NFL power rankings: Giants fall slightly after Dallas loss

It’s officially that time of the week: NFL Power Rankings. The (1-4) New York Giants dropped its fourth match of the season on Sunday, this time to the NFC East leading Dallas Cowboys.

National media responded by slightly bumping the Giants down, mostly by two spots. A few outlets kept the Giants exactly where they were last week, noting that the team losing several key offensive pieces during the Dallas game likely obscures its true ability.

The Sporting News was most cutting in its analysis - the offense has “turned into a total offensive mess of injuries and the defense hasn’t been immune to losing key players, either. The jury’s still out on Joe Judge, but there’s suddenly a lot of lacking evidence again.”

Aggregating several rankings from around the Internet, the Giants come out to an average ranking of No. 27 (last week: No. 26) in the 32-team NFL. Our figure averages all the rankings below except for DraftKings, which bases its ranking on point spread differential.

Let’s check out what outlets around the league are saying about the Giants after week 5:

NFL.com: No. 27 (was 24)

Week 5 was a disaster for the Giants. Daniel Jones (concussion), Saquon Barkley (ankle) and Kenny Golladay (knee) were all lost to injury as the superior Cowboys coasted to a 44-20 win at Jerrah World. It was a sobering game for Big Blue, which entered Sunday feeling great about a season turnaround after a big comeback win in New Orleans. Now begins a week of health updates: Barkley and Golladay are expected to miss Week 6, while Jones needs to clear the league’s concussion protocol. Rookie Kadarius Toney, who had a breakout game on Sunday (10 catches, 189 yards) before getting ejected for throwing a punch, is also banged up (lower leg), but his ailment doesn’t sound too significant. With a brutal schedule ahead, Joe Judge’s team is in serious danger of second-half irrelevance.

NBC Sports: No. 28 (was 28)

I couldn’t be the only one who didn’t know Mike Glennon was still employed.

CBS Sports: No. 27 (was 25)

The injuries crippled them against the Cowboys. Now they could be without some key players going forward, including Saquon Barkley and maybe Daniel Jones.

ESPN: No. 30 (was 28)

Most improved player: QB Daniel Jones

How they’ve improved: The turnovers have always been the problem for Jones — until this season. Jones finally seemed to have that fixed and was playing really good football prior to being knocked out with a concussion late in the first half Sunday vs. Dallas. He has just one fumble lost and one interception this season — and that interception was on a Hail Mary. Clearly there has been major improvement from the third-year quarterback this year. Entering Monday night, he is top 10 in the NFL in QBR at 61.0 through five weeks. — Jordan Raanan

Sporting News: No. 28 (was 28)

The Giants have gone from showing major signs of life with Daniel Jones to a total offensive mess of injuries and the defense hasn’t been immune to losing key players, either. The jury’s still out on Joe Judge, but there’s suddenly a lot of lacking evidence again.

Pro Football Network: No. 21 (was 20)

The Giants might be better than the 21st spot in the NFL Power Rankings for Week 6, but they lost a ton of pieces on offense, including their quarterback, running back, and highly-paid wide receiver.

With the Rams, Chiefs, and Raiders all upcoming on the schedule before their Week 10 bye, things could get ugly for New York, especially if Daniel Jones misses any time.

In both positive and negative news, Kadarius Toney appears to be an absolute monster and the Giants’ WR1 of the present and future. However, he also threw a punch at Damonte Kazee and was ejected in the fourth quarter.

Yahoo! Sports: No. 28 (was 26)

Reports on Monday said Saquon Barkley will probably miss a couple weeks due to his sprained ankle. That injury was fluky. The torn ACL wasn’t his fault either. But they’re reminders, as the Giants decide what to do with his second contract, how fragile life as a running back can be.

New York Post: No. 28 (was 28)

The Giants played the second half of their blowout loss to the Cowboys without their quarterback, running back, three of their top four receivers and three of the five season-opening offensive linemen. And the schedule gets more difficult with the Rams, Panthers, Chiefs and Raiders on deck before the bye.

Sports Illustrated: No. 27 (was 25)

DraftKings: No. 25 (was 16)

DraftKings has moved from subjective assessments to using spread differential. Point differential is a helpful tool for figuring out the best and worst teams. However, point spread can offer a little more context to how good or bad teams might be. The top of the rankings includes most of the really good teams and the bottom includes most of the really bad teams.