Pre-preseason power rankings

PA Cowboy Fan

PA Cowboy Fan

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The Cowboys are a strange team. In 2014 everyone thought we'd be bad and we won 12 games. Last year everyone thought we'd be good and we won 4 games. It all depends on Romo staying healthy and how well the offense does. It has got to carry this team.
 
Jstopper

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ActualCowboysFan said:
Vegas insider 8th
Football locks 8th
Oddshark tied for 8th
Westgate tied for 8th

Where are you looking?
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When he said below 20th I take it he means below as it lower than 20. But nfl power rankings has us at 20
 

Sydla

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ActualCowboysFan said:
If healthy applies to every team in the league. For some reason it's really only used against the Cowboys though. I agree with your supposition that everything is speculation. But I disagree with the idea that other teams that are just as susceptible to injuries are somehow exempt from the same qualifier.
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So you think Romo isn't a likely to get hurt as a QB who has shown good health the last couple of years?

Again, comparing the Chiefs to the Cowboys, which team is in deeper trouble if their QB goes down? And which team's QB is more likely to get hurt?
 
CowboysRule

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PJTHEDOORS said:
No way Seattle is better than us? Wow.
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No, they aren't better than us. No way we lose to them last year with a healthy Romo and Dez. Hell, it took an officiating blunder to help them win even then. Calling a time-out when you have none.
 
PJTHEDOORS

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CowboysRule said:
No, they aren't better than us. No way we lose to them last year with a healthy Romo and Dez. Hell, it took an officiating blunder to help them win even then. Calling a time-out when you have none.
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RIght......... Love the coulda, woulda game. Pretty sure Seattle fans love to play that too.
 
SkinsFan28

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phildadon86

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Idgit said:
I'd agree with half of that. Even with a healthy Romo, if we can't pressure the other QB, we might qualify for postseason (it'll be close), but we'll have little hope of advancing beyond one or two games against playoff teams. We have to both pass well and stop the pass, and I don't have a lot of faith in our ability to stop the pass.

If Romo does go down, it'll be interesting to see if we have the same order of problems winning games. We'd be a bad team, but last year's problems were more than just losing the QB. We had so much discontinuity and there was discord surrounding Randle and Hardy and a handful of fluke plays. It felt more like we were a weak team that was also snake bit than we were just a bad team. Either way, though, we'd have a top 15 pick, for sure without Tony.
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Werent we in the top ten last year in stopping the pass? Or is that information wrong?
 

Sydla

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phildadon86 said:
Werent we in the top ten last year in stopping the pass? Or is that information wrong?
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We were top ten in passing yards allowed. But I would argue that's a bad stat to use to indicate whether we are "stopping the pass".

The better measure is looking at opposing QB's success/efficiency against us. Last year, we were 20th in opposing QB ratings, meaning QBs were pretty successful at moving the ball on us through the air. And if you look at some advanced stats such as those on Football Outsiders, we were not a very good pass defense.
 
CT Dal Fan

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phildadon86 said:
Werent we in the top ten last year in stopping the pass? Or is that information wrong?
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You are right, but the pass defense stat is often misleading. Last year, teams were ahead of the Cowboys a lot, therefore they weren't throwing the ball all that much, especially late in games. It's also a big reason why the Cowboys didn't get a lot of picks. Back in 2014, Dallas had the lead a lot, and they ranked near the top in forcing turnovers.
 
LocimusPrime

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Idgit

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phildadon86 said:
Werent we in the top ten last year in stopping the pass? Or is that information wrong?
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We were probably in the top 5 in terms of yards, I'd bet.
I'd also bet we were near the bottom on passer rating allowed.
 
jday

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Jstopper said:
What in the hell? The chiefs, raiders, Vikings Jaguars and Commanders are not better than us and I see no logical argument being formed to say otherwise. There are not 13 teams better than us in this league. Even the Steelers are arguable. Big Ben is going on 35 and he has been injured a lot recently same as Romo They are built very similarly to us. I know the 4-12 season sucked but come on now.
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You have to understand, at this point, all the Cowboys detractors, as a general rule, have one thing in common: They all fully believe Romo is going to get hurt this year. And if Romo get's hurt, they are right, the Cowboys probably have about 25 teams that are better. But therein is the rub, for that to be true Romo has to be standing on the sidelines. If he's behind center, there might be 5 team that might be better.
 

Sydla

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jday said:
You have to understand, at this point, all the Cowboys detractors, as a general rule, have one thing in common: They all fully believe Romo is going to get hurt this year. And if Romo get's hurt, they are right, the Cowboys probably have about 25 teams that are better. But therein is the rub, for that to be true Romo has to be standing on the sidelines. If he's behind center, there might be 5 team that might be better.
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I guess I fall into the classification of Cowboys detractor since I see more issues for this team than some of you.

For me, it isn't even about Romo. If Romo gets hurt, we are cooked. I think we all agree on that. But I also think if Romo is healthy the entire year, this team still might not be a legit NFC threat because there are some real holes on defense that people are assuming will get filled by complete unknown players.

In other words, if Mayowa and Tapper don't work out, if the secondary is still average to below average, if Lawrence's production falls a bit because he doesn't have Hardy opposite of him, if the team still can't get to the QB and struggles to generate turnovers, this easily could be another 8 or 9 win team.

And whether people want to agree or not, it's a reality that all of the things I just listed might come true. It's not an outlandish prediction to state this team might have trouble getting to the QB and generating turnovers in 2016. I hope they will. I hope Gregory gets his stuff together. I hope Jones is a stud FS. I hope Tapper bucks the trend for rookie DEs and makes an immediate impact. I hope Mayowa is one of the great FA steals of the last decade.

But I am also not blind to the reality that it's rare (yes, not impossible) a team looking for a real, legit pass rush finds it like we are trying to find it at this point.
 
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SkinsFan28

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ActualCowboysFan said:
Just an fyi. It's 2016

Chalk: Latest Super Bowl LI odds
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Super Bowl odds aren't really the same as power rankings, because money lines always skew towards big names early on. I doubt (but don't know) that there has not been a year in the last decade that the Cowboys weren't high on the SB odds charts.

On the OddsShark Page it is the live page for their power rankings link, but I also don't see a date on the page. The games listed on the side are, however, today's games. Maybe you could link to the other power rankings you saw, I tried to show the ones I found regardless of where they put the teams.

I find it hard to believe any power ranking type layout would put any NFC East team in the top 10 (top 15 is a stretch)
 
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