It's Time to Take the Falcons Seriously - N.F.L. Fast Forward Tim Shaffer/Reuters Quarterback Matt Ryan should probably be an M.V.P. candidate, but Ryan and the unbeaten Falcons have been in the shadows of some other N.F.C. teams. The hand-wringing in Philadelphia began before the Eagles" loss to the Atlanta Falcons was even complete, and accelerated only when the dejected quarterback Michael Vick sounded as if he was prepared to concede his job to a rookie backup. But on the Falcons" quiet bus ride home Sunday night - they successfully raced Hurricane Sandy to fly out of Philadelphia after the 30-17 victory - there was just satisfaction, that a point had finally been proven. At 7-0, the Falcons are the N.F.L."s lone undefeated team, but after close calls over the Carolina Panthers, the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders, and a relatively soft early schedule, the team has a legitimacy problem. In the powerhouse N.F.C., the Giants, the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers are all held in higher regard as Super Bowl contenders, a direct reflection of the Falcons" postseason foibles. Sunday might have changed that. The Falcons utterly dominated the Eagles, scoring on their first six possessions, disorienting the struggling Philadelphia defense, making Vick look old and slow against his former team. Matt Ryan, who could be a contender to be the league's most valuable player, was nearly flawless, completing 22 of 29 passes for 262 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. He was coming off his worst performance of the season, against Oakland, and rebounded with his best, by completing 75.9 percent of his passes. The running game added 146 yards, and the Falcons used it to hold off the Eagles" pass rush - particularly important because Atlanta was not quite sure what Philadelphia defense would try under the new coordinator Todd Bowles. The Falcons, like the Eagles, were coming off their bye week, and while the Eagles undertook a wholesale, and perhaps disastrous, switch at defensive coordinator, the Falcons merely tinkered with their team. Against the Eagles, the defensive coordinator Mike Nolan unveiled an alignment that used three tackles to slow the running game, an element the Eagles had hoped to feature against a Falcons defense that, until Sunday, had been less than impressive in stopping opponents on the ground. Instead, for the first time all season, the defense held an opponent under 100 yards rushing, bottling up LeSean McCoy. The Falcons held the Eagles to just 270 total yards, and managed to underscore the futility of the offense without even forcing a turnover. That, as much as anything, must make Eagles Coach Andy Reid wonder what more he can do - short of benching Vick - to spark his offense. "It was very important, coming off a bye, we played the way we could play," said linebacker Stephen Nicholas, who had five tackles and nearly intercepted Vick. Every day that's one thing our coaches preach - to get better with every game. We're starting to gain trust between each other and the camaraderie that a team needs to make it to the next level. Nicholas and center Todd McClure said it was the best game the Falcons had played this season, although they believed they could still get better. McClure said he sensed, as the game wore on, that the Eagles were being frustrated. "We felt they were going to be a desperate team, we felt they would give it their best shot," McClure said. But everything was rolling for us. To score on the first six possessions, it's hard to top it. It may also be hard to remain anonymous much longer. With a Sunday night game against Dallas next week, the Falcons figure to finally get some of the spotlight, even if it is just reflected from the attention magnet Cowboys. So, a primer is in order: the Falcons have the fifth-ranked scoring offense and the seventh-ranked scoring defense, giving them the kind of balance that the Houston Texans also enjoy. Perhaps most important for the Falcons, of their remaining nine games, just two - against the Arizona Cardinals and the Giants - come against teams that currently have winning records. In a scheduling quirk, they still have five of their six division games to go, including two against the cratering New Orleans Saints and one against the one-win Carolina Panthers. The game against the Giants, on Dec. 16 in Atlanta, seems likely to be critical for both teams" playoff positioning.