Week 7 NFL Power Rankings: Titans, Steelers & Seahawks stand alone

24. Carolina Panthers (-8)

This is a bad fall for the Panthers, but it is only one spot lower than I had them in the Week 5 NFL Power Rankings and there is a reason for that.

See, I took a (small) leap of faith that the Panthers were going to be able to handle themselves against teams like the Chicago Bears because they were handling teams that had much better offenses than Chicago.

However, that was not the case and it goes back to one reason why I thought they would make this leap. In the Week 6 NFL Power Rankings I said:

"In fact, Teddy Bridgewater has completely sold me on the fact that you can win with him long-term, especially when you consider what this team is doing without their best offensive weapon. This past week was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me in that it was the push to get me off the fence and to a place where I firmly believe that they are in a position similar to where the Arizona Cardinals were last year, only they have more talent."

Instead of being a team that was able to attack the weak points of an offense and make losing Christain McCaffrey look like no big deal, this was a team that looked like they desperately needed someone to help them change field goal attempts into touchdowns.

23. Philadelphia Eagles (-2)

It has to be so hard to be an Eagles fan right now because in the last four games you are 1-2-1 with a -6 point differential with back to back losses against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens that seemed within your grasp in the 4th quarter.

The defense seems to be really solid right now and Carson Wentz might, sorta, kinda be alright again? Not a great help, but maybe not someone who is going to actively hurt your team?

At the very least you can tell that this team has fight left and that is nice to see when you look around a league where some teams look about ready to pack it in.