A weekly examination of the Saints’ ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 14 | Last Week: 13 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002

The New Orleans Saints jumped up five spots after their impressive opening win against the Atlanta Falcons.

But I’m not sure that putting the Saints at No. 8 even does full justice. The Falcons still are ranked No. 4.

Shouldn’t the Saints be ranked ahead of the Falcons after beating them? John Clayton and Kevin Seifert were the only members of the voting panel to put the Saints ahead of the Falcons, and I tend to agree with them.

Yeah, I still want to see how the New Orleans defense holds up over the long term. But I think you have to give the Saints more props than they got for beating the team that was No. 2 in last week’s rankings.