NFL Week Four Winners and Losers

What an exciting week four. A team that scored 70 points last week gave up 48 for their first loss of the season, Bill Belichick suffered his worst coaching loss since 2003 and two teams in the NFC are still undefeated. The first Sunday of October delivered with a bang much like week one in September. Here’s what stood out on Sunday.

Winners: Derrick Henry

Tennessee’s offense was either really good or really bad in September. After a week three thrashing many presumed another struggle was in store for the Titans. Not only did they light up the scoreboard, their best player steamrolled Cincinnati’s defense to a one-sided victory.

League mauling runningback Derrick Henry ran 22 times for 122 yards and a touchdown. The five and a half yards per carry gave Tennessee ten more minutes of possession in the game. Henry even threw a touchdown near the end of the first half that cemented a three score lead.

Many viewers wondered what was preventing the Titans from getting the elite runningback fully involved in the offense most of last month. It’s possible the coaching staff wanted to see how the rest of the offense would start the regular season. Regardless, Derrick Henry is 1,400 yards away from having the all-time rushing record in franchise history. If the Titans want to win the AFC South, they have to center him as the lead player.

Buffalo Bills

The reigning AFC east champions had to hear all week how the Dolphins were the superior team, how Miami was a reincarnated or second-coming of The Greatest Show on Turf, and how unstoppable coach Mike McDaniel was in his game preparation. They destroyed that narrative Sunday and left no doubt who’s atop the division.

The Bills blew out the Dolphins by 28 points. It’s the first time in NFL history a team that scored 70 or more points the week prior lost a game. It started with quarterback Josh Allen, who threw for the same number of touchdowns as he had incompletions (four). Three went to trusted wideout Stefon Diggs, the first one breaking the second tie of the afternoon and kept Buffalo in the lead the rest of the game. His six catches for 122 yards reminded viewers that the Allen-to-Diggs combination is still one of the best in the league.

While the offense did whatever it wanted against the Dolphins defense (more on them later), the Bills defense made quarterback Tua Tagovailoa look average. They sacked him four times, intercepted him once and forced four Miami fumbles. Six of Miami’s eight penalties were on offense and contributed in possessions fizzling out.

Last but not least, one of the best stories was safety Damar Hamlin playing for the first time since his scary, near-death collapse last December. He didn’t show up on the stat sheet but his presence helped the team and gave the home atmosphere a lot of energy. Everything went right for Buffalo as they’re first in the east.

Todd Bowles

Regardless of where Tampa Bay finished in the standings, everyone tuned into the NFL knew this was a pivotal year for Todd Bowles’ career. In his second stint as a head coach, Bowles had to prove it wasn’t just Tom Brady leading the team to wins and the playoffs.

Bowles is acing this test with one fourth of the season done. The Buccaneers throttled a stout Saints team in New Orleans. Former number one pick Baker Mayfield is surprisingly the best quarterback in the NFC south and the defense smothers opposing offenses. Tampa Bay’s defense averaged one turnover a quarter and didn’t give up a touchdown after last Monday night’s embarrassment on national television. To have a quick turnaround and perform that well speaks to how disciplined and mentally prepared the team is. The early bye will help them plan ahead the next few weeks.

Khalil Mack

Los Angeles entered Sunday without outside linebacker Joey Bosa. That meant his counterpart Khalil Mack had more pressure to perform well against a Raiders offense that can trouble opposing defenses. Mack might have left Sunday as the best defensive player on any team in week four.

The outside linebacker’s six sacks paralyzed Las Vegas’ offense and was a big reason the Chargers pulled out the win. He made easy work of an offensive line that had a numbers advantage and made sure the Raiders had less than 80 yards rushing. Los Angeles has a lot to fix on defense, but a pass rusher they invested in came up big and is a reason the team is back to .500.

Losers: Vic Fangio and the Miami Dolphins defense

When the Dolphins brought in the most accomplished and respected defensive coordinator in the NFL, they probably weren’t expecting the defense to give up almost 30 points per game four weeks into the season.

Many want to point out Miami is close to unstoppable on offense (they rank first in overall pass, rush and net yards per game), but there will be days when the unit looks average and it’s up to the defense to step up. As mentioned above, opposing quarterback Josh Allen had as many touchdown passes as incompletions. Unlike in the previous three games, the defense didn’t force a turnover, and veteran receiver Stefon Diggs dominated the secondary.

An injury to newly acquired cornerback Jalen Ramsey is a valid reason on why the defense isn’t playing well. It doesn’t help starting strong safety DeShon Elliott is also injured. That leaves backup Brandon Jones and second year free safety Jevon Holland scrambling and playing terrible. Outside of the secondary, most of the headline players on the defensive front were lackluster at best. Linebackers Emmanuel Ogbah and Bradley Chubb combined for three total tackles. Minus Andrew van Ginkel’s two sacks, Buffalo did whatever they wanted to when the game was close.

Fangio was brought in to fix a lot of the defensive problems that were exposed last year. Few positives have shown after one month. The Dolphins play Philadelphia and Kansas City in two of their next five games before the week ten bye. There must be solutions if they want to get closer to being one of the leagues complete teams.

Carolina Panthers

Most viewers know the Bears are winless after four weeks. The only other team in the same position is Carolina. Neither team could win a game this month.

For the Panthers, it’s worse knowing Chicago owns their upcoming first round draft pick. If the draft started today, the Bears would have the first and second overall picks.

Depending on who you talk to, the team’s play might be more of a concern. Carolina’s best game was a ten point loss led by journeyman quarterback Andy Dalton. First overall pick Bryce Young and the offense averaged ten points a game in the remaining three losses, and the recent one Sunday was worse when the team they lost to at home was also winless.

It’s also true that after last season, many knew in and outside the organization that the offense lacked a lot of talent and is in a slow re-build. However it would help to see more contributions out of an offense that has four good receivers, a savvy veteran runningback and a rookie quarterback who’s the new face of the franchise.

Brett Maher

While the Rams are back to .500, it shouldn’t have taken overtime to get the win. Many people forget special teams is an important phase of the game that can determine wins and losses. Los Angeles came close to losing Sunday because of their kicker.

Brett Maher made three field goals of 40+ yards when the Rams led by double digits but struggled when Indianapolis cut the deficit. His miss on 40 yards to start the fourth quarter gave the Colts life and led a resurgence that took the game to overtime.

While Los Angeles was fortunate to score a touchdown and win the game, kickers have a slim margin of error many overlook. Maher won’t be the last one this happens to either.

Las Vegas Raiders

Analysts and pundits have fully criticized the remaining winless teams heading into Sunday for good reasons. One team that’s shocking everyone with their dysfunction is Las Vegas.

It was obvious this past week alone that multiple players on the Raiders don’t like nor want current coaches to keep their jobs. The worst case being veteran defensive end Chandler Jones going on multiple rants in the past month(!) hurling expletives and sinister language, saying he wanted the head coach and general manager fired, disliked the current coaching staff, and wanted to leave the team.

That’s just the tip of the bad news iceberg. Star players Davante Adams and Josh Jacobs have made it known they don’t want to stay on a team trying to figure out what to do because they want to win now and not be part of another roster re-build. Starting quarterback Jimmy Garappolo didn’t play Sunday’s game in Los Angeles due to concussion protocol. The offensive line didn’t double-team the only pass-rushing threat the Chargers had and it resulted in giving up six sacks in their rookie quarterback’s debut. If that wasn’t bad enough, a fight almost erupted when Las Vegas defensive lineman Jerry Tillery tackled Justin Herbert out of bounds.

The Raiders are last in running the football and head coach Josh McDaniels can’t contain the ever-growing chaos with each loss. Chicago and Denver are fiascos but something bigger is brewing in Sin City.