NFL analyst names Falcons one of Week 7's biggest winners

It's been a rollercoaster of a season so far for the Atlanta Falcons, who reached a new height in Sunday's surprise upset win over the San Francisco 49ers.

Despite missing Nick Bosa and practically every meaningful wide receiver on their depth chart, the Niners were expected to blow the Falcons away. Instead, Atlanta put in a gritty performance on defense and got their best game yet from starting quarterback Michael Penix, who proved he can beat opponents in more than one way.

For their efforts, Carter Bahns at CBS Sports has named Atlanta one of the biggest winners for Week 7 and called the victory the best in the entire league this season.

"Good luck making sense of the Atlanta Falcons, because this might be the league's most up-and-down team. When it all clicks as it did in Week 7, the star talent is obvious, and they can beat anyone. This is also the same team that lost by 31 points to the Carolina Panthers earlier in the year and entered Sunday on a two-game losing streak. The 29-20 upset of the previously undefeated San Francisco 49ers was one of those boom games and is now the best victory in the NFL this season."

The Falcons will have to beat more than one contender to be taken seriously, but this game proves that at their best they can hang with any competition the NFL has to offer.

There will almost certainly be more downs to come later this season and nobody thinks the Falcons are going to run the table between now and Week 18. However, this latest rise shows just how dangerous they can be.

If they can catch the injury-ravaged Carolina Panthers and win their first NFC South title since 2017, this is going to be a team that absolutely nobody wants to face in the Wild Card round, no matter what their record in the regular season might have been.