Following the most impressive win of the early NFL season, the Atlanta Falcons aren’t exactly being rewarded.

One week after going into Denver and handling the defending league champion Broncos 23-16, the Falcons stayed out west and headed to Seattle. Coming back with a road victory over the Seahawks (3-1 and coming off a bye) would stamp Atlanta (4-1) as a Super Bowl favorite.

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Atlanta vs. Seattle game time today: 3:25 p.m.

TV channel: Fox

Atlanta started 6-1 last season and finished 8-8. While this team looks more balanced, more polished and more dangerous than the 2015 version, it still has plenty to prove. On the scoreboard, and in the standings.

“I think that we are mentally tougher, a more resilient group for sure,” Matt Ryan says.

“You learn from that. Obviously, we started fast last year and things didn’t go our way in the second half of the season. I think what you learn is that the difference between wins and losses is a handful of plays and you’ve got to be on the right end of them. We’ve done a really good job of being opportunistic early in the season.”

No kidding. Ryan leads the NFL with a 121.6 passer rating, and Julio Jones has averaged a phenomenal 21.5 yards a catch. This is a matchup of the Falcons’ No. 1-ranked offense against the Seahawks’ top-ranked defense. Very juicy indeed.

“You get caught up in the peaks and the valleys just like Pete (Carroll) always says,” star cornerback Richard Sherman notes, “treat everything like a championship opportunity. You always treat it like you’re playing the No. 1 offense. You start treating it like the No. 32 offense, and if the No. 32 offense, they (might) go put up 500 yards on you because they’re still pros, they’re still getting paid to do this. So we don’t get caught up in any of that.”

But Sherman did acknowledge that facing Jones and Ryan would be “fun.”