ProFootballTalk's latest team rankings diminish how the Patriots played in week 1

By now, everyone has formed an opinion about how the Patriots fared against the Eagles in their week one matchup. Whether you give credit for moral victories or don't believe in celebrating anything but actual wins, there is an array of takeaways regarding the Patriots' performance that is also reflected in the media.

The problem is that no matter what your opinion is, New England does deserve to be recognized for their comeback effort after falling behind 16-0 and praised for their apparent improvements from just one year ago.

But apparently, regardless of how well they played and the fact they kept a high-powered team who just represented the NFC in the Super Bowl in check, their efforts deserve to have them docked three spots on ProFootballTalk's power rankings list.

In the big scheme of things, does this list really matter? No, but since they are a prominent fixture in NFL media, it's difficult to ignore what they have to say completely.

Looking at the list, some of the moves make little to no sense. But since we're talking about the Patriots, the decision to move them from the 19th spot to the 22nd is probably one of the worst parts of it all.

Surely, wins are not the end all; be all that the experts who put together the power rankings rely on. It doesn't take a seasoned NFL analyst or fan to know that a win/loss record does not always indicate how well or poorly a team performed. That's precisely the case for the Patriots this week.

Nobody believed the Patriots had a chance to win this game or even keep it within a possibility to win. But that's what they accomplished last Sunday.

Other than the incredible work done by the defense to keep the score from getting out of hand, since they only allowed one offensive touchdown to be scored all day, the strides made by the offense under new leadership and a new system shouldn't be ignored.

It feels like they deserve more credit for what they were able to do against the frontrunner to repeat as NFC Champions this year, especially given the overwhelming amount of people who already concluded the Patriots have no chance to be good this year. And even with the loss, they still looked more good than bad against a more than formidable opponent to start the new season.

Maybe it's biased because we're fans of the team, and it's never fun to see their performance be discredited when it feels like it shouldn't be. But with the narrative surrounding the 2023 Patriots and Bill Belichick, warranted praise seems nothing but fair, and this is an instance that feels deserving of that.