🏈 NFL Week 4 Review 🏈

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The Eagles saved the NFC East from a winless weekend across the boards, earning their first victory of the season in San Francisco. At 1-2-1, they are now in sole possession of first place in what truly seems like a horrible division.              

How bad is the NFC East?              

Consider this: combined, the NFC East has a record of 3-12-1, out of 16 games played. With the Eagles win, the NFC East teams now have two total wins and one tie outside of their own division. Otherwise, they have lost all games outside of their own division.              

To put that into perspective, the Giants, at 0-4, are only a game and a half out of first place in the division. The G-Men are my favorite team, of course. How bad is it, though, when they are clearly in last place in the worst division in the NFL, and possibly one of the worst divisions in league history, if they do not start shaping up?              

So yeah, it’s bad.              

Ironically, Philly won on the road against a team in possibly the best division in the league. Yes, the Eagles won at San Francisco, something that was mostly unexpected, at least for me. I really did not expect them to win this one, but they played well enough, particularly late in the second half, to pull this one off.              

None of the unbeaten teams remaining lost. The Seahawks knocked off the Dolphins at Miami. The Bills held off the Raiders in Las Vegas. And the Titans and Steelers were both off wth bye weeks, so they stay unbeaten by default. There are a couple of games later today, and two of them will involve undefeated teams. So, we will see if the Packers and the Chiefs can remain undefeated, as well.              

Meanwhile, let’s take a look at the games that were in week four of the 2020 season:              

Buffalo 30, Las Vegas 23 – Buffalo managed to stay unbeaten by going on the road far out west, and notching an impressive win against the Raiders, who have now dropped two straight games. The Bills defense did a decent job, while the offense continued to show significant improvements over seasons past. They really do look like a complete team all around, and if the Chiefs beat the Patriots tonight – not a guarantee with Belichick as coach – then the Bills will have taken a solid lead in the AFC East. An impressive win, but they hardly get much of a chance to enjoy it before needing to prepare for a big showdown against the also undefeated Titans when the Bills travel to Tennessee next weekend, and then follow that up by hosting the defending champion Chiefs the following week. Brutal. But this was a very good win, and a sign that they should be taken as a serious contender this season. My pick: Inaccurate  

Carolina 31, Arizona 21 – Well, the Cardinals looked pretty damn good after the first two weeks of the season, but it was hard to believe that they would just fly through the season as a new kind of powerhouse team to watch. Now, these past two weeks, they have shown why it is wise to exercise caution for unproven teams after a surprisingly quick start. Now, the Cardinals have dropped two straight games against teams that most people, myself included, figured that they could and should win. But the Panthers were playing extremely well, seemed in good position throughout this game. This may have been a case of two teams going in opposite directions, as the Panthers dropped their first two games, and then recovered to win the next two, evening their record at 2-2. It was a bit surprising to see Carolina win, but not exactly shocking, either. A solid win for the Panthers, and another disappointing but sobering loss for the Cards. My pick: Inaccurate              

Cleveland 49, Dallas 38 - Maybe this is finally the year when the Browns put it all together enough to be the contender that this young team was promising to be for the past couple of seasons. The offense looks positively explosive! And winning in Big D, against a team that figured to be a serious contender in the NFC this season, is an impressive feat. Never mind that the Cowboys do not appear to be as good as many believed that they would be. This was, nevertheless, a very impressive road win, and it keeps the strong momentum that the Browns are actively building. Maybe this team has had a long history of heartbreaks, and they have had more recent problems, with the chemistry between Mayfield and OBJ being questionable, and so on. Winning erases a lot of those problems, and right now Cleveland is winning. Hopefully, they can keep it going. My pick: Inaccurate

Tampa Bay 38, LA Chargers 31 - Well, Brady and company keep winning in Tampa. This was their third win in a row, and they keep sole possession of first place over the Panthers and Saints, who are tied for second right now. Tampa's offense has looked hot, and they are entering elite territory in terms of offenses in the league if they can keep this going. As for the Chargers, they fought hard, but ultimately, this proved to be just too tough of a test for them. The Bucs are rolling, and it is hard to win against a team like that. For now, at least, the Brady and Gronk experiment has been an enormous success for the Buccaneers. My pick: Accurate

New Orleans 35, Detroit 29 - While the Buccaneers are flying high in the NFC South, the Saints have fallen from seemingly elite territory, and have been grounded. Yes, they won this game, coming from a pretty serious deficit. But they looked vulnerable, and this game hardly looked like a sure thing until the Saints finally iced it very late. Let's face it: Detroit is hardly one of the best teams in the league, so you kind of expected the Saints to come out roaring, after their previous two losses. The fact that they promptly fell behind, and then had to claw their way back and earn a narrow win feeds the uncertainty, as New Orleans just has not looked the way many people - myself included - expected them to look to this point. They had better fix whatever the problem is, or problems are, before the losses begin to mount, or this possible last season with a window of opportunity for a championship will slam down hard and in a hurry. My pick: Accurate

Cincinnati 33, Jacksonville 25 - Cincy followed up on their impressive non-loss at Philadelphia with their first outright win of the season. They have now gone two straight games without a loss, which is a feat for this team, and a sign that they may be moving in the right direction. For Jax, this is a third straight loss following their week one win, which is increasingly feeling like it was a fluke. But the Bengals, with their star quarterback in Burrows, are looking solid, and like they might not be the pushovers that they seemed to be last season.

Seattle 31, Miami 23 - The Seahawks are looking very strong so far. They have won all of their first four games, and are one of two unbeaten teams left in the NFC, and one of five remaining in the NFL (the Packers, Steelers, Titans, Bills, and Chiefs). This was the kind of win that they needed to show that they may indeed be ready to count themselves as one of the elites. They did not obliterate the Dolphins, but earned a solid enough win to get the job done, and keep their train rolling. For Miami, this was clearly not the follow-up to their first win that they were hoping for. Yet, they stayed competitive against one of the elite teams in the league, and played well in the process. Both teams can take some positives away from this. My pick: Accurate

Minnesota 31, Houston 23 - Some people expected the Texans to be competitive this season, to possibly, even probably, make the playoffs. Some even thought that they might win the division. Right now, however, they have looked like a disaster. True, they had the most difficult start of any team in their first three games, but nothing can be done about that. This was a game that they had to bounce back and find a way to win, and they just did not do it. The Vikings are, admittedly, better than the 0-3 record that they entered into this game, but they were on the road. The Texans should have found a way, and they did not. As a result, the Texans dug themselves into an 0-4 start to the season. Only one team in NFL history - the 1992 San Diego Chargers - ever bounced back from an 0-4 start to qualify for the postseason, even winning the division. But the Texans are not likely to bounce back in a similar manner. They will get some wins, eventually. But few teams can afford to get off to an 0--4 start and enjoy serious success thereafter, and this leads me to believe that the Texans will not likely rebound. As for Minnesota, they finally earned a solid win, but they still have some tough tests ahead. My prediction: Inaccurate

Baltimore 31, Washington 17 - Washington, to their credit, tried to hang in and make a game of this. This was good enough for the Ravens to get off to an unusually lethargic start. And since this followed on the heels of their first (and so far only) loss this season to the Chiefs, it made some NFL fans (like me) wonder if something was suddenly wrong with the Ravens. But they eventually got going, and once they did so, they were able to win this one convincingly. They might not have gotten the kind of blowouts that they seemed to regularly enjoy last season and earlier this year, but it was convincing enough, and a win is a win. My pick: Accurate

LA Rams 17, NY Giants 9 – This game did not quite go the way that I expected it to in some ways, although in the most important way, in terms of who ultimately won, there was no real surprise. The Rams entered this game with a 2-1 record, and were looking like a serious contender, ready to take the leap back into the playoffs. By contrast, the winless Giants remained winless, despite playing hard and keeping the game low-scoring and close. They just ran out of opportunities, and the offense once again stalled. In four games thus far, the Giants have scored a total of 47 points. To put that in perspective, the Browns scored more than that this past weekend in Dallas. The same problems with the offensive line persist, and as I think I must have said her dozens of times over the course of years, no matter how much big-name talent they might accumulate on offense, it will not mean all that much if the offensive line cannot offer adequate protection. A decent showing by the G-Men, and they appear to be getting closer to their first win. But they are now 0-4, and flirting with their worst start in a long, long time, unless they can fix their problems and win in a hurry. They now go down to Dallas, for what actually could be a big divisional game for them, since despite their 0-4 record, they might be very much in the running if they manage to win next week. The NFC East is weak this year, obviously. But a win is hardly a sure thing for a winless team after four games, now, is it? My pick: Accurate  

Indianapolis 19, Chicago 11 – The Bears were handed their first loss of the season when they went against the closest thing that they have to a local rivalry. The Colts played physically and won an impressive game on the road, beating a previously unbeaten team on their field. The Colts now move to 3-1, and remain right on the heels of the first place Titans, who will return to action this weekend when they host the Bills. That is not a sure thing, which means that the Colts could have their chance to at least enter into a tie with the Titans for first place in the AFC South. For the Bears, this was a disappointing loss, but they still have gotten off to a decent start, and are only a game behind Green Bay. My pick: Inaccurate

Philadelphia 25, San Francisco 20 – I already mentioned how this result surprised me. It did not shock me, but it did surprise me. Philly managed to do that the Giants probably should have come closer to doing. Namely, taking advantage of the 49ers injury issues, and beating a watered down team that are still the defending NFC champions. It was a low-scoring game for most of it, and then the Eagles got hot right at the end, scoring on a magnificent touchdown pass play to cap an impressive drive, and then got an interception on what sure seemed like an awful pick six pass by Niners quarterback Chris Mullins. San Fran managed to score with Beathard taking the helm, but they were unable to overcome the suddenly wide gap, as Philly iced the needed win to take first in the weak NFC East. My pick: Inaccurate  

Kansas City 26, New England 10 – The defending champion Chiefs made history on Monday by becoming the first team in NFL history to win on consecutive Monday nights. Of course, this game against the Pats was not scheduled for Monday originally, but had been delayed because of an outbreak of Covid-19 that saw Patriots starting quarterback Cam Newton get infected. Obviously, he was not in this game. Still, to their credit, New England kept the game relatively close, but Kansas City proved to be a bit too much in the end. Not only did they win on consecutive Monday nights, but they also improved to 4-0 by so doing, which makes them the only team in NFL history to start 4-0 for four consecutive seasons. That is quite an impressive feat, and they beat their one-time tormentors to do it. Impressive. My pick: Accurate  

Green Bay 30, Atlanta 16 – If there were any real surprises in this game, it is that the Falcons managed to play well enough to make this game somewhat interesting fairly late in the game. They also held the Packers to their least amount of points so far this season, although Green Bay still managed to provide a solid 30 points. But the end result, which is a convincing victory by the still unbeaten Packers against the winless Falcons, in what was clearly a big mismatch that failed to be particularly intriguing for a nationally televised game. I think that what remains of these once promising and incredibly talented Falcons – a team that one held a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl, then blew it – are on their last legs. Can’t imagine that there will not be big, sweeping changes in the near future as what appears to be a disastrous season just keeps getting worse. They played respectably well in this game, but it certainly, clearly was not enough to make the Packers sweat. My pick: Accurate