NFL Power Rankings: Dallas Cowboys and Teams That Will Fall Fast

It’s already Week 13 of the 2011 NFL season, and that means it’s time to finish separating the true contenders from the playoff pretenders with this week’s power rankings.

Teams like the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans have the talent to make a nice playoff run, but injuries and poor play may come back to hurt them in the stretch run.

The following teams are going to be falling in the rankings this week. There is also a good chance that this is the beginning of a very bad stretch for all three teams.

Dallas Cowboys

Sunday’s matchup with the Arizona Cardinals is the kind of trap game that could catch the Dallas Cowboys sleeping and send them home with a loss.

Kevin Kolb will be returning to the starting lineup in Arizona’s building, making for a very real possibility Dallas could take this game lightly. With Beanie Wells running the ball as well as he had against the St. Louis Rams last week (228 yards), the Cowboys may get punched in the mouth.

The Philadelphia Eagles wrote the book on how to beat the Cowboys. Now the Cardinals just have to execute.

Houston Texans

The Houston Texans lost their star quarterback, Matt Schaub, for the season, and in the very next game new quarterback Matt Leinart was crushed and suffered a broken collar bone.

That leaves rookie quarterback T.J. Yates as the starter for an offense that will become even more heavily dependent on the run.

While the return of star receiver Andre Johnson is great timing, it will have little effect when Atlanta beats up on Houston and sends them falling down the power rankings.

Buffalo Bills

Remember when the Buffalo Bills were 5-2 and there was talk of a playoff run?

The complete collapse of the Buffalo Bills will conclude this week when they lose a heartbreaker to the Tennessee Titans. That would be the Bills' fifth loss in a row.

With a defense in the bottom third in every major statistical category and an offense stagnant since the injury to Fred Jackson, the Bills are doomed to fail and continue their downward spiral back into mediocrity.

Check back for more on the National Football League as it comes, and check out Bleacher Report’s NFL Page to get your fill of all things football.

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