NFL Power Rankings, Week 4: Seahawks, Packers keep surging

Matt Rhule and Teddy Bridgewater were able to secure their first wins with the Carolina Panthers as they held off the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3 for a 21-to-16 win. For Rhule, it was his first win as an NFL coach after losing 34-30 to Las Vegas in Week 1 and 31-17 to Tampa Bay in Week 2.

The trend entering into this one was that the defense was surrendering at least 30 points in every game. They finally found a way to stop that, keeping the Chargers from even hitting 20. While they didn’t let them score a lot, there were some problems on defense as they gave up 330 yards passing to rookie quarterback Justin Herbert, who was playing in just his second NFL game.

Carolina also needed a late-game stop as Herbert led Los Angeles down the field at the end of the game. Then he hit Keenan Allen on the hook and lateral, which he tried to get to running back Austin Ekeler. The two were unable to connect but had they done so, Carolina could be looking at an 0-3 mark. Having said that, teams need to get a few lucky bounces and this was one for the Panthers.