The Chicago Bears emerged as a contender, while the Dallas Cowboys and Tennessee Titans had important wins in breakthrough efforts. The Atlanta Falcons lost again on a poor defensive showing, and the New England Patriots reestablished themselves in the AFC East.
All that and more in Week 4’s biggest takeaways from NFL Nation.
Jump to a matchup:
CIN-ATL | MIA-NE | PHI-TEN | HOU-IND | DET-DAL
NYJ-JAX | BUF-GB | TB-CHI | CLE-OAK | SEA-ARI
NO-NYG | SF-LAC | MIN-LAR
This team is tough. The Bengals could have let things spiral after Tyler Eifert suffered a gruesome leg injury early in the second half, but they fought through adversity to match the Falcons stride for stride and eventually scored the winning touchdown in the final 10 seconds. Players around the locker room talked about how it was a complete team win, leading to sky-high confidence as they return home to host the Dolphins in Week 5. — Katherine Terrell
1:09
Bengals QB Andy Dalton comments on the Bengals’ perseverance and resilience in a hard-fought win over the Falcons.
The 1-3 Falcons have to figure out how to consistently come up with defensive stops. Yes, they lost Pro Bowl defenders Keanu Neal (ACL) and Deion Jones (foot) to injury, as well as defensive captain Ricardo Allen (Achilles). But many of the wounds are self-inflicted, including dropping interceptions, playing with improper leverage or picking up personal fouls for late or illegal hits. Defensive end Vic Beasley Jr. said, “We just have to remain optimistic.” It doesn’t get any easier with Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers next week on the road, but at least the Falcons showed signs of a pass rush with Takkarist McKinley getting three sacks. — Vaughn McClure
The Patriots’ defense isn’t as bad as advertised. Coming off back-to-back disappointing performances, they throttled the Dolphins and gained some much-needed reassurance in the process, as they get ready for a quick turnaround with the Colts visiting on Thursday. While losing rookie LB Ja’Whaun Bentley for the season is a tough blow, the returns of DE Trey Flowers and S Patrick Chung — who missed a Week 3 loss in Detroit — showed how valuable they are to the unit. — Mike Reiss
The Dolphins aren’t ready to win the AFC East and their offense needs more consistency. Miami had just 172 total yards in its loss to the Patriots. It was also the second consecutive week Miami had 45 or fewer plays. The scariest part is coach Adam Gase believes his team got “out-physicaled” by the Patriots. Headed into another road game against the high-powered Bengals offense, the Dolphins need to figure out how to fix their lack of physicality before it derails a strong start to the season. — Cameron Wolfe
Things are coming together for the Titans as they get healthy and the passing game improves. Marcus Mariota and Corey Davis connected nine times for 161 yards, including the game-winning touchdown. The final drive included three first-down conversions on fourth downs. Getting another come-from-behind win in a close game will only give Mike Vrabel’s team more confidence as it heads to Buffalo next week. — Turron Davenport
The Eagles showed some vulnerabilities that need to be cleaned up if they want to contend again in 2018. There was too much pressure on Carson Wentz (11 hits, four sacks) and too many big plays given up in the secondary, which lost S Rodney McLeod (knee) last week. The Eagles will need to play much cleaner next week against the Vikings, who have revenge on their minds. — Tim McManus
Houston’s front seven might finally be coming together. On Sunday, J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney each had two sacks. In the past two weeks, Watt has five sacks and 16 quarterback pressures, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. The Texans still have an uphill battle to come back from an 0-3 start, but a turnaround will start with Clowney and Watt continuing to stay healthy and playing at a high level next week against the Cowboys. — Sarah Barshop
The Colts face a New England team which has beaten them five consecutive times in their next game on a short week, and there’s a good chance they won’t have their best receiver for the game. T.Y. Hilton left the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Texans with a hamstring injury. Coach Frank Reich didn’t sound very optimistic that Hilton, who had four catches for 115 yards before the injury, would be available for the game. Hilton has missed only two games in his career. — Mike Wells
1:15
Based on the talent level of the Colts, Ryan Clark and Jeff Saturday both believe coach Frank Reich made the right call to not play for a tie.
Ezekiel Elliott called the win “probably the most important of the season to get back on track after a slow start.” The Cowboys got Elliott going with 152 yards rushing and 88 yards receiving, and right guard Zack Martin said it felt more like the offense of old, which is what they will need if they want to sustain any kind of winning streak. The Cowboys had five plays of at least 30 yards against the Lions, after registering just one such play earlier in the season. — Todd Archer
Detroit found its offensive rhythm again, with Matthew Stafford putting together an eye-popping 131.5 passer rating. And yet, with a 24-23 lead with 2:17 left, the Lions couldn’t do much defensively to stop Dallas. And that’s the worry, that Detroit’s offense is going to have to be so good this season for the Lions to make up for defensive deficiencies. — Michael Rothstein
The Jaguars have allowed just four touchdowns in four games, fewest in the NFL and fewest through four games in franchise history. Opponents have scored just 56 points and are averaging only 259.3 yards per game. Both lead the league, and that’s after forcing only three turnovers and recording just six sacks. Sunday’s game at Kansas City will be the toughest matchup the Jaguars will face all season, though, and the players know they have to ramp up pressure and get a few turnovers to stop what many believe is the best offense in the NFL. –Mike DiRocco
You knew the Jets would have growing pains on offense with a rookie quarterback, but the defense? There’s no excuse for what happened Sunday. The Jets allowed 503 total yards, the most since 2008. Each level of the defense performed poorly, especially the linebackers in pass coverage. If they can’t rely on the defense, the Jets have no hope the remainder of the season. — Rich Cimini
A day that should have been about the Packers’ defense and its first shutout in nearly eight years instead turned into a question of what’s wrong with the offense after Aaron Rodgers called it “non-playoff level.” A frustrated Rodgers still led the offense to 423 yards but it’s clear he wants more if the Packers are going to be a Super Bowl contender. — Rob Demovsky
0:31
Aaron Rodgers explains that the defense played well today, but that the offense was sloppy.
The Bills seem to be moving closer to eventual personnel changes around rookie QB Josh Allen after Buffalo’s first shutout loss since 2008. Allen threw two interceptions but got little help from the running game and the offensive line, which allowed him to be sacked seven times. LeSean McCoy has been held to 85 rushing yards this season while Kelvin Benjamin has only 92 receiving yards. With four weeks until the trade deadline, the futures of both players in Buffalo seem murky. — Mike Rodak
A breakthrough win over the Buccaneers could mark a turning point for second-year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and the offense. The game plan featured plenty of designed reads and open throwing windows for Trubisky, who posted career highs in yards (354) and touchdowns (six). Prior to Sunday, he never had thrown more than two touchdowns in one game. The Bears enter their bye week with confidence. “Hopefully, this is something I can look back on and say, ‘This is where it all started,'” Trubisky said. — Emily Kaplan
Defensively, there was no pressure and receivers were wide open way too much. A very young, banged-up secondary can’t be the excuse against a second-year quarterback. This was the 19th time in 36 games since Mike Smith became defensive coordinator that the defense gave up over 400 total yards. When head coach Dirk Koetter was asked if he’d consider making a coordinator change during the bye week, he said, “Based on that game today, we couldn’t make enough changes. We should fire every person that was on the field today, starting with me. That was horrific.” — Jenna Laine
After Oakland blew second-half leads in the season’s first three games and got outscored a combined 64-17 after halftime, doubt whether the Raiders could rally for a comeback win started to creep in. But they forced overtime and then won on a field goal by a rookie kicker signed this week. The swagger needed to compete on the road against the Chargers next week may not be all the way back, but it definitely is on the upswing. — Paul Gutierrez
Baker Mayfield couldn’t overcome the Browns’ recent plague of losing. As well as Mayfield played, the Browns still blew a 14-point second-half lead in Oakland. The emphasis going forward: Finding a way to overcome themselves to win another game. The Browns keep manufacturing their own demise. — Pat McManamon
0:40
Hue Jackson says that the Browns’ offense was sloppy today and gave the Raiders too many opportunities to win.
The last image of Earl Thomas in a Seahawks uniform might be his middle-finger gesture toward the Seattle bench as he was being taken off the field on a cart. Coach Pete Carroll called Thomas’ leg injury a fracture, which likely will end his season and potentially his career in Seattle. That’s why Frank Clark said it feels like the Seahawks were the losers even though they won on a last-second field goal by Sebastian Janikowski. Now 2-2 heading into their Week 5 home game against the unbeaten Rams, Seattle knows its bid for a playoff spot will take a hit without Thomas, a defensive pillar and the last remaining original member of the Legion of Boom secondary. — Brady Henderson
Josh Rosen was poised, comfortable and commanding as he showed off the arm that was raved about during the draft process. Even with Rosen leading Arizona on a high-pressure drive late in the fourth quarter to get the Cardinals in field goal range, it wasn’t enough. Veteran kicker Phil Dawson missed from 45 yards, allowing Seattle to march the other way and hit its own game-winning kick. The Cardinals remain winless. — Josh Weinfuss
The Saints have to feel great about their 3-1 record, considering they still haven’t really played a complete game this season. But Drew Brees talked Sunday about the value of finding different ways to win (he and the passing game actually struggled, while Alvin Kamara, the defense and kicker Wil Lutz did most of the heavy lifting). Now the Saints can try to peak during a Monday night home game against the Redskins in Week 5, with Brees poised to break the NFL passing record and Mark Ingram returning from suspension. — Mike Triplett
This latest Giants loss looked much like many of them over the past five years: The offense just wasn’t good enough. The Giants had 193 yards of total offense midway through the fourth quarter and failed to reach 20 points for the third time in four games. They are a lost franchise with two top-10 scoring defenses — the Panthers and Eagles — on deck. This could get ugly. — Jordan Raanan
1:49
Ryan Clark and Jeff Saturday react to the Giants’ loss and both say Odell Beckham Jr. needs to be involved more.
Trailing by as many as 14 points, the Chargers were led by Philip Rivers (250 passing yards, three TD passes) and Melvin Gordon (104 rushing yards). However, the Chargers still have issues at kicker, as Caleb Sturgis missed two extra points and a 54-yard field goal. “We’ll take a look at that,” said coach Anthony Lynn when asked if he’ll make a change at kicker. “And if we can’t make it better, we’ll have to do something about it.” — Eric D. Williams
When the disappointment of the narrow road loss wears off, the 49ers should wake up Monday feeling even better about young quarterback C.J. Beathard‘s ability to replace Jimmy Garoppolo. Beathard’s toughness was evident and he paired it with production, nearly throwing for 300 yards and leading the Niners back into a game that appeared lost after multiple injuries and a costly red zone interception that wasn’t his fault. The Niners pledged allegiance to Beathard for a reason, and if he can continue to provide performances like that, that decision could prove a savvy one. — Nick Wagoner
Jared Goff and the Rams’ offense appeared unstoppable. Goff put on a passing clinic, connecting on a 70-yard touchdown to Cooper Kupp and a 47-yard score to Brandin Cooks. In all, he threw for 465 yards and five touchdowns. The Rams get the Seahawks’ defense next week on the road. — Lindsey Thiry
Minnesota continues to have issues with misdirection plays getting its defenders out of position. Coach Mike Zimmer took responsibility, admitting to “over-coaching” his unit. The Vikings’ pass defense is the worst it’s been in Zimmer’s five years in Minnesota, and he said postgame that he doesn’t know what to do to fix it. The unit ranks last in the NFL in defending the pass, and something has to change to avoid deepening the Vikings’ hole. — Courtney Cronin