NFL Power Rankings, Week 8: Biggest risers and fallers after Week 7
12. Philadelphia Eagles
Perhaps the idea that the Philadelphia Eagles were dead in the water was a bit premature. Or they just played the New York Giants…
Or a little bit of both?
The Eagles are now 4-2, which is great news for them because all you need is a ticket to the dance at the end of the year. They are on track for that. But the key for this Eagles team going forward is going to be Jalen Hurts playing mistake-free football. Hurts only threw 14 passes in the Eagles’ dominating road win over the Giants, and Saquon Barkley did a lot of heavy lifting for the Philly offense.
You expect this team to play well coming off of a bye week, but are we going to see more of this from Jalen Hurts going forward? As in, less of him throwing the ball? Again, he only threw 14 passes in this game and completed just 10. For the first time in forever, Hurts didn’t have an interception or a fumble, and the final score reflects what the Eagles are capable of when they’re not giving the ball away.
11. Pittsburgh Steelers
The debut of Russell Wilson for the Pittsburgh Steelers could not have gone any better. Although things didn’t exactly start off great, the Steelers made the unpopular decision to start Wilson over Justin Fields, who had the Steelers at 4-2 and personally had 10 total TDs and only one interception.
It felt like a very foolish move to go with Russ against the Jets in a prime time situation, but Wilson passed all the tests with flying colors.
After a disastrous time in Denver, Wilson made the move to Pittsburgh in the offseason and there were many who felt like his calf injury from the start of training camp to last week was maybe a bit of a contrived story to help save face for Russ losing a step. But that obviously isn’t the case. Wilson made the throws, his receivers made the plays, and the Steelers did what they have pretty much always done.
They dominated on defense, they blocked kicks, they just really looked good out there. And Wilson will undoubtedly get another week after this. The Steelers are 5-2 and dangerous as ever.