The Arizona Cardinals are now 4-2 after an almost inexplicable loss to Landry Jones and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. We can expect a drop in the power rankings, right? That is the case for the most part. Check out where the Cardinals stand this wee in the rankings from around the Web.
Our own ROTB rankings have us sitting eighth.
Even after a terrible game, the Cardinals still are a top 10 team solely because they looked great in the first half shutting down the Steelers offense and moving the ball, though failing to score. Really this is more of a reflection of just how jumbled the remainder of the NFL standings currently look. If the Cardinals want to win the NFC West then it's time to start beating good teams. By the way, I don't include Baltimore in that category.
For SB Nation's power rankings, Arizona dives five spots to number nine.
The Cardinals aren't in nearly the same type of dire straights, but did stumble pretty badly against a Steelers team led by Michael Vick before being spelled by third-stringer Landry Jones. Pittsburgh's defense made a statement by holding the high-flying Cardinals to just 13 points and it picked off Carson Palmer twice. Making matters worse, the Cardinals' defense couldn't hold when it needed to and gave up a long 88-yard touchdown play to Martavis Bryant with 2:12 left to seal the loss. Arizona will need to get back on track next week against the Ravens in what looks like a winnable game.
Somehow, despite the loss, the Cardinals moved up two spots in ESPN's rankings. They are fourth.
After starting 3-0, the Cardinals have lost two of their past three. The Cards have a minus-6 turnover differential in their losses (plus-9 in wins).
Pete Prisco over at CBS Sports moved the Cardinals down one spot to number eight.
That really was a bad loss at Pittsburgh without Ben Roethlisberger in the lineup. They could have taken a real hold of the division lead.
For Fox Sports, the Cardinals nearly dropped out of the top 10.They are 10th.
The Cardinals have struggled in pass protection in both of their losses. Also, Arizona's pass rush is simply not getting there as often as it did in 2014.
Yahoo! has been the most critical of the Cardinals thus far. But in their rankings, the Cards dip to number nine.
Again, the Cardinals aren't a bad team, obviously. They've also played exactly two teams that aren't among the worst in the NFL, and they lost both times. They lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers' third-string quarterback on Sunday. I just want to see one quality win before I put them in the NFC championship game like everyone else seems to be doing, that's all.
USA Today ranked the Cardinals eighth still.
As good as they've looked, the loss to Pittsburgh is a reminder they've been feeding on cupcakes.
NFL.com still has them ninth.
The Cardinals had no business losing that game at Heinz on Sunday. Personal fouls killed Bruce Arians' club in the first half -- Arizona was called for six penalties for 75 yards before intermission. The refs failed to call a clear hold of Michael Floyd in the end zone in the second quarter. Obviously, Mike Mitchell's fourth-quarter pick of Carson Palmer in the end zone was the key sequence in the defeat. Those plays aside, Palmer missed several open looks on a day when the win just wasn't to be.
But if you want to be optimistic, using the statistical analysis by numberFire, the Cardinals are still the best, coming in at number one in their power rankings.