No NFL team this season has seen lower lows or higher highs than the Atlanta Falcons, who were easily the league's worst team through two games and arguably the best over the last two weeks.
All along Jeff Ulbrich's defense has been elite against the run and rushing the passer - now that Tommy Rees has an actual quarterback Atlanta is just as dangerous on the other side of the ball.
The Falcons only moved up three spots in The Athletic's most-recent power rankings. However, Nick Shook at NFL.com gave them an appropriate much bigger bump - moving them up eight spots to No. 15. Nevertheless, he wants to see more from Atlanta and is preaching a cautious optimism going into Week 5.
"...We should be cautiously optimistic as of now because it is only
two stellar showings, but the early-season panic that preceded Penix’s return feels as if it happened months ago. We’ll find out if these Falcons are for real over the next three weeks in home games against Baltimore, Chicago and San Francisco."
We will learn a lot about this team over the coming weeks. However, with all due respect the time for cautious optimism was last week after they beat the Packers in Green Bay during their home opener in dominant fashion.
The Falcons just obliterated a New Orleans Saints team that took the Detroit Lions to the limit in overtime and upset the Baltimore Ravens - in other words they are no pushovers.
The hype train has already left the station, with No. 7 wearing the conductor's uniform on his way to what might be an all-time great season for an NFL running back.
This isn't just the best team in the NFC South, this is a legitimate dark-horse candidate that could be the team absolutely nobody wants to face in the Wild Card round.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Falcons climb 8 spots in NFL.com's latest batch of power rankings
