Atlanta Falcons: NFC Power Rankings, Week 8

Seattle won a must-win game for the ‘Hawks on Thursday Night Football over arch rival San Francisco. This team is still hanging around relevancy at 3-4, as we’re not sure how good the St. Louis Rams or Arizona Cardinals are just yet. The Seahawks have been able to go on ridiculously long winning streaks under HC Pete Carroll, so that and being back-to-back NFC Champs are keeping them in the mix.

However, this isn’t the same team without DC Dan Quinn defensively or offensively without C Max Unger. The secondary coverage isn’t lethal anymore and QB Russell Wilson is scrambling like crazy behind a porous offensive line. It would be foolish to write off Seattle as a non-contending team in 2015. So for another week, I hold out hope for the ‘Hawks. They should move to .500 after beating Dallas in Week 8.

In my eyes there are only three things holding the St. Louis Rams back from being a playoff team this year: QB Nick Foles, HC Jeff Fisher, and the ongoing concerns about Owner Stan Kroenke relocating the franchise to Los Angeles. Dawg Nation rejoiced at the Todd Gurley on Sunday versus the Cleveland Browns. The Rams defense is nearly a Top 5 unit in football.

What helps the Rams more than anything is that years of futility in the Arch City have cultivated a scrappy mentality necessary to win divisional games against the strong Seahawks, Cardinals, and 49ers teams of the last five years. This team is so close and I would love to see them get back into the NFC Playoffs as a way to keep the team in St. Louis. It’s interesting how their last playoff game was in the 2004 NFC Divisional Round in Atlanta.

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The Minnesota Vikings are 4-2, so they are a good football team, right? If the season ended today, the Minnesota Vikings are playoff bound and would stand as the 6-seed going to Glendale to play the Arizona Cardinals in the Dennis Green “they are who we thought they were” Bowl.

I’ll give credit to HC Mike Zimmer for getting this team to play well together this quickly. However, their four wins are against three of the worst teams in football: Lions 2x, Chiefs, and Chargers. Though I like the Vikings to beat the Bears in Soldier Field on Sunday, their final nine games are absolutely brutal. For now, the Vikings are a playoff team, but that could drastically change by this time next month.

If we didn’t have to account for division winners in these power rankings, I’d say the Atlanta Falcons are the third best team in the NFC entering Week 8. The weird part is that the team hasn’t looked spectacular since clobbering the hopeless Houston Texans in the Dome in Week 4. The offense has looked shaky in recent weeks, making many question what’s up with Matt Ryan? Atlanta’s special teams is also concerning.

The good news is that the Atlanta Falcons are 6-1 and will play a home game for the first time in 21 days on Sunday. Their opponent is none other than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who the Dirty Birds trounced in Week 3 last season. Atlanta could seriously be 8-1 entering their bye in Week 10. Even if the Atlanta Falcons drop both games to Tampa Bay and San Francisco before the bye, that would only put them at 6-3: good position to make earn a playoff spot, but not good enough to catch Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers.

Next: Tier I: NFC Projected Division Winners