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Buccaneers rise up in power rankings

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Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Dallas Cowboys, are now 4-5 and just two places out of a playoff spot. That's a better position than the team has been in in years, and the power rankings are showing that, too. Hey, a little bit of respect for the Bucs. If by "respect" you mean "ranked slightly below average but still higher than any ranking in recent memory."

Danny Kelly at SB Nation ranks the Bucs 21st, Yahoo!'s Frank Schwab ranks them 25th, USA Today has them 24th, and Elliot Harrison over at NFL.com even lists them 18th. That's actually pretty good for a team whose fans are going through biweekly "the sky is falling" episodes, alternated with "hey there's a future."

It's a good demonstration of how quickly fortunes can change in the NFL. With only 16 games in a season, a couple of wins can be the difference between being a contender, and being a hopeless loser. Right now, the Bucs are closer to the former. Hopefully they can keep it up.