If Bruce Gradkowski(notes) said that about anyone in his locker room, he was just being nice.

The Raiders played hard this afternoon, and while it might be a stretch to say that they gave the Cowboys a game, they didn't embarrass themselves, either. The effort was there. What's not there, though, is the same level of talent enjoyed by most other NFL teams. It becomes especially clear when they play a team like the Cowboys who are loaded at the skill positions. It doesn't even look like the two teams are playing the same sport.

When Tony Romo drops back, he's got guys in front of him who can protect him from a pass rush. With the time that gives him, he's usually able to locate a receiver who has been able to get separation from the defense.

When Gradkowski drops back, he's got about two seconds before a defender crushes him. And if, somehow, he's able to get away from the rush, he'll be looking downfield for an inexperienced receiver who probably has not found a way to beat the coverage.

He's playing with such a high degree of difficulty. It's like he and Romo are both carpenters, and when Romo goes to work, he gets a hammer, a screwdriver, a drill, a saw and a tape measure. Gradkowski gets a ball of yarn and a breadstick.

I felt bad for the Raiders today. They're trying. Tom Cable has them playing hard, but they just don't have the horses. It's not Bruce Gradkowski's fault, and it wasn't entirely JaMarcus's Russell's fault, either. It's a bare cupboard. There are haves and have-nots in the NFL right now, and the Raiders demonstrated to all the haves today just how thankful they should be.

Shutdown Corner presents the weekly quarterback power rankings. They're just as arbitrarily decided as normal power rankings, except they rank quarterbacks, not whole teams. Rankings are based on play this year alone and meant to represent who is playing the best football at the current moment.

1. Peyton Manning(notes), Indianapolis Colts
		If he had been facing, for example, the number eight quarterback on this list, Bill Belichick may have punted on that 4th and 2 Sunday night. He wasn't, though. He was facing the number one quarterback, and he knew that guy was going to score from anywhere on the field.
2. Brett Favre(notes), Minnesota Vikings
		This week, Favre became your NFL leader in quarterback rating. In a year where we're blessed with five different quarterbacks with a rating of 100 or better, Favre stands at the top. He's thrown 285 passes, and just three of them have been intercepted. Favre might be asked to do a little bit less than most guys on this list (he's 16th in the league in pass attempts), and he might be in the most quarterback-friendly situation in the league, but he's been close to perfect. Wrangler sales are even up.
3. Tom Brady(notes), New England Patriots
		Brady made some tremendous throws in a losing effort on Sunday night. He didn't get the win, but he did play well enough to continue his rise towards the top of these rankings, where he belongs. He's been over 300 yards in his last four games, which isn't something he hadn't done since Week 1.
4. Drew Brees(notes), New Orleans Saints
		Saints fans are going to be mad at me, but I'm afraid it had to be done. Through his first five games, Drew Brees threw for 13 touchdowns and two interceptions. Over his last four games, Brees has six touchdowns and seven interceptions. That's not good, and I'm afraid it mandates a slide in the rankings. His yardage totals and completion percentages have still been awesome, but to stay in the top two, I'm afraid we need a better TD-to-INT ratio.
5. Matt Schaub(notes), Houston Texans
		Schaub rises a spot, even on his bye week, because it wasn't a particularly great week for the best quarterbacks in the league. But now, after everyone's had their bye week, let's check and see where Schaub ranks in some key statistical categories. He's third in yards passing (behind Manning and Brady) and tied for fifth in touchdowns (behind Manning, Brady, Brees and Kurt Warner(notes)). Not at all shabby.
6. Ben Roethlisberger(notes), Pittsburgh Steelers
		A brutal week drops Benjamin a few spots: He was 20-of-40 for 174 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception. In a huge game for the Steelers, he came up with a quarterback rating (51.5) fewer than 10 points away from JaMarcus Russell's(notes) (43.6). That's not what you're looking for.
7. Philip Rivers(notes), San Diego Chargers
		It was a very solid week for Rivers, who faced an Eagles defense that ranks fifth in the league in opposing quarterback rating. He went 20-of-25 for 231 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions. This will be the fourth straight week where Rivers checks in at number seven.
8. Aaron Rodgers(notes), Green Bay Packers
		A good, but not great effort from Rodgers against the Cowboys: 25-of-36, one touchdown, no picks, and just 189 yards. Not good enough to move him up the list, but not bad enough to move him down. He's been sacked 12 more times than anyone else in the league, and more than Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees combined. Dallas got him four times.
9. Kurt Warner, Arizona Cardinals
		Welcome, Kurt! I'd still like to see more consistency from you, but two consecutive phenomenal weeks will get you in the mix. Over his last two weeks, Warner's thrown seven touchdowns against zero interceptions. If he has another good game this week, it'll mark the first time all year he's strung three quality games together. He's playing the Rams, too, so it's not exactly a tall order.
10. Donovan McNabb(notes), Philadelphia Eagles
		The 450 yards against San Diego were really nice, but would have been nicer if a few more of them had come in the red zone. Again, I'd like to see some more consistency. Really, it was a three-way toss-up here between McNabb, Romo and Palmer, so I thought I'd go with the guy coming off the best week. I'd consider McNabb's grip on the 10th spot very, very tenuous.
Noses pressed against the glass: Carson Palmer(notes), Cincinnati Bengals Tony Romo(notes), Dallas Cowboys

Mike Zimmer, Defensive Coordinator, Cincinnati Bengals

Bernard Scott(notes), Running Back, Cincinnati Bengals. I try to avoid having two people from the same team in the same top-five list, but I'll make an exception for a win the size of the one the Bengals had over the Steelers yesterday. Scott scored the game's only touchdown on a first-quarter kickoff return, and it proved to be the difference on the scoreboard. Scott also gets consideration here because if Cedric Benson(notes) is out for an extended period of time, the Bengals will still be fine at running back. The rookie sixth-rounder from Abilene Christian has some sweet feet.

Hunter Smith(notes), Punter, Washington Redskins. I'm calling it the Play of the Day from yesterday, regardless of anything Bill Belichick did. I don't know who was responsible for the play design; Jim Zorn, Sherm Lewis, Dan Snyder, or some drunk who happened to be driving by practice one day. It worked beautifully, though. The Redskins lined up to kick a long field goal, then shifted into punt formation, then ran the fake out of that. Credit goes to 316-lb. Marcus Thomas, the Broncos defensive tackle who did try to cover Mike Sellers(notes) streaking down the field, but was unsuccessful because, you know, he's a 316-lb. defensive tackle. Great call.

Charles Woodson(notes), Cornerback, Green Bay Packers. Charles Woodson turned back the clock yesterday. That was a vintage defensive tour-de-force in the near-shutout of the Cowboys. Woodson made a diving interception in front of Jason Witten(notes) at his own goal line to keep the Cowboys from getting back in the game. Before that, he clobbered Tony Romo(notes) on a backside blitz, knocking the ball loose, which led to the score that made it 17-0.

Reggie Wayne(notes), Wide Receiver, Indianapolis Colts. Larry Fitzgerald(notes) and Andre Johnson(notes) get most of the attention in "best receiver in the game" conversations, but Reggie Wayne doesn't have to take a backseat to anyone. The Patriots let him work one-on-one most of the time last night, and whoever tried to cover him, he punished. The move he used in the game-winning touchdown was beautiful. I don't think there's a corner in the game who could've stopped that.

The diva in question is Roy Williams, the ex-Lions receiver who hasn't come close to fulfilling the price Dallas paid for him -- first-, third-, and sixth-round picks in 2009, plus a seventh back in 2010. Through Week 8 of the 2009 season, Williams has 14 catches for 249 yards and two touchdowns. He's fourth in receiver productivity on the team, behind Jason Witten(notes), Patrick Crayton(notes), and some guy by the name of Miles Austin(notes), who has put up individual-game performances of 250 and 171 receiving yards in the last month. Austin is getting his first starts this season, and he's making the most of it. The same cannot be said of Williams, whose resemblance to Owens is only in sheer disgruntlement.

"I'm the No. 1 receiver," Williams recently told the Dallas media. "But things are just going No. 2's way." No. 2 is obviously Austin, and Williams wasn't done shifting blame away from himself.

"(Austin) gets the ball thrown correctly his way. I'm stretching and falling and doing everything. Everybody who's been here's balls are there. Our footballs are everywhere right now."

What Williams is trying to say, in a convoluted fashion, is that Tony Romo(notes) is throwing footballs with extreme efficiency to everyone else on the team, and hurling Ryan Leaf goatballs to him. That, and not Williams' sloppy routes and alligator arms, is the reason Dallas' "star receiver" has caught 14 of the 37 balls thrown his way, for a pathetic catch rate of 38 percent (as opposed to Crayton's 51 percent and Austin's 62 percent).

Now, it's come out that Michael Irvin offered tips to Williams and Austin during the Cowboys' training camp about anticipating the snap count and using correct catch technique. Irvin recently said that while Austin was a willing and grateful pupil, Williams wasn't interested. Say what you will about Irvin, but there haven't been many receivers in NFL history with his absolutely demonic competitive spirit once he got on the field. Austin understands that every little bit helps. Williams clearly doesn't.

The Cowboys have a major problem on their hands with Williams. His high price forces the team to put him in a lead role he hasn't earned and doesn't deserve, and it may take more bad plays and blamescaping before this sad experiment comes to an end.

Meanwhile, the Eagles are up to their usual Jekyll-and-Hyde tricks. Two weeks after an embarrassing loss to the Raiders in which the playcalling of Andy Reid was called into question by the boo-birds for the five millionth time, and a mere six days after they took advantage of a Redskins squad who basically forgot to show up for Monday Night Football, Philly took the wood to the Giants, 40-17. They did it without Brian Westbrook(notes), who was out with a concussion, but they did have gamebreaking threat DeSean Jackson(notes). Jackson scored on a 54-yard reception, giving him six plays of 50 or more yards this season. And they did it with the power running (!) of halfback LeSean McCoy(notes) and fullback Leonard Weaver(notes), who combined for 157 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. And they did it with a ravenous defense that limited the Giants to two touchdowns and 163 first-half yards (whole the Eagles were racking up 262). The Giants are flagging, having lost three straight, and they seem to have no answers for an offense that has lost the ability to run with consistency and control the tempo and momentum of a game.

So, when the Eagles welcome the Cowboys to the Linc for Sunday Night Football next week, the game will put the division leaders, each at 5-2, against each other in what should be the first step in a thrillride for supremacy down the stretch. Last time these two teams met, it was in the 2008 regular-season finale. Philly destroyed Dallas, 44-6, going on to the NFC Championship game while the Cowboys simply went home. Don't believe for one second that Dallas has forgotten how their season ended.