The Atlanta Falcons have reached the middle game of their 2022 NFL regular-season schedule with a 4-4 record. But that’s good enough to have the Falcons in first place in the NFC South standings.

The New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers trail Atlanta with 3-5 records, and the Carolina Panthers occupy the division cellar at 2-6.

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“You definitely feel excited and feel good about being number one, but the hardest thing right now is to maintain and be there and stay there,” Falcons linebacker Rashaan Evans said. “We still got a lot of good games that are coming up that we’ve got to win for us to be able to place for the playoffs. We’ve just got to make sure we heal up, get some of our guys back to be able to be full-strength, and I think we’ll be an even better team then.”

Atlanta also had a 4-4 record in the 2021 season, lost to the Dallas Cowboys 43-3 in Game 9 and finished at 7-10.

The Falcons face the Los Angeles Chargers at noon CST Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in Game 9 this season.

At 4-3, Los Angeles is one of the two teams among the Falcons’ remaining nine games that currently has a winning record. The Baltimore Ravens, at 5-3 entering their Sunday night game against the Tennessee Titans, host Atlanta on Dec. 24.

In 2021, Atlanta reached 4-4 when Younghoe Koo kicked a 29-yard field goal on the final play of the game to beat the Saints 27-25.

The Falcons reached 4-4 in 2022 when Koo made a 41-yard field on the final play of a 37-34 victory over the Panthers on Sunday.

“It was definitely one of the top, craziest games that I’ve been a part of,” Evans said. “But that’s the NFL, man. You always got a team that’s going to be willing to fight to the end, and they definitely fought to the end. I’m just happy for the guys to be able to pull it out and be able to get a win. It just lets you know about the resiliency from the guys that’re in this locker room. We didn’t give up as well.”

Carolina quarterback P.J. Walker threw a 62-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver D.J. Moore with 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie the game on Sunday. Evans and cornerback Rashad Fenton were running with Moore, who caught the football in the end zone after it had covered 67.6 yards in the air, making it the longest completion by air distance tracked by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, which began in 2016.

Moore took off his helmet to celebrate the touchdown, which drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. The extra 15 yards on the extra-point attempt proved too much for Carolina kicker Eddy Pineiro, and his miss left the game tied at 34-34. Pineiro also missed a 32-yard field-goal attempt in overtime.

“It was definitely emotionally exhausting,” Evans said. “We had (defensive coordinator) Dean (Pees) – he was like, ‘Man, please don’t give me another heart attack.’ Just to be able to handle that physically and also mentally be able to go from the Hail Mary to kind of lock back in and to be like ‘All right, we got to still play and help when this game,’ it just shows you what type of guys we got in this locker room. Most teams would crumble. Most teams would just give up. But we didn’t give up, and we were able to come out with a win.”

Evans made nine tackles against the Panthers to boost his season total to 73 – 14 more than any other Atlanta player and the seventh-most in the NFL.

Evans has twice set a career high for tackles in a game this season. He had 12 in a 27-23 victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 25 and 13 in a 35-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 23.

The Class 6A Lineman of the Year at Auburn High School in 2013 and an American Football Coaches Association first-team All-American at Alabama in 2017, Evans entered the NFL as the 22nd player picked in the 2018 draft. He played four seasons with the Tennessee Titans and joined the Falcons as a free agent in April.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.