The Dallas Cowboys continue to slide in the 2021 NFL Power Rankings while the Green Bay Packers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers had bounce-back wins
Here’s to hoping everyone had a better Thanksgiving weekend than the home teams did on Turkey Day. This week’s 2021 NFL Power Rankings following the Week 12 Weekend were altered by some of the performances we saw on Thursday, especially when the Dallas Cowboys were knocked off by the Las Vegas Raiders.
They were able to get it to overtime, but they were in desperation mode all game and have now dropped three of their last four games. The other two home teams lost as well as the Bills housed the Saints and the Bears got the annual honor of beating Detroit to kick off the holiday.
On Sunday, we saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Green Bay get bounce-back wins as well. With all of that being settled, we check in with the 2021 NFL Power Rankings, starting with a familiar face at No. 32.
Detroit Lions keeping pace at the bottom of NFL Power Rankings
The Detroit Lions once again came close to a win. But once again, they were handed defeat during the waning seconds.
This time, it was on Thanksgiving Day as they hosted the Chicago Bears. Andy Dalton was playing for an injured Justin Fields and he put up over 300-yards through the air. The Lions not only struggled to stop Dalton but they also had no passing game of their own. Again.
Jared Goff finished with just 171 yards and while he was good on 21-of-25 passing attempts, there was little-to-no damage done with every throw. Their offense also had to deal with the loss of D’Andre Swift who was injured early on.
Jamaal Williams stepped up with 65 yards on 15 rushing attempts but it was the ability Swift has as a receiver out of the backfield that was sorely missed in this loss.
Detroit’s defense did a good job of limiting the points despite giving up a lot of passing yards but in the end, it mattered little as they couldn’t stop the Bears when it mattered most.
Now at 0-10-1, there’s beginning to be even less hope that they will find even a single win this season. While they would like to get the No. 1 pick next year, they surely don’t want to be the first team to have 16 losses in a season twice.