Following impressive wins in the opening week, the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles are worth watching this weekend. The NFL season has great stories every week because every game is important when you only play 16. But for emerging teams that are in the midst of a turnaround, each game is even more important.

You have to progress each week to show the rest of the league that you are in fact a team to be reckoned with. So after good road wins, the Ravens and Eagles have to keep it going at home.

For some reason, the 2000 Eagles don't have a doom-and-gloom feel to them. They seem like a legitimate NFC wild-card contender to me. The obvious question about their win over the Cowboys was deciding whether it was a big Eagles win or a loss that tells us a lot about the Cowboys. I don't know the answer yet, but I do know that the Eagles seemed to be playing at 78 rpm while the Cowboys were fixed at 33.

The most telling moment of the game was the first one. That onside kick was a bold statement, a declaration of confidence. Eagles coach Andy Reid obviously believes in his team or he wouldn't have tried something like that on the road against a division rival. The Eagles will clearly do whatever it takes to win games this year because they believe in themselves. The league has been kicking sand in the Eagles' facemasks for a few years now. Now, they're kicking the sand right back.

The Ravens also delivered on their promise with a nice shutout victory at Three Rivers Stadium over the Steelers. Week Two holds another division game. And if you are ever going to beat the Jaguars, this is the week to do it. They have lost Leon Searcy and Fred Taylor to injuries, and the Ravens defense needs to pounce on that depleted Jacksonville offense. Despite the Jaguars' key injuries, it will be a tough game for the Ravens. The Jaguars have won 14 straight games against team not named Titans.

With the formidable Baltimore defense taking the pressure off him, Ravens QB Tony Banks must know that his role is not to win games but simply not to lose them. That is a big difference for a young quarterback. However, there will be five or six occasions this year when the Ravens will need Banks to make a few plays in a row for them, either to get them into field goal position at the end of a game or to get them in the end zone.

Banks will definitely be the difference between 8-10 wins for this team, the difference between the playoffs and going home after those 16 games are over.

Each NFL week is telling. We'll see what gets told this weekend in Philly and Baltimore.