NFL Power Rankings, Week 3: Packers, Ravens set dominant tone

By Randy Gurzi | Sep 21, 2020

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN - SEPTEMBER 20: Chandon Sullivan #39 of the Green Bay Packers celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown in the third quarter against the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field on September 20, 2020 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

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2020 NFL Power Rankings. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

. . Previous: 28th. Carolina Panthers. 29. team. 87

The Matt Rhule era is not off to the best start, and Sunday it got a little scary for him. The Carolina Panthers lost a four-point game in Week 1 against the Las Vegas Raiders and then in Week 2, they were dealt a 31-17 loss by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — which happened to be the first win in the Tom Brady era for Tampa Bay.

Carolina’s defense wasn’t picked apart by Brady as they held him to 217 yards and had an interception but they did struggle to slow down the run. As a team, the Bucs had 122 yards and three touchdowns with 103 yards and two of those touchdowns coming from Leonard Fournette.

What made things scary though was the injury to Christian McCaffrey, who left the game with an ankle issue after running for 59 yards and two touchdowns. The hope is it’s nothing serious but an MRI on Monday will verify that.

There’s still plenty to build on as Teddy Bridgewater had 367 yards passing and both D.J. Moore and Robby Anderson each had over 100 yards receiving. Having said all that, this team is in a rebuilding mode as Rhule is installing his system and that could take time. Hopefully, they’ll keep seeing progress every week.

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