What Happened in Week 4 of the N.F.L.
The Bills and the Lions were valiant in defeat, the Browns were incredible and the Rams gave up an ugly 55 points.
If you thought Week 4 was going to separate the pretenders and contenders, you were sorely mistaken. The Bills and the Lions were terrific in defeat, the Browns reminded everyone why they were hyped so much during the off-season and the Rams showed off quite a few flaws in a devastating loss at home.
Week 4’s theme was keeping things interesting. Here’s what we learned.
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The Bills and the Lions came into this week looking to prove that their undefeated starts to the season were not just flukes and they did just that despite losing. Buffalo’s outstanding defense made Tom Brady and the Patriots’ offense look positively pedestrian, and Matthew Stafford and the Detroit offense hung tough in a shootout with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. The rest of the league should be on notice that Buffalo and Detroit are teams to worry about.
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Drew Brees was out, New Orleans was up against an undefeated Cowboys team that looked far superior on both sides of the ball, and the Saints did not score a touchdown. They won anyway, 12-10, intercepting Dak Prescott’s last-second Hail Mary to secure the victory. New Orleans has not lost a Sunday night game at home in the entire time NBC has hosted the N.F.L.’s game of the week. Since 2006, they are 12-0 in those games.
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Baker Mayfield responded to his many critics by throwing for 342 yards in an easy 40-25 win over Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. The Browns, who had been all over the place in a 1-2 start, had everything work on Sunday: Nick Chubb rushed for 165 yards and three touchdowns, Jarvis Landry had 167 receiving yards and Cleveland’s defense made Jackson look far shakier than he had during a 2-1 start to the season. With Cleveland and Baltimore tied at the top of their division with 2-2 records — and Pittsburgh and Cincinnati seemingly irrelevant with matching 0-3 records ahead of their Monday night showdown — the Browns’ rough start is officially washed away.
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The Redskins apparently liked what they saw when their longtime N.F.C. East rivals, the Giants, made the switch to Daniel Jones at quarterback. Washington tried for similar magic by putting it rookie, Dwayne Haskins, under center in place of Case Keenum in a game that was already slipping away. Haskins did throw one touchdown pass, but it went to Jabrill Peppers, a defensive back for the Giants. The Giants won, 24-3. Coach Jay Gruden did not guarantee Haskins another start, but Gruden is not guaranteed to be Washington’s coach next week.
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Los Angeles got off to a terrible start against the Buccaneers, fought back valiantly, and then lost, 55-40. Along the way, Jared Goff threw for an eye-popping 517 yards — tied for the eighth most in N.F.L. regular season history, according to Pro Football Reference. Goff also threw three interceptions and Ndamukong Suh, a former Ram, returned a Goff fumble for a game-sealing touchdown in the final two minutes. Raising eyebrows in the loss: Tampa Bay’s defense held Todd Gurley to just 16 rushing yards. Gurley’s total has gone down each game since Week 1 (97, 63, 43, 16).
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After Thursday’s game resulted in two players being taken off the field in neck braces, the league had a rough Sunday in terms of player health. Buffalo’s Josh Allen, Cleveland’s Jarvis Landry and Detroit’s T.J. Hockenson all sustained concussions and Chicago’s Mitchell Trubisky lasted just six plays before being ruled out with a left shoulder injury. Micah Hyde of the Bills was openly critical of the officiating crew for not ejecting Jonathan Jones of the Patriots after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Allen. “If one of us did that to 12, we wouldn’t have been in the game anymore,” Hyde said, referring to Tom Brady by his jersey number.
Jalen Ramsey was held out of Jacksonville’s last-second win over Denver with a back injury, though that injury seemed to manifest from a desire to no longer play for the team.
Top Performers
Fitzgerald Up to No. 2 on Receptions List
Larry Fitzgerald, the longtime star wide receiver of the Arizona Cardinals, now trails only Jerry Rice in career receptions after his five catches on Sunday gave him 1,326 for his career.
Fitzgerald, in his 16th season out of Pittsburgh (all with Arizona), came into the game four catches short of Tony Gonzalez for second place and he pushed past the Hall of Fame tight end with his fifth of the day, which came in the fourth quarter of the Cardinals’ 27-10 loss at home to the Seattle Seahawks.
Jason Witten, back from retirement this season, had four catches in the Cowboys’ 12-10 loss to New Orleans, and is second to Fitzgerald among active players with 1,166 receptions for his career.
In another milestone, Frank Gore, the ageless running back of the Buffalo Bills, had 109 yards on the ground in Sunday’s loss to New England, which pushed him past the 15,000-yard mark for his career. He is at 15,021, which has him 248 yards short of Barry Sanders for third-place on the career rushing list.
Daniel Jones Steadies Giants in Win
The Giants’ season seemed to be slipping away after an 0-2 start. The switch to Daniel Jones made the team instantly relevant and has led to consecutive wins. That the wins came against lesser competition mutes the enthusiasm some, but the Giants are officially putting the team’s bad start behind it.
“We’re not worried about two weeks ago,” Janoris Jenkins said. “We’re worried about what’s ahead.”
One* Sentence About Every Game
Carolina might want to temper their enthusiasm for Kyle Allen a bit, as the second-year quarterback won the game but also lost three fumbles.
A 3-0 start was good, in theory, but the Rams failed to garner much enthusiasm for their play. After a turnover-laded loss at home to Tampa Bay, Los Angeles is a fairly shaky 3-1.
This is a very weird things to write: Tom Brady is lucky his lackluster performance didn’t lead to a loss in Buffalo.
Patrick Mahomes saw his streak of 14 consecutive games with two touchdown passes end — he was held without a touchdown pass — but he used his arm and his legs to engineer a come-from-behind victory.
Denver led by 17-3 in the first half but Gardner Minshew, Leonard Fournette and the rest of the Jacksonville offense kept pressing, sneaking out with a road victory thanks to Josh Lambo’s game-winning 33-yard field goal.
It is hard to determine which was more disappointing: Lamar Jackson’s passing (247 yards, 2 interceptions) or Baltimore’s run defense (193 yards and four touchdowns).
Chicago’s offense had a perfectly good excuse for looking a bit lackluster — Mitchell Trubisky was lost to injury on the Bears’ sixth play of the game — while Minnesota did not appear to have an excuse for the disappearing act of both Kirk Cousins and Dalvin Cook.
Touchdowns? The Saints don’t need touchdowns to win on Sunday night.
A recipe for road success: Derek Carr got Oakland off to a fast start, the Raiders’ defense scored a touchdown and the team’s newest acquisition, Trevor Davis, ran in a 60-yard touchdown.
Wayne Gallman isn’t going to make anyone forget Saquon Barkley, but the Giants’ fill-in at running back did just fine against Washington, with 118 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns.
Either Seattle’s defense is a lot better than it had looked in the season’s first three weeks or Arizona’s offense needs a of work.
“We’re a quarter way through the season and we have not played to our standard, that’s for sure,” Matt Ryan said.
Having returned from his holdout, Melvin Gordon had a terrific view from the sideline as Austin Ekeler carried Los Angeles to victory against a team that has no business playing in the N.F.L. this season.
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