell you one story against what we
Speaker 3: saw in Detroit against the Lions. I actually think they
Speaker 3: hung tough and I think this is a pretty good
Speaker 3: football team.
Speaker 4: Absolutely yeah. I think when you also consider the fact
Speaker 4: how much they were actually missing on defense. You know
Speaker 4: Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, the first round pick, NWOSU, you know,
Speaker 4: boy Mafe had a sack in every game up till
Speaker 4: till Monday night, so a lot of defensive firepower. They
Speaker 4: lose Julian Love during the game as well, so they
Speaker 4: were up against it. But you look at what Gino
Speaker 4: Smith did, and he played a tremendous game, like really
Speaker 4: one of his best career games, and was constantly keeping
Speaker 4: them in the game with darts all over the field.
Speaker 4: Kenneth Walker, I swear traverse half of Michigan on Monday,
Speaker 4: barrowing through Lions tackles, and he had a great return
Speaker 4: of the field after missing a couple of games. And
Speaker 4: you know what those receivers can do. You know that
Speaker 4: one DK turnover really cost him early, but he was
Speaker 4: him all night, so was Jackson Smith and Jigba. Mike
Speaker 4: McDonald I think gets it. He's a good coach. He
Speaker 4: found the right script after they fell behind to kind
Speaker 4: of keep them in the game. Trust the Gino, you know,
Speaker 4: did what he could defensively. But when they get healthy
Speaker 4: on that side of the ball, I think they're going
Speaker 4: to really push the forty nine ers. I don't know
Speaker 4: if it's going to be all season long, but I
Speaker 4: think they're going to have some firepower to stay in
Speaker 4: the NFC West race.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 3: Three hundred and ninety five yards for Gino Smith, career
Speaker 3: high for him. Three rushing touchdowns for Walker, also a
Speaker 3: career high. Couldn't wait to talk to you about this team,
Speaker 3: the Philadelphia Eagles. I think it's probably panic in Philly.
Speaker 3: I get what that fan base is, but let's keep
Speaker 3: in mind here the wide receivers Brown and Smith did
Speaker 3: not play Lane Johnson on that offensive line. I can
Speaker 3: story this team still being a very quality football team,
Speaker 3: and yet based off of your power rankings and the
Speaker 3: fact that we're doing this every single.
Speaker 2: Week, I felt like you had to drop them.
Speaker 4: I did too. I just sat there and said, look,
Speaker 4: as impressive as Week three was, it was a big
Speaker 4: win for him. They take a big step back here,
Speaker 4: even shorthanded.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: We talked about the Seahawks just a moment ago and
Speaker 4: what they were able to do that felt more impressive
Speaker 4: than what the Eagles could do. Again against the good
Speaker 4: Bucks team, I think we need to give them their respect.
Speaker 4: But the same problems are cropping up. Jalen Hurts another turnover.
Speaker 4: Those have been adding up. He's got twenty seven of
Speaker 4: them since the start of last season in about twenty games. There.
Speaker 4: The defense not being able to stack back to back
Speaker 4: impressive performances. That's a problem. I mean, that's you know,
Speaker 4: they spend all these first round picks on pass rushers,
Speaker 4: and they go out and spend on you know, defensive tackles,
Speaker 4: and they're still giving up chunksy yards up front. So
Speaker 4: I just feel like this bye week couldn't have turned
Speaker 4: worse in terms of the timing of it. Now, the
Speaker 4: pressure is all on this Eagles team to come back
Speaker 4: stronger after the bye. Gonna be a lot of talk
Speaker 4: about Nick Sirianni and what he can do. You know,
Speaker 4: not everybody is convinced he's the right man for the job,
Speaker 4: you know, fans or otherwise. So I'll be fascinated to
Speaker 4: see if there is an answer, because I do think
Speaker 4: the firepower is there. Health is a big part of it,
Speaker 4: but they got to play better football.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, we can point to health and we have, even
Speaker 3: with the Kansas City Chiefs the top of the rankings,
Speaker 3: who now fall to number two. The reality is there
Speaker 3: are some teams that are able to overcome some of
Speaker 3: these injuries.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 3: I mean, in case in point, we'll talk about the Titans, right,
Speaker 3: they lose their starting quarterback and we'll leves turn the
Speaker 3: game and yet still figure out a way.
Speaker 2: You got to step up? Is really the point here?
Speaker 3: Dropping four spots the Saints to fourteen, Young Waiku my
Speaker 3: guy down in Atlanta bearing a fifty eight yard field
Speaker 3: goal two seconds left for the whim This is a heartbreaker.
Speaker 3: The Saints dominant these first couple of weeks, and these
Speaker 3: like razor edge thin margins that they're losing by. I
Speaker 3: don't know if that's the mark of, hey, a really
Speaker 3: good team or one that I should be questioning.
Speaker 4: Yeah, They're a tough one to figure out. They've been
Speaker 4: one that I really kind of grapple with over the
Speaker 4: first four weeks of the season. The explosives start and
Speaker 4: then the last two thuds. You know, coming down to
Speaker 4: the last second, but still in a game where the
Speaker 4: offense was good, but now I don't think good enough.
Speaker 4: Now they're missing two offensive linemen the well, but they
Speaker 4: dominated the first first possession of the game, looked great,
Speaker 4: and then things got a little clunky after that. Atlanta
Speaker 4: won the game with no offensive touchdowns, so, you know,
Speaker 4: the mistakes in the special teams game and then also
Speaker 4: a deflected pass that's run back for a touchdown. You know,
Speaker 4: those are the kind of things that the Saints probably
Speaker 4: could have overcome when they were scoring forty points a
Speaker 4: game to start the year. But now the things have
Speaker 4: slowed down a little bit. You know, those are the
Speaker 4: things that shrink the margin of error for them. And
Speaker 4: you know, Dennis Allen's another guy who came into this
Speaker 4: season facing a lot of pressure. It cooled way off.
Speaker 4: Clint Kubiak was the most popular guy in New Orleans,
Speaker 4: but all of a sudden that's now kind of reverted
Speaker 4: back to the middle a little bit. So you know,
Speaker 4: they might be looking up at teams like the Bucks
Speaker 4: in Atlanta for that division, and they've got to find
Speaker 4: a way to get their mojo back right. Alvin Kamar
Speaker 4: has been great, but they still need other playmakers alive
Speaker 4: emerged late in that game, but rashid Chi he'd had
Speaker 4: the early mistake with the fumble and couldn't quite make
Speaker 4: up for it down the stretch.
Speaker 3: Here here's the worst part about this from a Saints perspective,
Speaker 3: and it's also the best part. Monday night football against
Speaker 3: the Kansas City Chiefs. You lose this one, it's now
Speaker 3: three consecutive losses. You win this one, and I think
Speaker 3: we start talking about the Saints like we did after
Speaker 3: the first two weeks of the season. Post some more
Speaker 3: to come here on NFL Power Rankings. Thank you, eric On.
Speaker 2: We'll takeo some kudos from you. Chargers Bengals.
Speaker 3: At one point during the course of the season, we
Speaker 3: were talking about them as top ten teams.
Speaker 2: They're nowhere close.
Speaker 3: See where they land coming up next, Welcome back to
Speaker 3: Power Rankings presented by Energizer Eric's teams seventeen through twenty four.
Speaker 3: The Cowboys checking at number seventeen, the Chargers at one
Speaker 3: point where a top ten squad started to and zero
Speaker 3: they've dropped. Now back to back games they fall to eighteen,
Speaker 3: the Falcons at nineteen.
Speaker 2: The Broncos with the win against the Jets. It was
Speaker 2: a tough one. They showed up for bo Nicks. They
Speaker 2: are at twenty.
Speaker 3: The Bengals were also a top ten team at one
Speaker 3: point they needed to win. They got the win, but
Speaker 3: they sit at twenty one. The Bears, Hello, run the football.
Speaker 3: They're at number twenty two, the Rams at twenty three.
Speaker 3: They are the walking wounded, and at number twenty four
Speaker 3: hat tip to Antonio Pearson. The Raiders no DeVante Adams,
Speaker 3: no Max Crosby, and you still are able to take
Speaker 3: out the Browns at twenty four.
Speaker 2: It's down for future champions. As we take a closer
Speaker 2: look at the odds in the.
Speaker 3: NFC South, the Atlanta Falcons still the favorite, the Tampa
Speaker 3: Bay Bucks behind them. The Saints check in right behind
Speaker 3: the Bucks, and it's Carolina even with Andy Dalton as
Speaker 3: not exactly the favorite to go and win this division.
Speaker 3: The Atlanta Falcons. You had America at number nineteen. They
Speaker 3: keep winning football games. I get it, there's some questions
Speaker 3: around that team's offense, but in crucial situations, Kirk Cousins
Speaker 3: in company, they're dealing.
Speaker 4: They are, but you got to get in the end zone. Mike,
Speaker 4: I mean, that's My big problem with the said they
Speaker 4: have trouble scoring right now, and they did have a
Speaker 4: touchdown call back on a questionable penalty. But there are
Speaker 4: times when Kirk Cousins the passing game is a little
Speaker 4: laborious and they can't figure out exactly when they should
Speaker 4: be leaning on their run game. But look opportunistic special teams.
Speaker 4: They were great on that side of the ball. Defense,
Speaker 4: made the big play Troy Anderson's pick six. They got
Speaker 4: it done. They're kind of the masters of the close games, right.
Speaker 4: I mean they don't win them all right, They lost
Speaker 4: in one of the Chiefs and also lost in Week
Speaker 4: one of the Steelers, but all four games have come
Speaker 4: down to the final minutes, so they're getting battle tested
Speaker 4: in these playoff like atmospheres. And they did it with
Speaker 4: some backup offensive lineman last week, so I do give
Speaker 4: him credit for that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, even late in these games, I start feeling like, hey,
Speaker 3: maybe Kirk can deliver, and he was able to in
Speaker 3: young Wig who putting it through the uprights for a
Speaker 3: career long fifty eight yard Fueld goal. Meanwhile, the rest
Speaker 3: of the rankings here at twenty five, the Arizona Cardinals,
Speaker 3: I got annihilated by Washington. The Titans with a win
Speaker 3: at twenty six, the Giants at twenty seven, the Browns.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going on with this team. They
Speaker 3: check it at twenty eight. At twenty nine, it's the Patriots,
Speaker 3: the Dolphins. At thirty thirty one, it's the Panthers, and
Speaker 3: the winless team in the NFL is the Jacks at
Speaker 3: thirty two. How concerned are you about Miami who drops
Speaker 3: five spots?
Speaker 2: That was not pretty on Monday night.
Speaker 4: I'd love to be able to do the Mike McDaniel face.
Speaker 4: When there's about five minutes left, they're down twenty two
Speaker 4: to six. Jordan Poyer's been ruled out, Tyreek Hill is
Speaker 4: barking behind him, Tyler Huntley struggling on the field. Everything
Speaker 4: is going wrong. The fans wanted to be anywhere but
Speaker 4: hard Rocks Stadium. It's a mess right now. They have
Speaker 4: a couple winnable games, but it is a mess. And
Speaker 4: then I don't know how they're going to figure it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, watching his press conference there, he said, number one,
Speaker 3: all things on the table when it comes to change.
Speaker 2: Cutains on on the offensive side. Disappointed. I know, Tyler
Speaker 2: Huntley is a guy.
Speaker 3: That can get it done, but he was disappointed in
Speaker 3: the guys around him not delivering.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of drops in this game. Eric, you're
Speaker 2: the best. You have the toughest job in the building.
Speaker 2: Ranking these teams. We will do it again next week.
Speaker 2: Thanks for watching and listening.
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