NFL Power Rankings, Week 4: Biggest risers and fallers after Week 3

12. Philadelphia Eagles

All things considered, the Philadelphia Eagles’ win on the road against the New Orleans Saints in Week 3 was one of the most impressive wins of the week. Not that the Eagles were that significantly overmatched against New Orleans, but the way in which they won this game was just a really good sign for the team going forward, at least defensively.

After the Saints put up 91 points in the first two weeks of the season, Vic Fangio’s defense limited them to 12 points on Sunday and they did a great job of keeping Derek Carr at bay. Fangio has gone up against Derek Carr a lot from his time in Denver, so it’s an opponent he’s very familiar with. 

And the Eagles ran the ball extremely well with Saquon Barkley looking totally reborn as a playmaker as a member of the Eagles. Even with Jalen Hurts having multiple turnovers (again) in this game, Barkley was able to take over with 147 rushing yards and another pair of touchdowns. He’s been an awesome, game-changing addition.

11. Atlanta Falcons

If you’re the Atlanta Falcons, you can hopefully start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. The Falcons pulled off an impressive comeback win late on Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles, but their running game didn’t have the same juice on Sunday night against the Chiefs.

The reigning back-to-back champs came into Atlanta and stole a win while the Falcons dropped to 1-2, and we had hoped that some of the offensive success we saw late against Philly would carry over into Week 3.

Who knows? A penalty that should have been called against the Chiefs on a close play with Kyle Pitts late could have swung this one the other direction and we’d be talking about late-game execution from the Falcons.