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This is one of the situations I enjoy with power rankings. There wasn't a set out a week ago that had the Rams above the Falcons, so how much should they slide? Certainly the Falcons wouldn't leapfrog the other top teams who won based on beating a lower ranked team.
Don't expect a ton of consensus. Every power ranking is unlike its brethren. But time bears out truth. If the Rams get a win in Dallas on Sunday, we're going to see some big jumps that put the Falcons loss in a different context.
As always, if there's a power ranking you think merits inclusion, let me know and I'll start putting it in.
| Average ranking (# of rankings) | 18.05 (10) |
| Average change from last week | -0.75 |
| Highest ranking (source) | 16th (CBS Sports' Pete Prisco) |
| Lowest ranking (source) | 20th (multiple sources) |
| Biggest positive change (source) | +5.5 (National Football Post) |
| Biggest negative change (source) | -4 (Fox Sports) |
SB Nation: 20th (18th last week)
St. Louis has the league's youngest team, and it showed in a mistake-filled loss to the Falcons last week. The coaching decisions didn't help. It's going to be another up and down season for the Rams. At least St. Louis is on pace to repeat as the NFL's most penalized team.
Sam Bradford completed 19 of his career-high 35 passes (54 percent) 5 yards downfield or fewer Sunday. The worst team last year completed 58 percent of those throws.
The first 18-plus minutes of Rams-Falcons went horribly wrong for Jeff Fisher's crew. First, there was the opening scoring march by Matt Ryan and Co., then the bomb tossed by Ryan to Julio Jones, then Osi Umenyiora -- how old is he, 60? -- taking a pick to the house.
So what changed as the game went on? The strength of this St. Louis Rams team -- the pass rush -- got going. Meanwhile, quarterback Sam Bradford spread it around, hitting four different receivers on the Rams' first touchdown drive and three receivers on the second -- he even called his own number on scrambles. If Bradford can lift his play without the urgency imposed by a 24-3 deficit, working in tandem with a defense that promises to punish the other guys' quarterbacks, we won't be typing such long blurbs after losses...
CBS Sports (Prisco): 16th (14th)
The secondary had a rough go of it against the Falcons. At least they made a game of it after falling way behind.
CBS Sports (Kirwan): 19th (18th)
The ingredients are there with the pass rush and the cover corners, but Sam Bradford has to put it all together on offense.
Yahoo! Sports: 19th (20th)
I liked the fight they showed after falling behind big at Atlanta. But they need a running game. Rookie linebacker Alec Ogletree is exactly what he was at Georgia though: a tackling machine.
Pro Football Talk: 20th (17th)
For the Rams to become a great team, they can’t fall behind by 21 on the road.
Fox Sports: 18th (14th)
Jared Cook in Week 1: 7 receptions, 141 yards and two touchdowns. Jared Cook in Week 2: 1 reception for 10 yards. For this team to win, they need more Week 1-like numbers.
National Football Post: T-16th (22nd)
Sports Illustrated: 17th (18th)
On Sunday, Jared Cook gave St. Louis fans a little taste of the frustration those in Tennessee felt for four seasons. After a seven-catch, 141-yard, two-touchdown Rams debut, Cook was held to one grab in a loss to Atlanta. Worse yet, he slipped back into his frustratingly familiar pattern of getting outworked physically at the line.