NFL power rankings: Falcons rise up with a second straight victory over a crumbling team

Greetings, friends! The Falcons are rising up the power rankings with another win, which is not a surprise. The fact that some of the coverage here mentions the playoffs and is conducted in admiring tones is a bit of a surprise, given that Atlanta only beat the lowly Giants.

It probably has a lot to do with the fact that most analysts recognize that Atlanta is a better team than their record has shown, or at least would be were they fully healthy. It also probably has to do with this team’s ability to casually pick up and trot out a kicker who can hit 50-plus yard kicks, because that’s still impressing me too.

Without further ado, here’s a glance at power rankings across the landscape for our Falcons.

SB Nation: 25 (23)

Okay, I lied, they didn’t rise up everywhere. More to the point, how did the Falcons enjoy one of their most impressive defensive efforts of the year and actually go down two spots? Yeesh.

NFL.com: 20 (23)

Would you believe the Falcons are still in the thick of the wild-card race? They’re not exactly sitting pretty at 3-4, but the Packers own the No. 6 seed right now at 3-2-1. Who would’ve thought Monday night’s affair would go scoreless for the first 25 game minutes? That was the case -- until a deep ball produced the evening’s first score. Not to Julio Jones or Odell Beckham Jr. or Mohamed Sanu or Sterling Shepard or Calvin Ridley. Nope -- Marvin Hall. Marvin Hall, who had 64 receiving yards coming into the game, nearly equaling that total on one Matt Ryan moonball. Oh, and one more for the road: How about Dan Quinn’s backup kicker connecting from 50 and 56 yards?

ESPN: 19 (19)

Wins aren’t worth much to ESPN.

CBS Sports: 21 (23)

At 3-4, they are still alive after beating the Giants Monday night. That offense will keep them in a lot of games.