Cowboys take brutal hit in NFL power rankings after loss to Giants

When a team wins, they tend to go up in the NFL power rankings, and when they lose, it, of course, goes the other way. That's usually how things work in the NFL, so it should be no shock that the Dallas Cowboys are hurting after their loss to the New York Giants in their season opener.

The Cowboys fell to the Giants by a 28-20 final score during "Sunday Night Football," and it was obviously a frustrating game for Dallas. This team has done a lot over the offseason to beef up its defense, but that just didn't hold on Sunday.

Now, the Cowboys are taking a hit, really a bigger one than you may think, in the NFL power rankings.

Cowboys fall nine spots in NFL power rankings

Now that the NFL's Week 1 roster of games has concluded, Nick Shook of the NFL's official website has released his tally for NFL power rankings ahead of Week 2. For the Cowboys, he took them down in the rankings, which is expected, but they went way down.

Dallas fell nine spots to No. 17. He also has a pretty extensive take on this team.

"The offseason optimism regarding Dallas' defense quickly faded on Sunday night," he says. "The Cowboys were bullied by the Giants' bruising offense and didn't get the one stop they needed most in a one-score loss."

He adds, "It's only one week, but the 'Boys already need to reflect on their shortcomings and work to quickly fix them, or else they'll inspire the same criticisms that followed them to a 7-9-1 finish last season."

It's certainly the case that it's only Week 1, so the Cowboys could absolutely come back from this hiccup. Dak Prescott , CeeDee Lamb , George Pickens and this team is strong. Still, it was nerve-wracking to see this debut.