After losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers and getting humiliated by the Carolina Panthers to begin the season, it seemed like the Atlanta Falcons were already sunk. At 0-2 ESPN put their chances of making the playoffs at just 1.5%, and the only hope was that a change at quarterback could dramatically turn their fortunes around.
The Falcons got exactly that and more when Michael Penix Jr. returned to the lineup in Week 3. Since then they have had the most-productive offense in the NFL (both in scoring and EPA), reeling off two dominant upset wins over the Packers and the Saints on national TV.
Now heading into Week 5 Atlanta is rising up the power rankings fast, but not fast enough by our calculations. According to the Athleticthey're now placed
at No. 22, up three spots from last week.
"Concern level: Waning, as long as they have Bijan Robinson. The star running back ran for 103 yards and two touchdowns on Monday night — and that was just in the first half. Other concerns remain for the Falcons, but this team is starting to find itself with Michael Penix at quarterback."
We'd be fascinated to hear what those other concerns are, or why the Falcons are ranked any lower than the middle of the pack (15th-18th range) at 2-2.
To review, Atlanta has the league's best rushing defense, the second-best rushing offense, a top-five pass rush and the hottest offense in the league right now.
The only sort-of shaky unit on the roster at the moment is cornerback, where A.J. Terrell is on the injured reserve list and his younger brother Avieon is still getting up to speed just one month into his NFL career. C.J. Henderson has played well in Terrell's place and aside from Mike Hughes in Week 3 there have been no glaring awful performances.
In any case, they've been getting ranked far too law all year. All the Falcons can do is keep winning and proving them wrong.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Falcons rise up 3 more spots in NFL power rankings
