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It’s hard to believe that we’re already a quarter of the way through the NFL season already. It’s starting to feel real for some teams, and real bad for some others. This Sunday gave us only a handful of really great games and a rather lackluster afternoon window of games, too. Sunday night’s game was a gritty one between a beat up team and a bad team, but here’s to hoping that a Monday Night Football doubleheader makes up for it. With Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes both in action, it should live up to the hype. Of course, you could say the entire NFL could be losers if they don't get the Covid-19 spread under control around the league. They already had to move two games this week because of it. Hopefully that serves as a wake-up call to the entire league.
This week Joe Burrow got his first win, Tom Brady had his best game for the Bucs to date, there was a fight between Jalen Ramsey and Golden Tate, Detroit blew another huge lead, and Thursday Night Football was a train wreck. Here’s our winners and losers from Week 4 of the NFL season.
Week 4 Winners
Tom Brady
it’s sort of odd to say this, but Tommy and Tampa are quietly 3-1 on the year. Week 1 against the Saints was rough, but since then they’ve been pretty good. Brady became the oldest quarterback in NFL history to throw for five touchdowns in a single game (six, if you count the one he threw to the other team). Brady isn’t the guy who was once the best in the game, but he’s still the greatest of all time. The Bucs have an early lead on the NFC South, and as Brady becomes more comfortable with his new offensive weapons, it’s hard to see that changing, even if tight end OJ Howard is going to miss some time with an Achilles injury.
Odell Beckham Jr.
People forgot just how good Odell Beckham Jr. is. Well, he reminded everyone on Sunday. Beckham showed exactly how important he is to the Browns offense with three scores, including one touchdown reception coming from best friend and collegiate teammate Jarvis Landry. His last touchdown came in the fourth quarter to effectively put the game away, on a 50-yard touchdown run on a reverse. This was Beckham Jr.’s best week in brown and orange, and the Browns are now 3-1 for the first time since 2001. There shouldn’t be any trade noise for the foreseeable future, and the Browns might actually be kind of good.
Joe Burrow
On Sunday Burrow became the first rookie in NFL history to throw for 300 yards in three straight games. Sunday was more than just that for Burrow, though, as he got his first win in the NFL. It’s been hard not to feel badly for Burrow at times so far this season. It’s pretty clear that he’s got a ton of talent, but the offensive line that he’s forced to stand behind has plenty of holes in it. He only took five hits on Sunday, which had to make the win feel just a little bit better.
Buffalo Bills
The Bills are 4-0 and Josh Allen looks a little bit better every week. Allen was a guy that certainly had his doubters – and still does – but is starting to look the part of a franchise quarterback. There are times when he does head-scratching things, but right now those things are worth all the good things he’s able to do. The Josh Allen Experience seems to include a great deep ball, a terrible throw on an open receiver no more than two yards past the line of scrimmage, a bad sack, and a great run every week. Right now, when paired with one of the best defenses in the NFL, that’s more than enough for Buffalo to look like a contender in the AFC.
LA Rams
The Rams had a tough loss last week in Buffalo, thanks to a controversial pass interference call late in the game. They were able to bounce back and get a home win over a team that they should’ve beaten in the Giants. This really wouldn’t have deserved much space in this column until the game was over and a fight between New York’s Golden Tate and Jalen Ramsey of the Rams broke out. There’s a bit of a backstory here as Ramsey has two kids with Tate’s sister, and the two went through a relatively messy breakup a little over a year ago. This has been brewing for some time, clearly, and it’s a bit surprising that it didn’t happen during the game. Even after their fight on the field, Ramsey wasn’t done, as he was waiting for Tate outside the Giants locker room after the game, according to ESPN.
Week 4 Losers
The NFC East
This division is very clearly the worst in football. The Cowboys found themselves down by 27 points to the Browns in the fourth quarter before ultimately losing by 11, Washington lost its third straight game, and the Giants are fighting their crosstown rivals for title of the worst team in the NFL. The Eagles actually won on Sunday night against a pretty injury-depleted San Francisco squad. That win moved Philadelphia to 1-2-1 on the season and ALL ALONE IN FIRST PLACE. it’s a real shame that one of these teams is going to make the playoffs, because none of them are anywhere near deserving of it.
Houston Texans
Deshaun Watson deserves better. The Texans got a bit off a pass for being winless through the first three weeks because they played Kansas City, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. There’s not a much more difficult way to open up the season than that stretch, but Week 4 against Minnesota is a bad loss. Both these teams went into Week 4 searching for their first win. The Texans are, on paper, a much better team than the Vikings. But the talent advantage that Houston has, especially at quarterback, couldn’t overcome Bill O’Brien’s horrid coaching. They should beat Jacksonville next week, but at this point, who knows.
Matt Patricia
The Lions are now 1-3 on the season, and in all three losses they’ve held a lead of at least 10 points and blown it. Patricia is supposed to be a defensive-minded coach, and his defense keeps getting torched. Sunday, the Lions opened up with a 14-0 lead on the Saints, only to give up 35 unanswered points. Sure, they scored a garbage-time touchdown to make the score look a little bit closer in the fourth quarter, but this was another embarrassment for Detroit. Patricia has to be in the same conversation as Dan Quinn and Adam Gase for the first coach to lose his job this year.
Arizona Cardinals
Arizona started off the season 2-0 and suddenly became everybody’s favorite team to watch, or at least the one everyone wanted to keep up with on Red Zone thanks to Kyler Murray. But after a close loss at home against Detroit last week and a 10-point loss on the road to Carolina this week, it’s fair to question just how real the first two weeks were. Murray popped off a 48-yard run on Sunday, but other than that was mostly held in check. When this team is rolling, they’re one of the most electric in football, but they haven’t been that for each of the last two weeks.
The TNF Game
There’s the saying that pizza is so good, that even bad pizza is still pretty good (inaccurate, by the way) and something somewhat similar is thought about football. It doesn’t matter who in the NFL is playing, if it’s nationally televised during primetime, tons of people are going to watch. The football might be great – especially on Thursday night – but it’s likely better than whatever else is on TV at the time. Thursday night between the Jets and the Broncos was basically that. Neither one of those two teams is anywhere near good. The Jets are a dumpster fire, and the Broncos badly need a quarterback. It wasn’t good football, but it was in fact football, and we watched. At least people in NYC didn’t have to waste three hours of their Sunday watching the Jets this week.
Nick Mullens
This seriously might be the worst INT in NFL history. What in the hell.