The Atlanta Falcons stunned the NFL world by upsetting the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Given that the Niners were No. 1 in practically every power rankings list going into last week, you'd think the upstart win would net the Falcons a huge jump this week.
That's not the case, though. At least not in the latest rankings from Chad Graff and Josh Kendall at The Athletic.
They have the Falcons at No. 21, up just four spots from last week. Their blurb is about the big split between Michael Penix's numbers when he's pressured and when he isn't.
"Few quarterbacks have the drastic splits of Penix when pressured. When he faces pressure, he’s averaging 6.8 yards per attempt with one touchdown and one interception. When kept clean, he’s averaging 8.4 yards per attempt with eight
touchdowns and no interceptions. It’s no surprise then that the Falcons allowed a season-low pressure rate of 8.8 percent in their upset of the 49ers."
Struggling against pressure makes Penix like every other quarterback on the planet - it's just a question of degrees, and he is worse than most. Keeping Penix upright and clean in the pocket is an obvious requisite for this team returning to the playoffs - let alone beating anybody in the Wild Card round.
That said, the real challenge for this team is a defensive one. Heading into Week 8 Jeff Ulbrich's unit ranks fourth against the run but just 29th against the pass and 20th in scoring defense.
The biggest thing there is to convert more of Atlanta's high number of pressures into sacks. It should help that they will soon be getting last year's sack leader James Pearce back in the lineup. He will be eligible to return from suspension in Week 9.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Falcons jump 4 spots in power rankings after upsetting 49ers
