Arizona Cardinals hold steady in Week 13 Power Rankings

The Arizona Cardinals hold steady in the top five even with a questionable win in Week 12

The Arizona Cardinals showed they were a good team, by failing to live up to themselves and beating a average (at best) team in Week 12 and most of the Power Ranking editors around the web took notice of this. The team certainly didn’t secure any long term favors with their showing in Santa Clara, but a win is a win in a league with only 16 games, so everyone counts.

In our own rankings, the Cardinals hold steady at number three.

In NFL.com’s Power Rankings for this week, Elliot Harrison has the Cardinals secured at number three:

"The Cardinals are the NFC’s foremost opponent to the Panthers’ dominance of the conference. But this is the Power Rankings — the article of truth! — so let’s be honest here: They got bailed out in San Francisco. A ticky-tacky roughing-the-passer on Quinton Dial, failure by the refs to call a delay-of-game penalty and dropped interceptions allowed Arizona to snatch victory from the jaws of a flat freaking performance. That said, good teams find ways to win these kinds of games. Bad teams don’t."

Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk has the Cardinals dropping from three to five (as everyone’s love affair with the Broncos is renewed):

"Good teams find a way to win even when they’re playing the opposite of good."

FOXSports has the Cardinals holding at number three for another week, including some optimism about David Johnson taking over the starting running back role:

"With both Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington now dealing with injuries, rookie RB David Johnson will be tasked with inheriting a major role down the stretch. Based on his production on a per-snap basis, the Cardinals could be on the verge of some more explosive plays."

Pete Prisco at CBSSports has the Cardinals also in third spot, the same as last week, and is overall optimistic it was just a bad week for the team:

"They struggled some at San Francisco, but that can be expected some weeks for all teams. Now they just can’t let it linger."

Frank Schwab over at Shutdown Corner has the team firmly at number three as well:

"Their running game gets a bit thin with Chris Johnson or Andre Ellington injured. It’s a big spot for rookie David Johnson to shine."

Overall, the Cardinals hold steady for this week, with the St. Louis Rams coming up, one of only two teams to beat the Cardinals this season, hopefully we can talk about the Cardinals moving up in the rankings.