The Cowboys got a win in Week 10, but it didn’t exactly come with a parade. That’s the theme running through this week’s power rankings: Dallas moved up, sure, but nobody is pretending the mood around the team suddenly turned sunny after barely getting past a Colts squad plenty of people have already mentally moved on from.
Dallas landed at No. 19 in this week’s NFL power rankings, up from No. 24.
That’s a bump, but it came with a heavy dose of skepticism. The Cowboys won, yet the way they won kept the same uneasy questions hanging over them.
Even in a week where they were one of the NFL’s 15 winners, the reaction around the team was less celebration and more “well, at least they survived.”
The biggest takeaway from the rankings is simple: the Cowboys are still being judged as a team that can hang around, but not one that has earned much trust. One ranking summed it up bluntly by saying, “Again… a win is a win. But this was about as ugly of a win as anyone could have possibly had.”
Another outlet noted that Dallas outgained the Colts by 237 yards and turned in what it called its best defensive performance of the season, while also pointing out the obvious catch: the bar was extremely low. Yahoo’s writeup went deeper on the game itself, noting that with 1:37 left, the Cowboys were actually trailing a Colts team that had already traded two of its best players and had been beaten 42-7 by the Jaguars the week before. Dallas pulled it out anyway, with a 46-yard completion to Ryan Flournoy setting up the game-winning touchdown.
Still, the broader message from the rankings was that this team hasn’t suddenly become something it isn’t. Yahoo said the performance showed the Cowboys are not capable of being much better than they’ve been this season, while also adding that if they had lost, there would have been serious questions about whether players like George Pickens should be traded from a 3-6 team. Instead, Dallas stayed alive in the NFC East.
There was at least one clear bright spot: the defense. Yahoo called it the Cowboys’ best game of the season and said the unit allowed a season-low 271 yards.
The Colts managed just 70 net yards and seven points through their first eight drives, with that lone scoring drive coming after a turnover. Rookie safety Caleb Downs also made his presence felt with a sack and a game-sealing interception.
That defensive progress is part of why the Cowboys moved up in a few rankings. The Athletic placed them at No. 17, up from No. 22, and pointed to CeeDee Lamb’s monster day - 10 catches for 195 yards and a touchdown. Lamb also made history, becoming the first player in NFL history to record at least 70 catches and at least 900 yards in each of his first seven seasons.
But even that kind of production couldn’t erase the bigger issue. The Athletic also noted that only the lowly Dolphins have a worse defense based on EPA per play, which is a big reason Dallas is still sitting below .500.
ESPN kept the Cowboys at No. 20, up from No. 23, and framed the rest of the season around a possible Week 17 rematch with the Giants. Todd Archer wrote that Dak Prescott called every game from here on out a “must-win,” and that if Dallas can keep winning and stay in the NFC East race, that final matchup could become a winner-take-all game. Archer also pointed back to the 2011-13 stretch, when the Cowboys had de facto NFC East title games in each regular-season finale and lost them all.
USA Today moved Dallas to No. 21 from No. 25, while ProFootballTalk had them at No. 25, up one spot. The tone across all of them was similar: progress, maybe. Convincing proof, no.
Elsewhere in the rankings, Buffalo stayed at No. 1, San Francisco held at No. 2, and Jacksonville jumped to No.
- Green Bay climbed all the way to No. 4, while Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Denver rounded out the top eight.
At the bottom, the Chargers remained at No. 32, with the Titans at No. 31 and the Jets at No. 30.
For Dallas, though, the headline is less about the climb and more about the kind of climb it was. The Cowboys moved up because they won. They didn’t move up because they looked like a team ready to scare anybody.
In Other News...
Cowboys Flipped The Finish When A Colts Star Broke Down
The Cowboys got a timely break in a game that had been tight for much of the afternoon, and it came on a play where Sauce Gardner could not hold up at the end. Gardner had been steady for most of the day, but one crucial lapse helped swing the finish in Dallas favor and left the Colts staring at another loss in a skid that has now reached five straight.
For Dallas, it was the kind of closing sequence that can change the feel of a season, especially against a team already under pressure. Gardners rough ending also renewed the scrutiny around his value since arriving from the Jets, while the Colts now have to sort through both the defeat and a schedule that does not offer much relief ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Linked To A Pass Rush Fix With One Big Catch
Will McDonald IV has emerged as a name to watch as the trade deadline approaches, and the Cowboys are among the teams reportedly poking around. The Jets edge rusher has asked for a trade after seeing his playing time dip this season, which has naturally opened the door for teams looking to add juice off the edge. For Dallas, the fit is easy to understand: the pass rush has been a constant point of emphasis, and McDonald would give the defense another young piece to consider.
The catch is just as important as the interest. McDonald has one year left on his contract, and New York is not in a hurry to move him, which means this is not the kind of deal that happens on Dallas timeline alone. If the Cowboys want to turn interest into action, they may have to wait out the Jets and decide how much they are willing to pay for a player whose situation is unsettled but whose upside is obvious. [Read more 🡒]
Caleb Downs Just Gave The Cowboys Something They Desperately Needed
The Cowboys needed a defensive jolt in a tight game against the Colts, and rookie safety Caleb Downs delivered one at exactly the right time. Dallas came away with a close win to move to 4-5, and Downs was right in the middle of it, making his presence felt all over the field as the secondary helped keep Indianapolis from finding much rhythm through the air.
Downs was especially effective when the Colts tested him, limiting their success in coverage and earning the highest coverage grade among the defenders in the game. For a Cowboys defense that has been searching for steady play and timely stops, his performance stood out as one of the clearest reasons the team was able to finish the job. [Read more 🡒]